Am I really a Republican?

Since Ron Paul's bid for the 2012 GOP nod, and my work to get him elected, a great many of my fellow GOPers  have felt the need to say things like:

"Ron Paul is not really a Republican", or

"Aren't you really a Libertarian?", or

"Are you sure you are a Republican?"

In the state of Missouri, voters are not permitted to 'register' as a member of a particular party.  This means we have an open primary and anyone can pull any ballot they like.  Republicans can pull Democrat ballots.  Democrats can pull Republican ballots.

So, how does someone really know?

What does the party officially believe?  Do I agree with it? Am I really a Republican?

The answer is in the official 2012 GOP Platform.  I have read the platform before, but it changes every 4 years so I thought I would revisit the matter of my Republican-ness. 

I felt like I needed to apply some sort of scoring mechanism.  Here's how it worked:

• I made an up or down judgment call on each sentence (agree or disagree).
• A Sentence got an up vote if I agreed with it, or if it was neutral.    
• A Sentence got a down vote if I disagreed with it, or was not sure what it meant or implied.
• I also made a judgement call on each topic.  There are 100.  
• If I agreed with all of the sentences it in a topic was marked "Totally Agree"
• If I agreed with 50% + 1 of the sentences in a topic it was marked "Mostly Agree"
• If I disagreed with all of the topics sentences in a topic it was marked "Totally Disagree"
• If I disagreed with 50% +1 of the sentences in a topic it was marked "Mostly Disagree"
• A tie was marked as a "Split"

Not rocket science.  

Here's the results:

Interestingly enough, my judgment call based on sentences turned out almost the same as my judgment call by topic.

By sentence :

I am 74.04% Republican

By topic:

I Totally Agree with 34 topics or 34%

I Mostly Agree with 37 topics or 37%

I Mostly Disagree with 23 topics or 23%

I Totally Disagree with 3 topics or 3%

I am Split on 3 topics or 3%

Which means I Totally or Mostly Agree with 71%

From an issues standpoint, I Mostly or Totally Agree with the GOP in areas of 

• Fiscal Conservatism
• Eminent Domain
• Individual Liberties
• Constitutional Government
• Energy
• Space
• The Electoral College
• Social Programs
• Education
• Minimization of Government Departments
• States Rights 
• Veteran Affairs

I found disagreement with topics like 

• Foreign Policy
• National Security
• Legislation of Moral Behavior
• Immigration

The most surprising potion of the document came in the form of near blatant encouragement of U.S. nuclear proliferation.  Page 41. 

Well, that's how the chips fall.  Some of you will not think 71% is satisfactory, but it is an honest assessment of where I stand with the party right now.  I think we, the GOP, are wrong on a lot of important issues, but we are right about a lot more.  I also believe that there is still hope that the ship can be turned and that we, the GOP, are the best avenue for this country to meet it's potential; to make this Grand Experiment a success.  

Go out and read the 2012 GOP Platform.  There are going to be some things in there you don't like. We've got the next four years to make it a better platform.  If we don't, some RNC bureaucrat is going to.  We need to start telling the RNC what it is going to believe instead of the other way around.  I will work to make that change, will you?

Here's to the good fight,

Melissa Wagner

Republican Central Committeewoman, Riverside