The Republican Party of Texas’s 2012 platform got a lot of attention for its support of a temporary worker program, and TEXAS MONTHLY‘s Paul Burka also had a lot to say about its suggested process for the selection of the Speaker of the House.
But what else is in there? Because platforms are long and, when it comes to actual candidate support and legislation, often irrelevant, they don’t always get that much attention. Test your knowledge with this quiz.
Let’s start with multiple choice:
1. The first line of the platform is taken almost verbatim from:
A) The United States Constitution
B) The Declaration of Independence
C) A blog post by Empower Texans’ Michael Q. Sullivan
D) The Fountainhead
2. “IF IT’S GOOD ENOUGH FOR US, IT’S GOOD ENOUGH FOR THEM” refers to:
A) Abstinence Education
B) English as the state’s official language
C) Sharia Law
D) Government itself
3. Which three things on this list are NOT among the federal laws, agencies or constitutional provisions explicitly opposed by the platform?
A) The War Powers Act
B) The Voting Rights Act
C) The Internal Revenue Service
D) The Electoral College
E) The Real ID Act
F) Lawrence v. Texas
G) The Employment Non-Discrimination Act
H) The Endangered Species Act
I) The Transportation Safety Administration
J) The Presidential Birth Certificate Verification Administration
K) The McCain-Feingold Act
L) Minimum Wage
4. The platform says that welfare is:
A) A right.
B) An entitlement
C) Granted by God
D) A product of others labor.
5. Name the four things on this list the platform does support.
A) Gestational Contracts
B) Raw milk
C) Mandatory vaccinations
D) No-fault Divorce
E) Motherhood
F) The Boy Scouts of America
G) RU-486
H) Smart Meters
I) Incandescent Light Bulbs
6. The platform calls for Congress to take away the Supreme Court’s ability to rule on cases involving _______, religious freedom and the Bill of Rights.
A) Taxation
B) Abortion
C) Marriage
D) Immigration
E) Internet Access
TRUE OR FALSE:
7. The platform’s economic principles date back to the Great Depression.
8. The platform mentions former U.S. Senator Phil Gramm by name.
9. Traditional marriage is defined in the platform as being “between a man and a woman.”
10. The platform is in favor of the gold standard
ANSWER KEY
1. B (We STILL hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.)
2. D (The Government shall not, by rule or law, exempt any of its members from the provisions of such rule or law.)
3. D (“We strongly support the Electoral College”), F (language about “Texas Sodomy Statues” from the 2010 platform does not appear in this one) and J (which is not a real thing, but the platform does call for presidential candidates to submit “an original or certified copy of a valid birth certificate”).
4. D (Unalienable rights…do not impose on others rights whereas income and product redistribution invariably do so).
5. B, E, F and I
6. B
7. True. A passage from the party’s 1932 platform serves as the introduction to the platform’s section on “Strengthening the Economy.”
8. False. But he is mentioned in the Texas Democratic Party’s platform.
9. False. It is between “a natural man and natural woman.”
- More About:
- Politics & Policy
