Why the Republican Party scares me.

Throughout the Republican Party, I don't doubt that there are a lot of truly sincere men striving to advance the nation's best interests. In many of their cases, I also have no doubt that their sincerity is advanced in the interests of causes I find abhorrent. But, hey, that's democracy. Most of us hold ideas that others find abhorrents, and if we can't discuss them openly, we're not going to have a very democratic process, are we?

Which brings me to my fear. Check out this article on Colorado Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo's efforts to get his anti-immigration proposals included as a plank in this year's party platform:

when the platform committee met last week to craft the document--to be ratified by delegates at the convention--Tancredo put forth three immigration-related amendments... Just as quickly as Tancredo proposed them, the platform committee voted down all three amendments.

This essentially spelled the end to Tancredo's hopes of having a strong immigration reform plank in the GOP platform, but he did have one last hope: a floor fight at the convention. There are two ways to bring a matter to the floor: One is to convince six state delegations to support the motion for a floor debate--a virtual impossibility, Tancredo realized; the other is to get 19 members of the platform committee to support bringing a matter to the floor. This latter route seemed doable to Tancredo, save for one problem: The congressman couldn't find out who, exactly, was on the platform committee. Running the platform process with all the discipline and secrecy that's come to be expected from the Bush White House, the RNC, citing security concerns, refused to divulge the identities of the handpicked delegates who served on the platform committee--even, in some cases, to other members of the platform committee.

So, to try to find 19 platform committee members to support his amendments, Tancredo had to get creative: He went on seven talk-radio shows late last week to plead with listeners to call him if they knew the identities of any members of the platform committee. By the time he arrived in New York on Sunday night, Tancredo had the names of four committee members. Of course, as Tancredo conceded to me in an interview last week, "I think we know who four of them are, but I can't even tell you if they're on our side." But before Tancredo could identify any other members of the platform committee to lobby to support a motion for a floor debate on his immigration amendment, the matter was made moot on Monday morning when the convention delegates ratified the GOP platform.

Shocking. If not even a sitting Republican Congressman can find out who's pulling the strings in his party's platform (not even their identities!!!), then who the fuck knows who's calling the shots?

It's little hints like this which make me really fear that the folks stifling the Republican Party's internal politics could have a truly toxic effect on this nations national politics.