Word: planks
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Feminist anger at the chipping away of abortion rights is hardly confined to the Democratic Party. In 1988 the G.O.P. adopted a platform plank stating that "the unborn child has a fundamental right to life" and calling for a human-life amendment that would ban abortion outright. When that position began to alienate women, particularly young suburban voters, the late G.O.P. chairman Lee Atwater urged the party to become a "big tent" able to accommodate both sides on the abortion debate. The party has been slow to follow his advice...
GEORGE BUSH, seemingly fraught with a number of electoral and policy challenges, is weak even within his own party. And with good reason. George Bush, in many ways, has courted his own disaster. He has abandoned his major campaign plank, the continuation of Reaganism and, more specifically, "no new taxes...
...hand down a decision before Election Day. They wanted pro-life candidates -- starting with the President -- to be called to account by voters. Since becoming Ronald Reagan's vice-presidential running mate in 1980, Bush has gingerly staked out a position consistent with his party's anti-choice plank. This year, with all five major Democratic hopefuls rushing to affirm their pro-choice credentials, Bush might try to move toward the center as November approaches. But in some recent state elections, candidates who tiptoed away from pro-life positions got little thanks from voters. With the New Hampshire primary only...
...group of G.O.P. activists encouraged by Atwater's "Big Tent" philosophy -- the notion that the party can accommodate different ideological views -- are out to modify the party platform's antiabortion plank. As currently written, the platform asserts that "the unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed," a position that refuses to embrace exceptions for rape, incest or danger to the mother's life. "We are not going to roll over again," says Ann Stone, who heads Republicans for Choice. "We will continue to be somewhat civil, but we are no longer going to be silent...
...funding critique is a powerful and valid one. Some of Weld's proposed initiatives have already been undercut by his own massive spending cuts on education. For example, a major plank in Weld's plan is the establishment of school governance councils consisting of parents and teachers. Apart from the less-than-revolutionary nature of a more powerful PTA, this initiative is problematic because it was already launched in 1988 under the name "school improvement councils." The budget for these councils has already been cut by the governor...