Greetings from the dark side, as I’ve been suffering under the steep learning curve of going from PC to MAC, and reorienting myself to finding where in the heck my files are. Moving 100 gb of photos and several years of political print work is also proving to be quite entertaining.
Although, while I was working on that, I drafted my son into scanning 500 or so photographic sides from the 1960’s, which was a project that had been long lingering around my desk that I wanted done badly while some of the subjects were still on this earth.
My Aunt Addie, who is 83 but looks 65 (I kid you not – must be the farm living.) was tremendously excited to see the photos of her kids from 50 years ago, as well as pictures of my mom, as well as 
their Mother and stepfather who have departed from this mortal plane in recent years.
There were lots of pictures of my parents strolling through the 1964 Worlds Fair in Queens, NY, such as the picture to the left of my mom in front of the Lowenbrau Gardens at the fair, and many many others that I’m sure my dad forced people to sit through a couple of times at get togethers when people would watch slideshows (pre-power point).
But, I digress.. This is a post about politics, not misty-eyed memories of a time long past.. Getting back to the Republican platform, here’s what Sioux Falls Republican Michael Wyland had to say about the 2016 GOP platform in his analysis of what Republicans are preparing to send forth as their message for governance:
Three themes permeate the draft. First, the platform frequently contrasts its policy positions with those of the Obama administration. If it happened since 2008 and the federal government did it, it was probably dangerous and harmful, according to the platform. Second, the platform consistently refers to the individual and the traditional as the fundamental basis of the nation, with relatively few references to interest groups (exceptions include veterans, Native Americans, and people with disabilities). In its references to family, the platform explicitly advocates for marriage to be defined as between one man and one woman. It also extols the benefits of children living in a home with both a mother and a father. Third, the draft platform reaffirms the GOP’s decades-long assertion that government power is best exercised sparingly and at the state and local level. There are frequent references to federal regulatory overreach in several areas of domestic policy, with the need to limit or end federal intervention.
There are at least a couple of libertarian areas in the platform where factions of both Republicans and Democrats might find common ground. A call for the end to crony capitalism is one such area, though examples of the practice each party cites would likely be very different. Another area is a nod to Ron and Rand Paul supporters, who have long advocated that Congress increase oversight of the Federal Reserve and “audit the Fed.”
Unlike the Democratic platform, the GOP draft makes explicit reference to charity and philanthropy. Intriguingly, it uses its section on “Fundamental Tax Principles” to do so, addressing an issue familiar to NPQ readers: whether charitable donations should remain tax-exempt.