Party Platform: If You Can't Read It In One Trip To the John, That's a Problem

The Republican Party Platform (PDF) is approved, and we're going through looking for choice bits, but before we get to that, how about a note on brevity:

• Republican platform, not counting signatures: 24,620 words.

• Democratic platform (PDF), not counting appendices: 18,916 words.

• United States Constitution, counting amendments and a few extra words thrown in for navigation and content: 8,089 words.

The Libertarian Party does pretty well by this measure, coming in at a crisp 2,435 words. But maybe there's some sloganeering value in dispensing with it entirely, so you can just say "The U.S. Constitution is our platform."

Comments

[SIV]

We
believe government should
tax only to raise money for
its essential functions.
Today's Democratic
Party views the tax code as a tool for social engineering.
They use it to control our behavior, steer
our choices, and change the way we live our lives.
The Republican Party will put a stop to both
social engineering and corporate handouts by simplifying
tax policy, eliminating special deals, and putting
those saved dollars back into the taxpayers'
pockets.

If only they meant it.

[SIV]

The Internet must be
made safe for children.

Too bad they mean it.

[Rhywun]

I love how a paragraph claiming to oppose attempts to limit free speech comes immediately after a paragraph calling for limiting free speech in the guise of protecting "Old Glory" against "desecration".

[hotsauce]

Weak comparison to the U.S. Constitution. How many pages of cryptic federal court opinions are there interpreting those 8,089 words?

[Gunboat]

The reason for the length Of the platforms? Simple. Everyone who is anyone in the party wants to be able to point at something and say "I got that put in!"