Return to About/Contact

Platform

2022 Boone County Republican Party Platform

Adopted at the Boone County Republican Convention

March 12, 2022

PREAMBLE 

As Republicans, we uphold the principles of individual responsibility and liberty, adherence to traditional moral standards, a strong national defense, a free enterprise system, and equal rights for all.  We believe in retaining the original intent of our Constitution. We believe high moral character is a necessity for public servants. The highest standard of character should be embodied in both private and public life. We encourage the proliferation of these principles and their passage to future generations.

PLATFORM PRINCIPLES

The following are the fundamental principles that make up the platform of the Boone County Republican Party.

I.  Our nation is a Constitutional Republic whose Foundation is the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

We acknowledge our rights derive from God, our Creator, and are therefore unalienable and include Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness (e.g. private property).  Further, the Right to Life shall be understood to include all people from conception to natural death.  We are a nation governed by people elected to public office that are sent to represent us, the citizens.  Our constitution provides limits to governmental power, and explicitly details our fundamental rights and ensures that only the enumerated powers contained within the Constitution are executed by the federal government.  All other functions of government are left to the state and local governments.

II.  We are a Sovereign Nation.

We are a Sovereign Nation with defined borders, governed by a set of laws determined by our Representatives, guided by our Constitution and protected by a military strong enough to defend our nation and its interests.

III.  The Oath of Office of all civil servants, elected and employed, should guide their actions.

As citizens, we demand that our elected officials take their office and its duties and responsibilities to us, our country, and our Constitution seriously and act in accordance with their individual Oaths of Office.

IV.  Fiscal Responsibility is a fundamental function of any local, state, or federal entity.

It is a fundamental expectation that government entities act in a financially responsible manner.  It follows that limiting the size and scope of government is a necessary component of achieving this end.

V.  Personal Responsibility is the primary duty of all citizens.

We are a nation of individuals held together by a common vision.  We are not servants of the government and not are dependent on the benevolence of society for our survival.  Our possibilities are limitless where a free market is allowed to operate without government distortion, not limited by our local, state, and federal governments.  We are citizens of our country.  We as individuals responsible for our successes and failures.

PLANKS

Section A – Agriculture

We support the family farm and increased efforts to convert and incorporate farm products into value-added products.

We believe agriculture should operate with the least governmental regulations possible while maintaining quality products and environmental safety.

We support long-range agricultural policies that foster agricultural development using the free market system on a worldwide basis.

We support the production and use of ethanol, biomass and bio-diesel. We believe the federal and state governments should also support their production and use without the use of subsidies or mandates.

We oppose any laws prohibiting and /or restricting Iowans from selling farm products directly from the farm to the consumer.

Aggressive efforts must be made at all levels to open new markets and expand existing markets for U.S. agricultural products.

Section B – Economy, Spending and Taxes

 We believe less government is better government. We support every reasonable effort on the part of government at every level to limit taxing and spending. We believe the purpose of taxation is to fund the constitutionally mandated functions of government, not to ‘redistribute the wealth’, or to fund ever increasing social programs. We should always strive to have less government, fewer government employees and lower taxes, as well as no new forms of tax.

The U.S. Congress should be required to pass a balanced budget every year.

We propose that the 16th amendment, which allows the United States Government to lay and collect taxes on income from whatever source derived, and the inheritance tax, be abolished and replaced with a Fair Tax or National Sales Tax.

Congress should fully fund Veteran’s benefits.

Section C – Government

The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States says Congress shall not interfere with the free exercise of religion. It does not give courts the authority to redefine these rights or to invent a wall of separation.  We insist upon the right to pray as we choose, to worship as we choose, and to display our full cultural heritage, including those portions deemed religious in nature, without hindrance.

We oppose expanding gambling of any kind in Iowa. We support a ban on allowing people to take cash advances on credit cards at casinos and gambling establishments in Iowa.

We reaffirm the Second Amendment as the right of individual, law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms. We support a federal concealed carry reciprocity act.  We support a lift of the ban on concealed carry rights at Iowa colleges and universities for those who have legal concealed carry permits.

We believe all crimes are an offense to society and oppose the designation of “hate crimes”. We oppose any special legislation, special rights, or privileges or minority status for persons based on sexual orientation.

We support enforcement of existing Federal obscenity and pornography laws.

We oppose extending voting rights to convicted felons until the felon has paid his debt to society including monetary restitution and/or incarceration.

We support passing legislation that would more narrowly define the instances for eminent domain to be invoked by any level of government.

We support the elimination of waste and fraud across all agencies, both State and Federal governments  to eliminate the debt.

We support laws to prohibit the use of cameras or other unmanned devices for traffic enforcement, such as red light and speed trap cameras.

We support legislation to eliminate same-day voter registration and require registration 30 days prior to any primary, caucus, and/or election as well as legislation requiring voters to demonstrate their legal ability to participate in the electoral process with a state-accepted valid photo identification.

We recognize the Constitution of the United States as the supreme law of the land.  It may not be superseded by any other system of laws, foreign or domestic, including Sharia Law, and may not be amended by judicial decree or executive order, but only through the procedures described therein.

We support a full and complete audit of the Federal Reserve.

The NSA (National Security Administration) shall be required to have an individualized warrant for electronic surveillance that directly or indirectly targets or collects data on American citizens or residents. Such surveillance should be treated as a search under the Fourth Amendment.

Section D – Right to Life

We move the Iowa Republican Party aggressively support a Life Begins at Conception Bill without exceptions. We believe that all human beings, from conception to natural death, have a God-given and constitutionally protected right to life, which cannot be infringed.  We believe all such issues belong under the constitutional authority of the state, not federal government.

We oppose using public revenues for abortion or funding organizations which advocate it.  We commend those who provide alternatives to abortion by meeting the needs of mothers and offering adoption services.

We reaffirm our support for appointment of judges who respect traditional family values and the sanctity of life.

Embryonic stem-cell research and human cloning should be unlawful. We support adult stem cell research and other research that does not take the life of the unborn.

We assert the law is already clear that any unlawful termination of a pregnancy while in commission of a crime is murder. In order to be consistent with this law, we believe the willful termination of a viable pregnancy is also murder.

We support a national Heartbeat Bill.

We support Iowa’s Protect Life Amendment.

Section E – Education

Raising academic standards begins with increasing local control and accountability to parents. We recognize that under the American Constitutional system, education is a state, local and family responsibility, and should not be under Federal jurisdiction.

We advocate choice in education. We believe the best education begins at home. We believe parents have the right to choose government, private, home, or alternative education for their children without governmental interference. We believe in the use of school vouchers to support this choice.

We support voluntary teacher or student lead prayer in the schools and use of the Bible should be allowed as a local option.

We strongly advocate the principles of abstinence as a part of healthy childhood development and to prevent unwanted pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases. To implement this principle, we encourage the teaching of this discipline as part of the public school sex education curriculum. We oppose the distribution of condoms in public schools.

We support displaying the Ten Commandments and the American flag along with the daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in its entirety in Iowa schools and classrooms.

We support Parents’ rights to manage their children’s education.  We believe that it is the parent’s responsibility to oversee a child’s education, not the State.

We oppose implementation and funding the educational curricula such as the Common Core State Standards and believe curriculum content should be under the control of the local school districts. We oppose collection or sharing of personal student data for any non-educational purpose without prior parental consent.

We oppose ratification of the “so called” United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child which interferes with parental rights to direct the upbringing and education of their children.

We oppose the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT) or any other Marxist ideology in Iowa’s school systems.

Section F – Health Care

We support the right of parents to opt out of their children’s vaccination or at least limit vaccinations to one at a time.

We support medical freedom.  We as Iowans should be allowed to decide what is right for our families and be free from government healthcare mandates.

Section G – Immigration

We support ensuring only legal U.S. citizens are allowed to vote or to receive Welfare, Social Security, Medicare, or any other government benefits. Individuals must be a U.S. citizen to be counted in the census.

We support legal immigration and common-sense improvements to our immigration process, strict enforcement of our current immigration laws, securing of our borders and punishing employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.  We call for the strict enforcement of current immigration laws, and support additional funding for ICE to find and repatriate illegal aliens, secure our borders, provide for adequate background checks and supervision of people applying for citizenship, green cards, or visas.

We support English as the official language of the United States.

We believe that a child born in the United States of illegal aliens should not be granted automatic citizenship.

Section H – National Defense/Foreign Policy

We believe that one of the Government’s primary roles is to maintain an adequate military force to secure the borders of the U.S., to carry out and enforce government policies, and to protect national interest. To accomplish this, we believe the U.S. should provide adequate funds to maintain a military force capable of protecting U.S. sovereignty.

We support continued economic and military support for Israel.

We commend and support the American troops who defend us and stand against all those who attempt to defame them.

We support legislation that provides proper and timely care for our United States military veterans and active service members.

Section I – Energy/Environment

We support the use of all forms of energy, with appropriate safeguards to protect the environment, to cut our current dependence on foreign oil which makes us vulnerable to dangerous dictators. We support drilling for oil across America, including coastal waters.

We are opposed to a carbon tax that would threaten jobs and our free enterprise market system.

We believe we should be good stewards of the land and support unbiased considerations of environment impact and efforts to increase conservation of resources, reduce pollution and loss of plant and animal biodiversity.