Iowa’s GOP Platform Endorses Birtherism

The state’s GOP released its platform on Monday, and the document is full of some of the most far-reaching, Tea Party-inspired policy proposals ever introduced into mainstream politics, including a call to investigate the citizenship of any presidential candidate. Here is a round up of the top five most notably far-right ideas from the document:

1. BIRTHERISM: Under the section entitled ‘Elections,’ the Iowa GOP uses non-specific language to hint at the idea that President Obama was not born in the United States. The section reads:

We insist that a candidate prove that he or she meets all requirements for that office prior to being placed in nomination, including proof of United States citizenship.

2. GETTING RID OF GOVERNMENT: The platform proposes the elimination of 16 federal departments and agencies — despite the fact that throughout the rest of the document they call on these particular agencies to enact or repeal certain policies:
We support the elimination of the departments of Agriculture, Education, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, Energy, Interior, Labor, and Commerce as well as TSA, FDA, ATF, EPA, National Endowment for the Arts, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac.
3. INVESTIGATING ACORN: The Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) came up a lot during the 2008 election, because it was a ‘radical‘ group that ran voter turnout for President Obama. Critics — and apparently the Iowa GOP — believe that Obama ‘stole’ the election using ACORN. Despite the fact that ACORN no longer exists, the Iowa platform calls for an investigation:

We call for a full investigation of the organization formerly known as ACORN and its allied organizations, call for full prosecution of those involved in any illegalities discovered, and call for elimination of government funding of such organizations.

4. AGENDA 21: While most think of Agenda 21 as a global sustainable development campaign, there is a long-running conspiracy theory that the UN effort is actually a plan for world-dominating government entity. The Iowa GOP has included this theory as well:

We demand that the term “sustainable development” be defined, vetted, and controlled by county and state agricultural agencies whose private property it impacts rather than the UN, other international or Agenda 21 agencies, or any federal organization.

5. NULLIFICATION: The platform takes the stance of ‘nullification’– that any state, under the 10th amendment, can choose to side-step federal law because they deem it unconstitutional. The platform also takes the stance that they can ignore Supreme Court rulings under the 10th amendment:

We support constitutional state sovereignty including nullification of federal oversteps. We disagree with Roe vs. Wade and Doe vs. Bolton as “settled law.” Under the Tenth amendment, these Supreme Court decisions have no authority over the states.