By Doug Livingston
Beacon Journal staff writer
The Republican National Convention began in earnest in Cleveland Monday as 112 delegates said a prayer and sang the national anthem before launching into two days of meticulous discussions on where the party stands on all the issues.
The deliberative process of updating the party platform every four years unfolded in six subcommittee meetings, each entertaining dozens of amendments.
Sometimes hurrying and other times sluggishly meandering through cumbersome language, each platform subcommittee tackled a set of issues that defines the evolving principles of the GOP.
On the core divisive issues of gender and abortion, the party remained firm even though the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage and struck down anti-abortion laws in Texas and President Barack Obama eased deportations for millions of illegal immigrants.
Same-sex marriages, transgender restrooms and abortion remain unacceptable to the party.
Committee members were picked two at a time according to the rules of each state or U.S. territory.
Most either support Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas or Donald Trump, the party’s presumptive nominee. Ohio’s two delegates — among Ohio’s 66 sworn to nominate Gov. John Kasich at the convention’s first-round vote next week — are Columbiana County Republican Party Chairman David W. Johnson and Tracey Winbush, a radio talk-show host from Youngstown.
They gathered at the beginning of the day to hear the ground rules, then headed off to one of six carpeted conference rooms inside the Huntington Convention Center in downtown Cleveland.
Giving their names each time they bounced from one session to the next, reporters documented the process on laptops, cell phones and paper tablets.
Reporters were told not to record audio or video during the meetings. RNC staffers, with the exception of media handlers, were directed not to speak to the press. Some delegates ignored them, too.
The discussions ranged from the economy to energy independence to social issues that often circled back to support for traditional marriage.
In the subcommittee on Restoring Constitutional Government, delegates advocated for impeachment of judges perceived to be legislating from the bench and supporting only those who prefer marriage between a man and a woman.
Jesse Law, a young delegate from Nevada, proposed including the LGBT community among the nation’s explicitly “protected classes,” which include women, minorities and the disabled.
“For me,” Law said after rigid constitutionalists overwhelmingly shot down his idea, “I’m a very inclusive person. I want to grow the party.”
Law sees Donald Trump’s attraction for Democratic-leaning union workers as a move in the right direction. Welcoming gays and lesbians, he added, would fill out the party’s big tent cause.
The constitutional subcommittee ripped through 80 amendments listed on an eight-page internal memo. Approved were: a “Regulation Freedom Amendment,” which says the president should not impose rules without congressional consent; countering a perceived attack on the tax-exempt status of churches and other religious organizations; and creating a “Protecting Traditional Marriage” portion of the platform.
James Bopp, who proposed the amendments, said, “This is so important, I think, it requires its own section.” The Indiana delegate and constitutional scholar is an attorney who fought successfully to uncap campaign contribution limits in the landmark Citizens United Supreme Court case.
In the Healthcare, Education and Crime subcommittee, Annie Dickerson of New York routinely clashed with fellow delegates who held more conservative perspectives on gender and sexuality issues.
“This is punitive,” Dickerson said of a proposal that protects small businesses that must cater to customers who don’t share religious beliefs. “For whatever reason, our gay community is being attacked in paragraph after paragraph.”
“Let the market sort it out,” Dickerson said, drawing on the party’s faith in free enterprise. “We don’t get to [sort it out] in the Republican platform.
“This is about people who are being chased out of their businesses,” rebutted Mary Kay, a Kansas delegate who voted with most to affirm traditional marriage and oppose “the state’s humanist doctrine.”
Beacon Journal reporter Doug Livingston can be emailed at dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com