Conservatives Tired Of Being Silent Majority While Gop Showcases Moderates,Right Wing Builds Party Platform

Angered by the decision of party leaders to shine the spotlight on moderate, photogenic, pro-abortion-rights Republicans this week, some delegates to the Republican National Convention have a warning for television viewers: Don’t believe what you see on your screen.

“I think it is a completely orchestrated, staged event to appeal to the swing voters watching TV,” grumbled John Van Sandt, a conservative delegate from Alabama.

Van Sandt is one of many conservative Republican delegates who contend their views have been muffled during their own convention in a carefully engineered strategy to lure a broader spectrum of Americans to vote for Bob Dole.

Americans should not be fooled into thinking that the GOP is moderating to look more like Rep. Susan Molinari of New York or retired Gen. Colin Powell, the conservative delegates said. In fact, in state after state, the Republican Party is becoming more conservative, they said.

Just take a careful look at the party platform, a document that is to the right of recent versions, and pay attention to the fact that the winners of three recent GOP Senate primaries have been the more conservative anti-abortion candidates - not the more moderate abortion-rights candidates.

“There’s a disconnect between the platform and the image projected at the convention,” said Karen Johnson, 55, an Arizona delegate who was especially angry that Molinari gave the keynote address Tuesday night. “This is the image the hierarchy of the party wants to project to reach out to more voters.”

But Johnson and others are skeptical that the plan will work.

“I think it’s a terrible strategy,” Allen Unruh, a South Dakota delegate, said as he stood on the floor of the convention Tuesday night. “You’ve got to stand up for what you believe in.”

In an effort to try to appear inclusive and attract more women, minorities and swing voters, the party Establishment is risking alienating some of its most active foot soldiers.

“They’re tolerant to everybody except the conservative wing of the party - and we’re the majority,” added Unruh, who was chairman of Pat Buchanan’s campaign in his state. “It’s a slap in the face.”

Most infuriating to the conservatives is the fact that the party leadership reserved its premier speaking slots for Molinari and Powell, both moderate, abortion-rights Republicans, but no leaders of the anti-abortion wing were invited to address the convention and, more significantly, the Americans watching from home.

Despite the grumbling in the ranks, conservative leaders, including Christian Coalition Executive Director Ralph Reed, said they are comfortable with their back-seat roles during the public spectacle - as long as the party platform reflected their views.

“What we are willing to do is to allow the party to do what its job is, and that is to put on a winning convention,” Reed said Wednesday. “Our job was to ensure that the party remained pro-life and pro-family, and we did our job.”

Patrick Hagan, a delegate from Virginia, agrees with Reed and said he would tell anyone who has seen the convention and believes the party has taken a moderate turn:

“You have the wrong idea. Look at the platform, look at the leadership,” said Hagan, a retired CIA senior intelligence analyst.

“It truly is a (Pat) Buchanan platform in a lot of respects,” said Mary Summa, a North Carolina delegate who was on the committee drafting the platform.

Nonetheless, Summa said she is “very disappointed” that Buchanan was denied a speaking slot.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Proof in the planks The best proof of where the Republican Party is, conservatives argue, is the platform, which calls for: A constitutional amendment making abortions illegal. A constitutional amendment that would remove automatic citizenship for children born in America to some non-citizens. The denial of government benefits for American-born children of illegal immigrants. A stop to cash assistance for unmarried teen mothers. It calls “illegitimacy the most serious cause of poverty.” An end to affirmative action.