1. The North Carolina Republican Party represents the values of the majority of North Carolinians.
2. We want to empower and free individuals from undue governmental control.
3. Our nation was founded on faith in God, family, country, freedom, and responsibility.
4. We honor the original meaning of our Constitutions and the inalienable rights of the American people as recognized in the Bill of Rights and the North Carolina Declaration of Rights.
5. Membership is open to all citizens of our state who share these values and beliefs, including groups not traditionally associated with our Party.
Article I: Family
1.Our nation’s strength lies with the family.The family is where each new generation gains its moral anchor.It is the first school of good citizenship, the engine of economic progress, and a haven of security and understanding.
2.The ideal environment for raising children is a two-parent family where a husband and wife live in harmony in one home.We praise the courageous efforts of single parents who work hard to provide stable homes.We recognize that single parents often succeed and that two-parent families sometimes fail.
4.Homosexual behavior is not normal and should not be taught as acceptable in public education or in public policy.Public schools should not be used to teach children that homosexual behavior is normal.Taxpayers should not fund benefit plans for unmarried partners.We support federal and state constitutional amendments to ensure that marriage is limited to the union of one man and one woman.We oppose the adoption or foster parenting of children by same sex couples.
3.Government cannot legislate love and compassion.It should not preempt parental responsibility for children; however, government can protect children from abuse and neglect.We support laws that balance parental rights with the protection of a child’s life, safety and wellbeing.We support tax credits for the adoption of children into permanent, safe and nurturing homes.We support religious and private initiatives that promote healthy, nurturing families and work to restore dysfunctional families.
Article II: Economic Policy
1. The free enterprise system is the most effective and just economic system.Economic freedom is essential to human liberty.Denying economic freedom diminishes individual human dignity.
2. Government ought to provide an unencumbered environment for individual initiative and private enterprise.Regulation and taxation reduce and redistribute income; they do not create it.
3. Growth in employment and personal income requires expanding capital formation. We oppose the taxation of capital gains as ordinary income.
4. We urge Congress to make immediate and permanent the tax changes of 2001 and 2003.We urge elimination of the death tax.
5. We pay taxes that exceed what is necessary.We have the highest tax burden in the southeastern United States.Government spending should not increase more than population growth and inflation combined.We support zero-based budgeting and a taxpayer’s bill of rights incorporating this principle.
6. It is unfair to recruit out-of-state business with tax incentives when North Carolina-owned businesses must bear the burden of full taxation.The best way to promote economic growth is to reduce our overall tax burden.Raising tax rates on many of us to provide preferential treatment for a few is unfair.
Article Ill: Individual Liberty
1. We embrace the vision for America established by our nation's founders — the authors of the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the North Carolina Declaration of Rights.
2. Our forefathers gave us four protections against the power of the state: (1) the soapbox; (2) the ballot box; (3) the jury box; and (4) the cartridge box.We stand against efforts to erode these freedoms.
3. The state must not control or interfere with our freedom of religion.We oppose efforts to remove the recognition of Almighty God from our schools and courts and from our Pledge of Allegiance.State schools should not discriminate for or against any religion nor should they deny religious organizations equal access to school facilities.
4. Government should treat all citizens fairly and impartially and should assure equal opportunity without regard to wealth, race, religion, sex, or national origin.We oppose all forms of invidious discrimination.We oppose efforts to include sexual orientation as a category under civil rights laws.
5. We strongly support the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution that guarantees the right of free and law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms.We oppose any government effort to restrict the ownership, sale, purchase and “lawful carry” of firearms by law-abiding citizens.
Article IV: Sanctity of Life
1. The North Carolina Republican Party believes strongly in the sanctity of all human life.
2. Unborn children have constitutional rights to life and liberty. We urge the Supreme Court to overturn its decision in Roe vs. Wade.We also support the adoption of a human life amendment to the constitution.We stand with the overwhelming majority of Americans who oppose efforts to mandate legalized abortion or to fund local, national, or international organizations that provide or promote abortion services.Abortion is never an acceptable method of birth control.
3. We oppose the heinous procedure known as partial-birth abortion.We applaud President Bush and the majority of the Congress who passed into law the federal Partial Birth Abortion Ban.We urge the North Carolina General Assembly to pass state legislation prohibiting this procedure.Furthermore, we urge members of the Republican Party to support financially, or with in-kind contributions, only those candidates or nominees who support measures to end partial-birth abortions.
4. We support and strongly encourage positive alternatives to abortion, such as adoption.We believe that biases against intact, caring families should be eliminated from adoption laws and tax codes.Adoption should be encouraged through significant tax credits, insurance reforms and legal reforms.
5. We oppose the erosion of parental rights and responsibilities when it comes to pregnant unmarried minors.Informed consent and parental consent should be prerequisite to any minor receiving family-planning services.
6. We support all developments in biomedical research and technology that enhance and protect human life.But we oppose any new development that does not treat all human life as a precious gift of God, or that does not treat every individual human life as a locus of unique and irreplaceable dignity no matter how weak, immature, or dependent.
7. We oppose all procedures that involve the intentional destruction of innocent human life.We oppose human cloning and the destruction of human embryos.We support adult stem cell research.
8. We support treating the infirm and elderly with love and respect, not as a burden.We oppose euthanasia.
9. We urge the recruitment and support of candidates who will work hard to protect all innocent human life.
Article V: State Government
1. We expect the members of our state legislature to be efficient, effective, ethical, and responsive to the people as a part-time legislature.
2. Legislative session limits must be accompanied by measures to ensure that policy decisions are made by elected legislators and are not made by unelected state employees or legislative staff.
3. Government policy should encourage honest, hard work and should not subvert honest labor.Therefore, we oppose any expansion of legal gambling, including the state lottery.The state lottery turns government into a bookie, operates only by false advertising, capitalizes on broken dreams and personal irresponsibility and places the burden of taxation most heavily on those who are least able to afford it.
4. We oppose unfunded mandates at any level of government.Each level of government should fund the programs it requires of other levels of government.
5. Elected officials should not appear in “public service ads” funded with state funds, unless that official has already announced retirement from all public office.
6. No State funds should be spent without a clear appropriation.We oppose reductions in the jurisdiction and resources of the State Auditor.We oppose “slush funds” that are available to individual legislators to distribute as rewards for political support. Government raiding of dedicated funds should not be allowed except in an emergency as determined by the legislature, and only where allowed by law.
7. Every bill should receive a hearing and recorded vote in the committee to which it was assigned. The main budget bill must be printed and distributed no less than two days before the final vote.
8. We support the issuance of N. C. drivers licenses only to NC citizens and those legally authorized to be here.We support ending all entitlement to illegal aliens except for life threatening emergencies.Taxpayers should not pay for higher education for illegal aliens.
Article VI: Election Laws
1. The ballot box is the main protectionwe have against tyrannical abuse of power by the state.The Democratic Party has a long history of using insidious practices that deny the majority of North Carolinians the honest representation they deserve.Unable to win elections in a fair fight, the Democratic Party has relied upon gerrymandering and manipulation of election laws.The Democratic Party should apologize to all African Americans and to all Republicans for the role of the Democratic Party in the white supremacy campaign of 1898 including the Wilmington Race riots.
2. Our laws should do everything possible, including the requirement of photo identification, to protect against voter fraud.Voter registration forms for naturalized citizens should include either the naturalization certificate number or a United States passport number. We welcome naturalized citizens to join our Party.
3. Voters should select government officials.Officials should not select voters.We support reasonable, compact, congressional districts and single-member legislative districts that do not split counties or precincts.An independent redistricting commission is the best remedy.When the legislature does not follow the law when drawing legislative districts legal action should be pursued.
4. We recognize the independence of the judicial branch of government and oppose the appointment of state judges.The right to hold to account our state courts through regular, direct elections is a valuable right.
5. The voterswill make the right choice when they have full and timely information on candidates' campaign finances.Prompt and accurate reporting is the best campaign finance reform.We oppose funding any election campaign with public funds.
6. The public is ill served by nonpartisan judicial elections.We urge the General Assembly to allow the party affiliation of judicial candidates to appear on the ballot and to allow nominees for election to be selected by the parties.
7. We will follow the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act as the law of the land.However, despite the Supreme Court’s ruling we can read the Constitution for ourselves.We observe that the Act quite obviously abridges our freedom to speak on core political subjects.We urge Congress to repeal this Act and to reject other assaults on freedom of speech.
8. The State Board of Elections should review the registration roles and purge unauthorized voters.
Article VII: Education
1. We believe in a good system of public education.Such education is impossible unless parents, not the state, have control of their children’s education.
2. Choice and competition have served the state well in higher education.Choice and competition should be used to improve public education at primary and secondary levels as well.We support tax credits for parents who relieve the burden on our public schools by lawfully educating their children in private or home schools.There should not be any additional legal restrictions on parents’ option to educate their children at home.We support charter schools. We urge the legislature to remove the cap on the number of charter schools.Parents are the best judges of what kind of schooling is best for their children.
3. The current system of governance for public education fails to ensure quality education.Incremental change to this failing system augmented by higher taxes, higher spending, and more regulation will not meet the needs of North Carolina’s future citizens.
4. We support measures that maintain the independence of our schools from the federal government.We support keeping our education dollars in North Carolina without going to maintain unneeded bureaucrats at the national level.
5. Real education reform requires local control of curriculum, budget, textbook selection, and personnel in the public schools.Parents must have complete access to all information concerning curriculum and to materials used for teacher development.
6. Real reform includes defining academic performance by nationally normed tests, cutting administrative waste, and establishing part-time and alternative teacher certification.Our students must have the best possible teachers in the classroom, whether physically present or by use of technology.Teachers and principals should be paid, retained, and promoted based on the quality of their work, not on the length of their service.All teachers, especially of high school math and science, should be trained in the subject matter they are actually teaching. All highly qualified teachers and principals in low performing schools should receive additional pay if their students show academic progress.
7. All children should be able to read and write at grade level.All high school graduates should be proficient at the twelfth grade level.We believe the “No Child Left Behind” law has the correct goal of requiring schools to educate all children to grade level.Social promotion should be eliminated.
8. Schools should encourage patriotism, and the traditional values of Western civilization upon which our republic is based and should teach the true facts of the history of the United States.Schools should require a semester long course on economics and U.S. Government, which emphasize constitutional principles, in either the Junior or Senior Year, so that students will be prepared to vote as informed citizens.
9. We oppose using public dollars to fund liberal attempts at social engineering contrary to the foundations on which our nation rests.We support daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in our schools. Every classroom should display an American flag and a copy of our national motto — “In God We Trust.”
10. We oppose mandatory sex education in public schools.Sex education should not be included in any public school program without provision for prior approval from parents or guardians.We support teaching abstinence until marriage as required by state law, and as the expected norm for sexual behavior.Abstinence until marriage is the most effective way to prevent teenage pregnancies, absentee fathers, abortion, and sexually transmitted diseases.It is the most effective way to create healthy relationships and self-esteem among young people.
11. We oppose those school-based social services, including school-based clinics and mental health programs, which bypass parents.
12. We support the right of students to engage in voluntary prayer in school and the right of others to pray as well at public occasions such as commencement.
13. We oppose the restriction of free speech and free assembly by public educational institutions on ideological or religious grounds.
Article VIII: Justice
1. The first duty of government is maintaining law and order, allowing citizens freedom to pursue the blessings of life and liberty.
2. We support victim’s rights, including restitution and notification.
3. The death penalty deters murder.Premeditated and deliberate murder calls for punishment directly proportional to the wrong perpetrated against its victim and against the moral order.The death penalty is the right punishment for premeditated murder.We call for legislation to drastically reduce the time between death sentence and executions.
4. We support effective educational and treatment programs to address drug and alcohol abuse.We call for stiff punishment for those who drive while impaired by drugs or alcohol.We oppose decriminalizing or legalizing drugs that are currently illegal.Drug dealers must face stiff punishment for contributing to the supply of these poisonous products.
5. We are repulsed by the rise of gratuitous violence and pornography in literature, music and the electronic media.We support mandatory labeling of these products.We oppose using tax dollars to buy them.We endorse laws to control obscene and sadistic materials that degrade women and children.
6. We endorse stiff penalties for abducting, exploiting or abusing children.These penalties must be enforced.We abhor domestic violence and spousal abuse.We support community organizations that provide efficient and effective solutions for domestic violence and abuse.
7. We support prisons with less attention to inmate comfort and more to security, labor, and education.Prison labor should be used for construction when possible.All inmates should be required to work and pay for their incarceration, including reasonable payment for health and dental care.
8. We support efforts to force "dead-beat" parents to meet their financial obligations.
9. We support tort reform, including a cap on awards for pain and suffering, reform in the collateral source rule, limiting fees to attorneys, allowing more of the award for the victim, and structured payments of awards.
Article IX: Environment
1. We affirm our stewardship of our God-given natural heritage. We have a duty to protect air and water quality, productive forests, and abundant wildlife.
2. If government regulation is needed to protect the environment, it should be flexible and not proceed without first proving that the benefits of new regulations warrant the cost.
3. When government takes the economic value of property by regulatory action, it should compensate landowners in proportion to their loss.We recognize that local economies and local levels of government are both adversely affected when land is removed from the local tax base by environmental “set-asides” for conservation or easements.
4. Environmental policy should be based on sound science.We should be more concerned with measurable results than with the good intentions of the regulations.
Article X: National Policy
1. We support our President in all phases of the war against terrorism, including preventing rogue nations from having or obtaining weapons of mass destruction.We support our troops as they fight our enemies.Denying reinforcements to our troops in combat should never be considered as “supporting the troops.” Americans owe our continued freedom and security to these brave men and women.
2. The most important responsibility of the federal government is “to provide a common defense” for the states and the nation.Our borders must be made more secure.The federal government should actively enforce its immigration laws.Opposing “racial profiling” in absolute terms is neither wise nor moral if imposed at the expense of national security.
3. English must be made the official language of the United States of America.
4. America's defense must be second to none.We oppose any attempt to weaken our national defense.The ban against known homosexuals in the military should be retained; American armed forces should be maintained at full combat readiness.
5. We oppose any foreign effort to influence our elections.
6. American participation in the United Nations, or any other international body, must never sacrifice the constitutional sovereignty of the United States.We oppose relinquishing our freedom to any organization claiming authority to enforce global regulations upon us.The United States will never require a permission slip from the United Nations in matters affecting its national security.
7. We recognize the need for legally binding treaties between nations.We support efforts to revise or withdraw from any treaty that compromises our constitutional sovereignty, that undermines national defense, or that hinders American companies from competing internationally. Foreign court decisions are not relevant to interpretation of the U.S. Constitution except when construing terms known at the time of ratification, such as “ex post facto” or “letters of marque and reprisal.”
8. We support a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget.We support spending cuts as the right means to balance the federal budget and tax rate reductions as the right way to stimulate the economy.
9. Individuals should work in return for public assistance but spending restrictions on workfare workers should be abolished.Our nation needs to change from a welfare state to an opportunity society.
10. We share President George W. Bush’s commitment to put Social Security on a sound basis.Congress should protect Social Security funds by balancing the federal budget without using Social Security reserves.These reserves should be dedicated toward meeting future obligations.We support offering workers more choice and control over their own retirement security, but in ways that do not harm anyone already on Social Security or within a few years of retirement.
11. Early intervention and wise health choices are best made by individuals and doctors who are guided by sound medical opinion.We reject universal national healthcare.
12. Greater choice for patients, with better information about health care, will allow the market to reduce health care costs.We support medical savings accounts which combine personal responsibility with access to affordable healthcare.
13. We call on Congress, the President, the courts, and the states to abide by the Ninth and Tenth Amendment according to their original intent limiting governmental power. We oppose governmental encroachments upon all powers and rights the Constitution of the United States has reserved to the states, or to the people.
14. We encourage the United States Senate to modify its rules to prevent the filibuster of judicial candidates.
15. The Republican Party was born out of the abolition movement of the 1850’s.Slavery has been abolished in the United States.However, millions of people around the world continue to live in bondage.Our foreign policy should encourage freedom from slavery for all peoples.
Respectfully submitted the 17th day of March, 2007.
2007 Platform Committee:
Ed Warton, GoldsboroDistrict 1
John Hairr, LillingtonDistrict 2
Ann Sullivan, GoldsboroDistrict 3
Chad Barefoot, ApexDistrict 4
Linda Petrou, Winston-SalemDistrict 5
Rick Hudson, China GroveDistrict 6
Shirley Davis, ClintonDistrict 7
Justin Burr, AlbemarleDistrict 8
James Morrison, CharlotteDistrict 9
Richard Epley, MorgantonDistrict 10
Eric Gorny, SwannanoaDistrict 11
Bud Royster, LexingtonDistrict 12
Andrew Karras, RaleighDistrict 13
Eddie Goodall, WeddingtonMember at Large
Barbara Holt, Elon CollegeMember at Large
Paul Stam, ApexMember at Large, Chairman
