Differences Between Republicans
and Liberal Democrats on
Family/Life
Republicans support laws that incorporate respect for all innocent human life from fertilization to natural death. Further, it should be a fundamental goal of the state to support the family—man, woman, and children—as the basic unit of society.
Wrong: Rep. Neva Walker (D-Minneapolis) would authorize school districts to provide Students in K-12 with “age-appropriate materials that address varied societal views on sexuality, sexual behaviors, pregnancy, and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, in an age-appropriate manner.” The bill would require such instruction for grades 7-12. (House File 615) (1)
Right: Rep. Walker wants to remove the right of local school districts to determine whether, when, and in what way the very personal issue of sexuality is dealt with in its classrooms. Republicans support the ability of local school districts and school parents to determine the content of sex education in their schools.
Wrong: Rep. Frank Moe (D-Bemidji) wants to protect us from genetically-engineered forms of wild rice. (House File 1663) But Rep. Phyllis Kahn (D-Minneapolis) would allow human cloning for research and harvesting of cells and organs through the stages of egg, embryo, and fetus. But she would not allow human clones to reach the newborn stage, yet. (House File 34) (1)
Right: Democrats are overly concerned with the theoretical and indirect harm that might be caused by genetically engineered food and yet have no qualms about promoting the direct harm to human life caused by human cloning and embryonic research. Republicans believe that human cloning is an affront to the sanctity of life and that a government that sanctions it has established the basis for allowing all of the related abuses that will follow.
Wrong: Rep. Carolyn Laine (D-Columbia Heights) would require government investigators to visit every new mother in the hospital or at home to inquire whether they know about all the requirements of a new mother and all the programs that government offers on such topics as WIC, child abuse, and immunizations. (House File 595) (1)
Right: Unlike Rep. Laine, Republicans do not create sweeping programs like this one that inject the state into every birth by a new mother, even when the intrusion was not requested and, in most cases, not needed.
Wrong: Rep. Erin Murphy (D-St. Paul) wants to create grants for “family, friends, and neighbors” to gather pre-school children together to read them books. (House File 796) (1)
Right: Republicans do not believe, as Rep. Murphy evidently does, that cash grants will neither motivate nor enable the kinds of people needed to generate an interest in reading by pre-school children. The opportunity for abuse of these handouts is large and the potential for pedophiles to gain access to children is real.
Wrong: Rep. Kim Norton (D-Rochester) wants school boards to write a policy that “ensures” that “parents and caregivers play an integral role in assisting student learning.” (House File 990) (1)
Right: Republicans do not agree with Rep. Norton who believes that school boards can "ensure" the behavior of parents when the school boards and their administrators are not even able to control the behavior of the students in their direct care.
Wrong: Rep. Steve Simon (D-St. Louis Park) wants to set up a program of seven different grants to godparents, stepfamilies, cousins, aunts, uncles, siblings, grandparents, and de facto guardians who take care of related children who are not with their parents. (House File 2143) (1)
Right: Given the track record of broken families caused by previous welfare programs that had the effect of supporting teenage parenthood and spouse abandonment, we should be very wary of injecting state money and rules into what should be extended family matters.
Sources:
1.   MN House Republicans, Marty Seifert's office, 2007.
 
Senate District 60 GOP  •  P.O. Box 8271  •  Minneapolis, MN 55408
Phone:  612.824.6218  •  info@sd60gop.org

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