|
|
|
 |
Online Gambling Ban Back As Republicans Surrender to Radicals
ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA --
What looked like a breakthrough for patrons of online gambling has instead become an almost inexplicable defeat. After a grassroots campaign organized by the Poker Players Alliance caused hundreds of voters to advise the Republican Party that their stance against Internet gambling was out of touch with constituents, the party relented and removed the clause against online casinos.
But a backlash by religious radicals within the party led to the two sentences which condemned online gambling to be reinserted to the platform. Chad Hills, a supposed gaming analyst without credentials, and Focus on the Family, a misnamed group designed to impose strict religious beliefs on those who would prefer to exercise their right to chose, gloated about the mistake which may cost the Republicans the election.
Many traditional Republicans had posted on the platform website, advising officials in charge of party positions that the call for bans against online gaming were not in line with either their personal views or Republican values, which stood for small government and the freedoms of the individual.
The outcry was so overwhelming that the party decided not to include a section of the platform which had made the 2004 version. But somehow, without demonstrating that any significant number of Republicans prefer the intrusive and dysfunctional policy against Internet gambling, fringe religious elements bullied the offending language back onto the platform.
If Barack Obama wins what is shaping up to be an exceedingly close election, Republican strategists may be able to point to the day they caved to the section of the party least in touch with the common man, and placed more value on religious loony votes that they would receive anyway than on representing personal freedom and liberty. A sad day, indeed.
Previous Gambling Law News Articles
Post A Comment
|
 |
|
|
|
