Every day brings more evidence that this Administration and its rightwing cronies want to unmake everything good about this country, from Head Start to habeas corpus.

Their aim, as our national affairs correspondent William Greider has argued, seems to be to destroy New Deal programs like Social Security and Medicare, unravel our already frayed social safety net and roll back the hard-earned rights and liberties of the 20th century.

Don’t believe me? These goals are clearly laid out in the 2002 Republican Party platform of George W’s home state of Texas, which calls for abolishing the income tax, wiping out the social security system, repealing the minimum wage, rescinding US membership in the United Nations, and cancelling the War Powers Act. (Click here for full text of this document.)

Remember that this is the platform of the party which was instrumental in electing Bush to the Governorship of Texas. And don’t let people tell you it’s only a piece of paper. Texas GOP leaders take this document seriously. The Party’s Executive Committee has been directed “to strongly consider candidates’ support of the platform” when granting financial or other support. And all candidates “for a public or party office” must “read and initial each page of the platform” and sign a statement affirming he/she has read the entire platform.”

Particularly troubling, as Ralph Nader pointed out in a letter to Bush on August 2, is the fact that key elements of the document contradict existing federal law, which the President of the United States is sworn to uphold. The media has been virtually silent on this potential political conflict of interest. But don’t American citizens have a right to know whether Bush endorses his own state party’s extremist stands?