8/25: Yes, the Republican Party Has a Platform

8/25/2020 

We were all perturbed a few days ago when the RNC wrote that "The Republican Party has and will continue to enthusiastically support the President’s America-first agenda," and announced it would have no platform.

Republican [on a Subway] Platform 
Art underground in New York City 

The same day, the Trump campaign released a bulleted "priority" list of actions fairly dripping with magical misleader sauce. "Hold China Fully Accountable for Allowing the Virus to Spread around the World" was one. "Provide School Choice to Every Child in America" was another.

An eminent political writer by the name of David Frum, however, has detailed a hidden set of goals that amount to a de facto Republican platform. He wrote about them in The Atlantic recently.

There are 13 points, Frum writes, that are widely agreed upon in the Republican world, but they can't be made explicit because Trump would lose votes from -- well, everybody who hasn't drunk the Trump Kool-Aid.

I really recommend the article. It's terrific, and the link follows this discussion. I've summarized Frum's points below.

1. Lowering taxes on the wealthy leads to prosperity for all.
2. COVID-19 isn't that big a deal. Reopen and shrug off the casualties.
3. Climate change is overhyped, so we won't let it slow the economy.
4. When China wins, we lose, and vice versa.
5. Writes Frum, "The European Union should be treated as a rival, the United Kingdom and Japan should be treated as subordinates, and Canada, Australia, and Mexico should be treated as dependencies." Where we go, they'll follow. And forget those fusty old WWII-era alliances. They're out of date.
6. If people can't afford health insurance, they can go with Medicaid, charity, or nothing.
7. States should regulate voting to minimize fraud, which is rife among Blacks and immigrants. The feds need to prevent Democrats from committing voter fraud via the USPS.
8. Racism against Blacks is no longer a big deal. If anyone needs protection, it's whites, Christians, and Asian applicants to universities.
9. We should aim to eliminate women's "right to privacy" as decided in Griswold v. Connecticut in 1965.
10. We should ease up on government officials' conflict-of-interest requirements and welcome secret, limitless campaign donations.
11. Business owners should not have to police undocumented immigrants, and the government should delay granting citizenship by stretching out the process as long as possible.
12. BLM has caused a Black crime wave. The police should be strengthened.
13. President Donald Trump is so victimized by the media and the “deep state” that his reactions on Twitter and elsewhere should be excused.
    
    
    

Do you think the Trump campaign would indeed lose votes if such a platform were to be made public? Do you see any way a list like this could be useful to the Biden campaign?

"NYC - Chelsea: 14th Street–Eighth Avenue Subway - Life Underground" by wallyg is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/08/new-gop-platform-authoritarianism/615640/?surface=meter_limit_reached&article_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theatlantic.com%2Fideas%2Farchive%2F2020%2F08%2Fnew-gop-platform-authoritarianism%2F615640%2F&fbclid=IwAR3Cpa27kW_A9aWLWJDl24ZjdlWRV9qo5iou8QeDN3IUZ0pZ92wRutQB7b4