In an historically unprecedented move, the Republican National Committee refused to issue a party platform this month.
This was a symbolic move, not a substantive one.
PLATFORMS
Presidential year political platforms issued by the two major political parties are never implemented after a party's presidential candidate wins the election.
The platforms are exercises in political positioning. The platforms' specifics reflect major goals of the various uncoordinated but cooperating special-interest groups within each political party.
The platforms are published in order to placate the various special interest groups. Any detailed examination of a platform will reveal that the goals listed in the platform are incompatible. That is because the various special interest groups' goals are incompatible. The platforms attempt to represent all of the groups without alienating any specific group's members to such an extent that they refuse to vote for the candidate.
A platform does represent a general attitude associated with a political party. The platforms are far more incompatible with each other than members of Congress are during the four years in between the publication of the platforms. The wheeling and dealing of Congressmen and Senators is always sufficient to guarantee that most of the planks in the platform will never be turned into bills that will be signed by the President. The compromises water down the vast majority of the planks in the victorious party's platform.
Then, every four years, the national parties go through the charade again. The parties mobilize the members to come out and vote. They raise billions of dollars to be spent on television advertising.
This year is an exception. The two parties did not have physical conventions. The Republican Party did not even go through the motions of issuing a platform.
The Democrats have published a gargantuan platform: 91 pages. It is here.
SANDBAGGING
The Republican National Committee's Executive Committee voted on June 10 to run the 2020 campaign on the 2016 platform. It was 54 pages. The 2016 platform is here.
On June 12, President Trump called for a full platform. This appeal was officially rejected by the RNC this week. The RNC issued a statement on August 22 that refused to comply because "it did not want a small contingent of delegates formulating a new platform without the breadth of perspectives within the ever-growing Republican movement." The RNC's statement is reprinted here.
Who would this "small contingent of delegates" have been? Trump's supporters.
This was an assault on Trump's influence in this presidential election. It was a self-conscious move to let Republicans run on the 2016 platform, which led to a victory. The RNC only affirmed one aspect of Trump's personal agenda: "RESOLVED, That the Republican Party has and will continue to enthusiastically support the President’s America-first agenda." It ignored everything else. That plank was the #1 reason for the victory in 2016.
The RNC blamed the media for its refusal to issue a platform.
WHEREAS, The media has outrageously misrepresented the implications of the RNC not adopting anew platform in 2020 and continues to engage in misleading advocacy for the failed policies of the Obama-Biden Administration, rather than providing the public with unbiased reporting of facts;
This argument is palpably fake. It implies that the Republican Party must never issue another platform.
The next day, on August 23, the Trump campaign issued a list of bullet points that constitutes its platform. It is called an agenda. In case his page dies, there is a reprint here. This is not binding on the Republican Party's candidates.
The RNC has bailed out on Trump.
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