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The GOP Has A Platform , They Just Don't Want To Say It Out Loud Or Write It Down

  

Category:  Op/Ed

By:  john-russell  •  4 years ago  •  25 comments

The GOP Has A Platform , They Just Don't Want To Say It Out Loud Or Write It Down


The 2020 Republican Platform, as described by former GOP presidential speechwriter David Frum

1) The most important mechanism of economic policy—not the only tool, but the most important—is adjusting the burden of taxation on society’s richest citizens. Lower this level, as Republicans did in 2017, and prosperity will follow. The economy has had a temporary setback, but thanks to the tax cut of 2017, recovery is ready to follow strongly. No further policy change is required, except possibly lower taxes still.

2) The coronavirus is a much-overhyped problem. It’s not that dangerous and will soon burn itself out. States should reopen their economies as rapidly as possible, and accept the ensuing casualties as a cost worth paying —and certainly a better trade-off than saving every last life by shutting down state economies. Masking is useless and theatrical, if not outright counterproductive.

3) Climate change is a much-overhyped problem. It’s probably not happening. If it is happening, it’s not worth worrying about. If it’s worth worrying about, it’s certainly not worth paying trillions of dollars to amend. To the extent it is real, it will be dealt with in the fullness of time by the technologies of tomorrow. Regulations to protect the environment unnecessarily impede economic growth.

4) China has become an economic and geopolitical adversary of the United States. Military spending should be invested with an eye to defeating China on the seas, in space, and in the cyberrealm. U.S. economic policy should recognize that relations with China are zero-sum: When China wins, the U.S. loses, and vice versa.

5) The trade and alliance structures built after World War II are outdated. America still needs partners, of course, especially Israel and maybe Russia. But the days of NATO and the World Trade Organization are over. 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. If America acts decisively, allies will have to follow whether they like it or not—as they will have to follow U.S. policy on Iran.

6) Health care is a purchase like any other. Individuals should make their own best deals in the insurance market with minimal government supervision. Those who pay more should get more. Those who cannot pay must rely on Medicaid, accept charity, or go without.

7) Voting is a privilege. States should have wide latitude to regulate that privilege in such a way as to minimize voting fraud, which is rife among Black Americans and new immigrant communities. The federal role in voting oversight should be limited to preventing Democrats from abusing the U.S. Postal Service to enable fraud by their voters.

8) Anti-Black racism has ceased to be an important problem in American life. At this point, the people most likely to be targets of adverse discrimination are whites, Christians, and Asian university applicants. Federal civil-rights-enforcement resources should concentrate on protecting them.

9) The courts should move gradually and carefully toward eliminating the mistake made in 1965, when women’s sexual privacy was elevated into a constitutional right.

10) The post-Watergate ethics reforms overreached. We should welcome the trend toward unrestricted and secret campaign donations. Overly strict conflict-of-interest rules will only bar wealthy and successful businesspeople from public service. Without endorsing every particular action by the president and his family, the Trump administration has met all reasonable ethical standards.

11) Trump’s border wall is the right policy to slow illegal immigration; the task of enforcing immigration rules should not fall on business operators. Some deal on illegal immigration must be found. The most important Republican priority in any such deal is to delay as long as possible full citizenship, voting rights, and health-care benefits for people who entered the country illegally.

12) The country is gripped by a surge of crime and lawlessness as a result of the Black Lives Matter movement and its criticism of police. Police misconduct, such as that in the George Floyd case, should be punished. But the priority now should be to stop crime by empowering police.

13) Civility and respect are cherished ideals. But in the face of the overwhelming and unfair onslaught against President Donald Trump by the media and the “deep state,” his occasional excesses on Twitter and at his rallies should be understood as pardonable reactions to much more severe misconduct by others.

I find this explanation of the Republican platform extremely persuasive.  This is what Trumpism wants to sell to America.  They dont write it down and call it their platform because these worldviews and positions are not popular with the majority of Americans. Trumpism knows they dont have a majority so they base their campaign on scaring people and lying to people and a reality tv pageant they are calling a convention. 

Read this platform. If you agree with it, vote for Trump. If you dont, then dont vote for Trump.  I give David Frum a lot of credit for showing us these Republican goals in plain easily understandable language. 

related 

THE PLATFORM THE GOP IS TOO SCARED TO PUBLISH


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JohnRussell
Professor Principal
1  author  JohnRussell    4 years ago
So there’s the platform. Why not publish it?

There are two answers to that question, one simple, one more complicated.

The simple answer is that President Trump’s impulsive management style has cast his convention into chaos. The location, the speaking program, the arrangements—all were decided at the last minute. Managing the rollout of a platform as well was just one task too many.

The more complicated answer is that the platform I’ve just described, like so much of the Trump-Republican program, commands support among only a minority of the American people.

The platform works (to the extent it does work) by exciting enthusiastic support among Trump supporters; but when stated too explicitly, it invites a backlash among the American majority. This is a platform for a party that talks to itself, not to the rest of the country.

And for those purposes, the platform will succeed most to the extent that it is communicated only implicitly, to those receptive to its message.

The challenge for Republicans in the week ahead is to hope that President Trump can remember, night after night, to speak only the things he’s supposed to speak—not to blurt the things his party wants its supporters to absorb unspoken.

 
 
 
Greg Jones
Professor Participates
1.1  Greg Jones  replied to  JohnRussell @1    4 years ago

Please share the Democrat platform with us...if they have one

 
 
 
Split Personality
Professor Guide
1.1.1  Split Personality  replied to  Greg Jones @1.1    4 years ago

 
 
 
Bob Nelson
Professor Guide
1.1.2  Bob Nelson  replied to  Greg Jones @1.1    4 years ago

For pity's sake, Greg! There have been three or four NT seeds on the subject already. Google "Democratic platform"!

Oh, don't bother...

Here it is:

 
 
 
Gsquared
Professor Principal
2  Gsquared    4 years ago

As it concerns the Republican Party, David Frum know whereof he speaks.  

 
 
 
Bob Nelson
Professor Guide
2.1  Bob Nelson  replied to  Gsquared @2    4 years ago

Certainly... but in this particular case, he's obviously torpedoing them.

He's an original never-Trumper.

 
 
 
Account Deleted
Freshman Silent
3  Account Deleted    4 years ago

I agree - my version is simply shorter:

To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women as you lock up their little children in cages!

I suggest that most of the goals of the Republican party have not changed since Reagan. Delete the Soviet Union and plug in China - tweak a little here and there.

Privatize (Post Office and SS), cut taxes, spend a bunch for Defense, deny science, roll back Civil Rights Act of 1964 [59] , the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Equal Rights Amendment, make abortion illegal, get rid of any government involvement in health care, prayer in public schools...

It's not just Trump!

Republicans have wanted all of this for years.

 
 
 
Greg Jones
Professor Participates
3.1  Greg Jones  replied to  Account Deleted @3    4 years ago

Actually, the Dems fought the passage of both tooth and nail.

  Civil Rights Act of 1964   the Voting Rights Act of 1965

 
 
 
Account Deleted
Freshman Silent
3.1.1  Account Deleted  replied to  Greg Jones @3.1    4 years ago

I think you will find that that opposition came from "future" Republicans - about 20 or so Southern Democrats and Southern Republicans.  You will find the boll weevils long gone. Their offspring  became Reagan Republicans.

 
 
 
Trout Giggles
Professor Principal
3.1.2  Trout Giggles  replied to  Greg Jones @3.1    4 years ago

[deleted]

 
 
 
Bob Nelson
Professor Guide
3.1.3  Bob Nelson  replied to  Trout Giggles @3.1.2    4 years ago

There are lots of members of NT who know the facts but write nonsense.

They are members of the Cult of the Prophet Trump. They are winning the esteem of their fellow cult members, by denying facts that everyone knows they know! The more absurd their denial... the greater their prestige within the Cult.

The Cult of the Prophet Trump gives its highest esteem to adepts who deny even the most well-known facts.

 
 
 
Trout Giggles
Professor Principal
3.1.4  Trout Giggles  replied to  Bob Nelson @3.1.3    4 years ago

I'm trying to win the contest this month. Too bad I can't flag myself, but I know it's already been flagged. Ok, enough meta.

Do they think they will be granted some higher council privileges or something the more they worship at the Altar of Trump?

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
3.1.5  author  JohnRussell  replied to  Greg Jones @3.1    4 years ago
Actually, the Dems fought the passage of both tooth and nail.   Civil Rights Act of 1964   the Voting Rights Act of 1965

Take your fake news somewhere else Greg. 

 
 
 
Dulay
Professor Guide
3.1.6  Dulay  replied to  Greg Jones @3.1    4 years ago

Are you trying to claim that LBJ wasn't a Democrat? 

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
4  author  JohnRussell    4 years ago

Does anyone want to talk about what's in the seed? 

 
 
 
Trout Giggles
Professor Principal
4.1  Trout Giggles  replied to  JohnRussell @4    4 years ago

Sorry, John I got distracted.

GOP platform? I wasn't aware they actually built one

 
 
 
Bob Nelson
Professor Guide
4.1.1  Bob Nelson  replied to  Trout Giggles @4.1    4 years ago
I wasn't aware they actually built one

They didn't.. They stated that the Republican Platform would be to support whatever President Trump desired. 

Producing a platform kinda sorta requires policy ideas. They have none. 

 
 
 
Trout Giggles
Professor Principal
4.1.3  Trout Giggles  replied to    4 years ago

I'm sorry..I didn't quite get that because I only read English

 
 
 
Trout Giggles
Professor Principal
4.1.5  Trout Giggles  replied to    4 years ago

"No very well"?

I rede enlish gud...I just dunt speek or rite gud

 
 
 
Bob Nelson
Professor Guide
4.1.6  Bob Nelson  replied to  Trout Giggles @4.1.5    4 years ago
rede

... is olde English...

 
 
 
Trout Giggles
Professor Principal
4.1.7  Trout Giggles  replied to  Bob Nelson @4.1.6    4 years ago

I told you I was old

 
 
 
Bob Nelson
Professor Guide
4.1.8  Bob Nelson  replied to  Trout Giggles @4.1.7    4 years ago

I mean Beowulf old...  jrSmiley_82_smiley_image.gif

 
 
 
Dulay
Professor Guide
4.1.9  Dulay  replied to    4 years ago

They didn't have room for that in their one page resolution because spewing bullshit excuses took up too much space. 

 
 

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