According to David, the Rethugs really do have a platform, it’s just too ugly for them to show to actual human beings.
The Platform the GOP Is Too Scared to Publish
What the Republican Party actually stands for, in 13 points
epublicans have decided not to publish a party platform for 2020.
This omission has led some to conclude that the GOP lacks ideas, that it stands for nothing, that it has shriveled to little more than a Trump cult.
This conclusion is wrong. The Republican Party of 2020 has lots of ideas. I’m about to list 13 ideas that command almost universal assent within the Trump administration, within the Republican caucuses of the U.S. House and Senate, among governors and state legislators, on Fox News, and among rank-and-file Republicans.
Frum’s exercize is to ask, “ok, what ideas do nearly all Republicans believe in?” He then suggests that most of them are too ugly to use with other Americans, so they just went with the overarching “we love Trump” concept.
The ideas, as Frum notes, include:
1) Lower taxes on the rich and corporations,
2) The virus as an overhyped problem
3) Climate change as an overhyped problem
4) China as an existential enemy
5) The trade and alliance structures built after World War II are outdated. America still needs partners, of course, especially Israel and maybe Russia.
6) Health care is a purchase like any other.
7) Voting is a privilege. States should have wide latitude to regulate that privilege in such a way as to minimize voting fraud, (Note, the gutting of the Voting Rights act by SCOTUS works really well here.)
8) Anti-Black racism has ceased to be an important problem in American life.
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. (He notes as a subtext that the Trumps have met all 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.
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.
13) 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.
Frum then asks the obvious question: if those are the points of a true Rethug plaform, why not publish them? The almost-as-obvious anwsers are: a) the convention is in choas, so no room for leetle things like platforms, and b) these ideas only have very narrow support, so they need to be implied, not stated.
Of course, there are also other non-platform concepts that are part of Rethug strategy, that in my view are actually part of this implied platform. I picked 20 (now 27), but there are more, and I welcome additions to the list. (My 24-27 were added to fix serious omissions.) These include, at the very least:
1) It is essential that Rethugs win, so a bit of lying and cheating is acceptable.
2) Income and wealth inequality in the US is a feature, not a problem. Actually helping our cult members is far less important than fooling them.
3) Small, ineffectual government is perfectly fine if it means low taxes on the rich and on corporations,
4) The US has no important role in global support of democracy, freedom of the press, or minimizing the impact of fascism and dictatorships. If former firends turn into enemies, that’s life.
5) Russia is a friend. See #1. Also, changes in foreign policy that help Russia are to be cherished.
6) Incompetence in government simply supports the important idea of small government.
7) States’ right should prevail, whenever they are consistent with Rethug viewpoints. Otherwise, not.
8) It really doesn’t matter what a majority of Americans think, on any topic.
9) Science cannot be right if it runs counter to the narrow superstitions of the most religious minorities, or to how corporations would like to behave.
10) The Federal government has no role in supporting or promoting social justice, or any other forms of fairness.
11) It really doesn’t matter if the more civilized portions of the world hate us. In fact, F&%k the rest of the world.
12) Police contempt of minorities is not a problem, even when it results in deaths. Minoority lives don’t matter, black or otherwise.
13) Kindness and compassion are a mistake if shown to people who aren’t like me. (See: Kidnapped children at the Border.)
14) Support for Trump is vastly more important than social, economic, emnvironmental or labor justice—what I call “The Four Justices.”
15) Economic policy that robs from the less wealthy or future generations is less important than an extra 0.2% of growth.
16) In opposition to Ronald Reagan, don’t trust and don’t verify. Just accept what is in the Donald’s gut.
17) Our intelligence agencies, like science, are only correct when they agree with us.
18) A lie supporting us is good. The truth opposing us is evil.
19) It is not important that we have a presdient capable of coherent, strategic thought, or who will work hard at his role. He is protected from everything, even if he achieves nothing. (See, The Barrbarian.)
20) Our goal for the next 4 years is to achieve nothing except protecting a damaged status quo, lying about the damage, and getting more hard-right judges.
21) Elimintion of environmental regulations that protect Americans from chemically-enhanced diseases increases “corporate efficiency.” Even better if the increased environmental damage is mostly limited to locations where minoprities and poor whites live.
22) Back on rights to healthcare, actually there aren’t any. Being dark-skinned or poor is a pre-existing condition.
23) Pretend responses to crises (e.g., the Pandemic) are just as good as real responses. The key is foolong more of the people more of the time, so that actual honesty or competence aren’t necessary.
24) Friends and relatives of The Donald need not spend any time in prison. Nor do police that target the area of the back between the shoulders.
25) It is really easy to pretend that darker-skinned people behave worse than lighter-skinned people. Once you have extrapolated that, it becomes really easy to justify policies that promote assymetrically dire consequences for darker-skinned people such as poisoning air and water, minimizing access to healthcare, violence by the police, and letting education erode.
26) Optimizing support for religious superstitions that damage LGTBQ is a central strategy and focus of our judicial maneuvers.
27) Women’s health is a task to be managed by men and fundamentalists.
