Why should anyone be surprised by this development? Unless you think President Trump is a principled man, in which case you haven’t been paying attention, or you really need some help:
A vote by the Republican National Committee to leave the party’s 2016 party platform unchanged ahead of the November election has infuriated grassroots activists — including moderates who wanted to streamline its message and social conservatives who sought added language on emerging hot-button topics.
The decision by the party’s executive panel Wednesday means the GOP will maintain positions in the 4-year-old policy blueprint — including opposition to same-sex marriage and a nod to gay conversion therapy — and decline to stake out new positions on topics such as police reform, gender identity and third-trimester abortions. Party officials and senior Trump campaign aides had previously discussed ways to pare down the 58-page document to a single note card or abbreviated list of principles, but the effort broke down after several conservative groups registered complaints with the White House. [Politico]
A party platform is helpful for appealing to voters, but at the same time it serves to place restraints, loose though they may be, on the candidates and elected officers, and for an arbitrary, unprincipled man whose exercise of power has more to do with self-aggrandizement than advancing the principles of his Party, they are absolutely something to be avoided. Sure, President Trump blames this entire mess on Governor Cooper (D-NC), as the Governor’s cautious and honorable approach to the pandemic supposedly forced the President to move the Republican National Convention somewhere else and make the important work of the committee impossible.
Yeah, that’s where all the red flags start waving. Hey, guys, ever think of using Zoom or something similar? Work in subcommittees? It might be more efficient than getting everyone in a conference room or two!
The old principles in the platform of yesterday and tomorrow have been successfully ignored for the last four years, pushed out of sight by sheer outrage, but if brought to the fore again and modified, made even more aggressive on certain social policies, Trump may fear that he cannot operate as freely as he wishes – or he might not even be reelected because of the far-right radicalism inherent in some of those positions. Thus, the old platform is quietly trotted out, paraded briefly, and then sent back to its kennel. If there are embarrassments that come out of that, let the critics have their laugh at the poop on the display floor. It serves to distract them from many other issues that are weighing Trump down.
And distraction is what Trump does best.
