Rather than lay out an agenda for the Republican Party, or give reasons to vote for Donald Trump, the GOP has instead decided to punt. The party has passed on adopting a platform at its convention which begins today, and instead resolved that it will enthusiastically support a Trump agenda, whatever it is. So, the GOP is officially a party of one. No one else has beliefs, positions or priorities, it’s whatever the president wants, no pushback. Except that, if you believe the polls, Trump is unbelievably unpopular in many parts of the country.

The GOP platform is officially-autocracy. No need to write it out because everyone knows that with allegiance to Trump you get racism, non-white anti-immigrant fervor, misogyny, anti-science policy, an end to rule of law, kleptocracy & kakistocracy. https://t.co/fJykn1x2fI

— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) August 24, 2020

Politico writes in an excellent analysis piece called “The Grand Old Meltdown” –

“It can now safely be said, as his first term in the White House draws toward closure, that Donald Trump’s party is the very definition of a cult of personality. It stands for no special ideal. It possesses no organizing principle. It represents no detailed vision for governing. Filling the vacuum is a lazy, identity-based populism that draws from that lowest common denominator Sanford alluded to. If it agitates the base, if it lights up a Fox News chyron, if it serves to alienate sturdy real Americans from delicate coastal elites, then it’s got a place in the Grand Old Party.

“Owning the libs and pissing off the media,” shrugs Brendan Buck, a longtime senior congressional aide and imperturbable party veteran if ever there was one. “That’s what we believe in now. There’s really not much more to it.”

Why isn’t the @GOP producing a new platform for its 2020 convention?

Because a platform means you stand for something.https://t.co/rycAuzx0lG

— Tim Alberta (@TimAlberta) August 24, 2020

New York Magazine writes of the non-platform:

“The official excuse is that the coronavirus has made it impossible for the party to get together and write a platform: “The Republican National Committee (RNC) has significantly scaled back the size and scope of the 2020 Republican National Convention in Charlotte due to strict restrictions on gatherings and meetings, and out of concern for the safety of convention attendees and our hosts.” Yet somehow the Democrats managed to come up with a platform without killing anybody.”