Please correct me if I am wrong but I cannot remember a national political party convention that did not issue a platform and I started following conventions in 1960. These days only nerds actually read the platforms but they are the basic philosophy that a Party runs on that year. The 2020 Republican National Convention chose not to issue one; that speaks volumes! Let’s explore.

The once great Republican Party allowed itself to be taken over by the Tea Party in the wake of its 2008 losses. For a time – especially in the 2010 midterm election – that proved fruitful. The problem is the GOP surrendered to its most extreme wing (and a sizeable portion of opportunistic “invaders”) for a short-term success. Then in 2016 with a field that included a few (certainly not the entire field) legitimate Republicans it chose the least qualified and most devoid of political philosophy in Donald Trump. Along with him came a band of thieves. Disaster happened on Election Night when he pulled out a surprise victory.

Now elected Republicans were faced with a moral test. The morally correct decision was to support their president when he was correct and to correct him when he wasn’t. Almost without exception they failed miserably! While he received token, occasionally opposition from people like then-Senator Jeff Flake in the end they fell in line or simply retreated hoping to be around to pick up the pieces in a future version of the Republican Party (although it may reconstitute itself under another name depending on how bad things get).

I am reminded of the statement Grover Norquist (another of the many who got their start under Reagan) made outlining his right wing agenda when he said, “We just need a president to sign this stuff.” The radical right in the GOP never wanted a president with a functioning brain; they just wanted someone to sign their dark money inspired legislation into law. Trump was perfect. He is amoral and lacks a political philosophy. He simply wants to satisfy his ego while lining his pockets. His administration has been nothing more than an organized criminal enterprise. Since the money involved was not theirs the GOP’s financiers didn’t care.

The lack of a platform is a formal surrender to Donald Trump by what is left of the Republican Party, plain and simple!

The 2020 Republican convention is two days old as I pen this. Thus far I will steal a line from Phil Collins’ song, In the Air Tonight, to accurate describe it: “It’s all been a pack of lies”. The lies have been supplemented with conduct that if it does not violate the letter of several federal laws, certainly violates their spirit. But that is life in the Donald Dome: No reality and no rules. The problem is unlike Trump and his crew; the rest of us live in the real world.

I had planned on watching a large portion of the Republican Convention for its entertainment value. (I miss SNL.) I watched about 15 minutes of it and that proved to be about 14 minutes too much for me. When the “Party” failed to even put forth a token platform I should have known they had completely surrendered to the wannabe authoritarian in the White House (a/k/a convention set that we pay for). With two nights to go I don’t see much changing and I’ll be happy to write an apology article if it does. (I’m not making notes or provisions for that article.)

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