The premise of the thread is that Republican leaders aren’t actually conservatives, and that their policies don’t align with conservatism, so I feel justified in my logic.
~Max
OK, fair enough.
To be clear - there is no GOP platform.
The closest thing that the GOP has to a platform is a statement saying that the party fully supports Donald Trump.
Alas, that is not a platform, but a resolution saying that they’re not going to adopt a platform until 2024.
If you read a bit further, it says they will keep the same exact platform from 2016, and then just after that is the platform from 2016.
~Max
As a conservative, do you really not find this document concerning? Because the only way I can summarize this document is.
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Everything Obama/Biden did was wrong and we are against it.
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Anything that Donald Trump wants to do is right and we support it.
I have always voted based on policy and not personality. Detailed party platforms have always been an invaluable tool in my voting decisions.
What IS the Republican/ conservation position on our relations with North Korea? With China? With Russia and Ukraine? What is their position on healthcare? I am dealing with issues regarding my aging parents, is there any plan to assist me? How do they intend to fight the opioid crisis that has hurt so many people in my circle?
Frankly, the entire platform as outlined in that document, sounds like Nyah Nyah Nyah, we have a plan but we aren’t going to tell you because CNN is mean. America first! Obama sucks! Biden sucks!
As a voter, I find it disrespectful. When you posted it, did you think it would help your case? Why?
Ah, indeed, you are correct. They do state, however, “WHEREAS, The media has outrageously misrepresented the implications of the RNC not adopting a new platform in 2020…” which would indicate that this document was created in response to the reporting, and the punt to the 2016 platform was little more that “do too” response to the Democrats pointing out they have no platform.
Lazy, and unimpressive.
Concerning, no. It’s always been like that for me. If I am lucky the individual candidate has more details about their platform. I don’t choose party affiliation based on the party platform, I choose party affiliation based on my state having closed primaries and my county voting 70%+ Republican.
I didn’t think about whether posting the platform would help my case, I thought it would disprove amarinth’s claim and the thought process ended right there.
~Max
If I understand correctly, the punt to the 2016 platform was automatic. They seem use resolutions to amend the platform statement; no resolutions this year means the last platform remains in effect by default. The explicit resolution does seem to be a reaction to media coverage.
~Max
Could you explain this a bit more? You choose to be a Republican because most of the people around you are?
Yes, that’s right (ETA: well, because most of the people around me vote Republican, which is an important distinction). I would probably go with a third-party or as unaffiliated if our state had open primaries.
~Max
Being afraid of change just means that large problems don’t get addressed. I know it’s one of the fundamental differences between liberals and conservatives but the inertia inherent in our system - and happily supported by conservatives - has been a key factor in our long slow decline.
If you live in a heavily red (or blue) district without open primaries, it often makes sense to register with the dominant party.
Many, if not most, if not all, of your state and local races will be decided in the primary. Whoever wins the majority primary will be the ultimate winner of the race. The minority primary is sort of a joke and the general election is always a majority party runaway. If you want a vote that means something in those races, you register with the majority party.
For example, AOC won her primary in June. This was a big story because she’s effectively secured her second term. Because her district is so heavily Democratic, she will not have a serious challenger in November. Last time, while their was a Republican challenger on the ballot, they never even filed the paperwork required for collecting campaign donations. The challenger didn’t even campaign and no one was going to put as much as a dime into that race.
If you were a Republican in that district and wanted a say in your representation, you would need to be able to vote in the Democratic primary. And that means registering as a Democrat.
Ah. I live in a state that doesn’t even have registration as a member of a party, so I didn’t think to frame in it in those terms. I was thinking primarily of voting in the main rather than registering to vote in the primary. It seemed weird to me to vote a certain way simply because other people do.
I wasn’t speaking of the platform as guidance for choosing affiliation, I was speaking of it as a guideline for deciding who to vote for in a particular election, this presidential election in particular. Because if Trump has an actual platform, I can’t find it. The official campaign website does nothing but collect voter information and money.
I must admit the readoption of the 2016 platform with absolutely no edits whatsoever is amusing. Especially where they condemn the “current administration“ for the huge increase in national debt and abandoning friends and rewarding their enemies.
To be fair, that’s actually the reasonable position to take.
I don’t think incumbents need a platform as guidance, at least not as badly as challengers do. I can look at the incumbent’s track record for guidance and judge them by their actions instead of cheap talk.
Similarily with challengers who have a long political career, for example Rick Scott v. Bill Nelson in the last election. The more of a history they have, the less I care about what they write and say for the campaign. Contrast with Andrew Gillum v. Ron DeSantis, both of whom had a comparatively shorter history in politics, so I relied more on their platforms, interviews, and the level of detail (or lack thereof) than with the Senate race.
~Max
The thing to me about the platform is that while I don’t need the platform to evaluate them, it’s them not putting in the effort to do something so basic to the election process shows either contempt for voters or incompetence. While there’s no chance that I’d be voting for Trump regardless of what he put as his platform, the fact that the Republicans in general didn’t bother to concoct a coherent platform for their presidential campaign is just weird and off-putting. It’s not something that takes a great deal of effort, especially compared to running a national campaign, but they didn’t think it was worth bothering with.
I think it’s something they decided was impossible, since they have tacitly agreed to follow a fascist strongman.