The Republican Party held its convention without creating a platform but it’s not like they don’t have an unwritten platform because they do. It has been orally presented over and over again piece by piece, tweet by tweet, interview by interview, rally by rally. It is a Trump platform and elected Republicans have gone along with it and Trump voters have cheered it on because they cheer most things Trump.
The platform is contained here.
It was written on August 25, 2020 by David Frum, Staff writer at The Atlantic.
He says the question is not why Republicans lack a coherent platform; it’s why they’re so reluctant to publish the one on which they’re running.
I have argued in previous posts that for change to happen smoothly and more quickly we can’t start with the answer and instead have to start with an hypothesis. The hypothesis could be a problem or an opportunity but in either case it has to be defined and measured as the first step followed closely by getting consensus that the problem or opportunity actually exists. Only then can we search for alternative answers, evaluate their pros and cons and then choose the most acceptable alternative.
Bill Clinton believes that “politics and governing are one long conversation where you have to explain to people what went wrong and why, explain your plan to fix it, persuade them your idea is better than the other side’s,” this Democrat noted. “Today, politics tends to be heavy on assertion, light on explanation, and bereft of persuasion.”
The above paragraph comes from a short article from Politico and does a good job of indirectly describing the differences between Trump and Clinton. Like I said it is short and likeable.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/08/18/bill-clinton-comeback-altitude-397492
All of us can be gullible at times and sometimes after we realize we were guilty of it we have to laugh at ourselves. Where our emotions are high we are prone to gullibility more than when we are less interested in a subject. We seem to now be most gullible regarding politics. It is shameful but interesting that we are so divided that we don’t trust anything and yet conversely aren’t willing to disbelieve anything.
We spend a lot of time worrying about interference from Russia, China or Iran. But disinformation needs to have a receptive audience to work. If Americans weren’t so divided and all news media shared set of facts before offering wildly conflicting worldviews, it would be harder for a foreign power to meddle.
I’ll close with a quote about racism and while the quote mentions people of color it applies to all prejudices that maintains the status quo that keeps America from being what we say we are regarding life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
What’s most important is the outcomes and experiences of people of color. When we know that those inequities exist and we refuse or fail to address them, that is racism. It is allowing the system to perpetuate itself because the status quo is racist.
— Melissa Williams, director of student equity and inclusion at Clark College