Trump every night, no party platform and a bizarre list of speakers: What to expect from the Republican National Convention

The GOP has decided that instead of having an official platform this year, it will 'enthusiastically support' whatever the President says instead. Yes, really

In an unorthodox move, the president has said he will speak during every day of the convention

For decades now, candidates for the presidency — including incumbents — have routinely been asked some variation of what’s often referred to as “the Roger Mudd question,” in which an interviewer asks his or her subject about their motivations for seeking the highest office in the land.

Mudd, then a correspondent for CBS News, singlehandedly torpedoed the presidential hopes of the late Senator Ted Kennedy in late 1979 with the simplest version: “Why do you want to be president?”

As the nation reeled from the economic impact of an oil embargo and the blow to national pride dealt by the Iran hostage crisis, Kennedy, who was then gearing up to announce his challenge Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential primary, responded with such a rambling, incoherent non-answer that his standing in the polls never recovered.

Donald Trump has gotten the incumbent’s version of “the question” — on his agenda for a second term — multiple times over the past few months, often from interviewers who are far friendlier to his cause than Mudd was to Kennedy. Each time, however, he’s offered up an answer no more coherent than the one that sunk the last Kennedy brother’s White House aspirations for good.

If Trump had faced the possibility of a real primary challenge, such incoherent rambling and lack of focus might provide an opening for a challenger to articulate a vision for what the Republican Party could accomplish if returned to the White House for another four years. But without any need to explain himself to anyone not already inclined to support him, it took until the night before he was to be renominated as the Republican Party’s candidate for president for Donald Trump to come up with anything resembling an agenda for his hoped-for second term.

Just after 9pm, his campaign blasted out a press release to reporters announcing his proposed agenda, described as “Fighting for You”.

Consisting of a list of bullet points and nothing more, some of the goals laid out in his “Fighting for You” agenda are concessions to current events or allusions to the President’s stump speeches, such as calls to “Teach American Exceptionalism” in schools, “Bring Violent Extremist Groups Like ANTIFA to Justice,” and “Prosecute Drive-By Shootings as Acts of Domestic Terrorism”. The rest bear a strong resemblance to many of the things he’s tried to accomplish during his first term, including pledges to “Stop Endless Wars and Bring Our Troops Home,” to “Build the World’s Greatest Infrastructure System,” and “Drain the Globalist Swamp by Taking on International Organizations That Hurt American Citizens”.

Missing from this document — and in sharp contrast to the multitude of proposals laid out on former Vice President Joe Biden’s website — was any attempt at detailing how the 45^th President would go about accomplishing any of the objectives described therein.

Most past presidential candidates would’ve considered Trump’s 11^th-hour attempt at answering a question he’d been asked multiple times the mark of an unserious amateur lacking semblance of seriousness. But they would’ve probably eaten those words upon hearing about what passes for a GOP platform this year.

Though party platforms rarely have much of an impact on the work of governing, the quadrennial conventions provide a way for parties to lay out their view of the world, identify the most significant problems facing the country, and offer up broad descriptions of the solutions their candidates would propose if elected.

But much like their candidate, the Republican Party can’t be bothered to do any of that.

Instead, citing the restrictions on public gatherings imposed to prevent the spread of Covid-19, the Republican National Committee on Sunday approved a resolution dispensing with the need to approve a new platform until 2024, and declaring that in lieu of a platform this year, “the Republican Party has and will continue to enthusiastically support the President’s America First agenda”.

That’s it. The Republican Party will “continue to enthusiastically support” the agenda of their chosen candidate for the presidency, whatever that is.

Trump campaign representatives did not respond to queries as to whether the press release of the “Fighting for You” agenda bulletpoints was prompted by the need for an agenda for the RNC to “enthusiastically support,” nor did they provide any details on Trump’s plans for a second term beyond their press release.

Yet there are clear hints of what a second Trump term could bring and indicators of what the Republican Party wants the American people to know it stands for. You just have to take a look at the list of speakers who will fill the next four days of prime-time convention airtime.

Instead of rewarding rising stars with keynote opportunities in the way Democrats introduced a young Barack Obama to the nation in 2004, each of the coveted 10pm speaking slots will be filled by Trump himself. And of the eleven other speakers who will address the nation during the convention’s nighttime sessions, five of them are either married to him or share half of his DNA.

Other speakers include the Saint Louis couple who were recently charged with felonies for pointing firearms at Black Lives Matter protesters; the Kentucky teenager who sued a number of media outlets for reporting on a viral video he appeared in during last year’s March for Life in Washington; a longshot House candidate from Baltimore who attracted attention with a viral ad claiming that Democrats don’t care about Black people; and an assortment of the President’s most fervent defenders from the House and Senate.

The order of the week? Airing of grievances and paeans to the glory of the Trump family, long may it reign.

As for question of what, at the end of the day, Republicans do appear to believe, the leader of the GOP’s Hawaii delegation — long a non-factor in that state’s politics — summed it up quite appropriately as he cast his state’s nominating votes for Donald Trump: “While… the Aloha state it is the safest, healthiest, and happiest state in the union, we can only attribute this to the great weather and wonderful people that make up our great state of Hawaii… We cannot attribute any of Hawaii’s success or attractive qualities to the 60 years of failed leadership by Hawaii Democrats.”

“Despite Democrat control and Democrat subversion in Hawaii, President Trump's leadership has helped Hawaii survive and prosperous in difficult times,” he continued. “Hawaii, and the nation, need four more years of President Trump.”

A representative of a minority party rejecting the legitimacy of his political opponents and attributing all of his state’s successes to the leadership of one man, without whom the nation will fall. Sound very American? Not so much, but that’s where the Grand Old Party is starting its convention.

Buckle up.