I have previously written that I had no intention of watching the Democratic Party National Convention; which history ended up proving was the case. I have seen at most maybe four minutes of footage from it in total and as a non-US Citizen living outside of the United States with no voting rights whatsoever, then I hardly see what benefit that I would have got out of it anyway.
Likewise when it comes to the Republican Party National Convention, I also have no intention of watching that either; for mostly congruous reasons. Although having said all of that, I do find the lineup of speaker for the Republican Convention to be rather intriguing.
Of the initial twelve headline speakers of the Republican Convention, six have the surname of Trump. Now rub my nose in the dirt and call me 'Stinky' but the only other show that I can think of that had so many performers with the same surname was 'The Von Trapp Family Singers' from The Sound Of Music. If that doesn't scream 'Nepotism!' from the rooftops and cause a six bell fire alarm for anyone who cares about democracy, then I don't know what does. Donald J Trump as the 45th President Of The United States had a total plan as far as I am aware, which extended as far as the 8th of November 2016 and no further. His whole entire administration has been run as far as I can tell, as an extension of his own mad reality TV show, except that the United States citizenry is paying for it and unlike other reality TV shows, it isn't all that entertaining (actually I don't much find reality TV shows all that entertaining either).
Although there have been announcement that the other speakers will include Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and former Governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley, and former New York City Mayor and Trump advisor Rudy Giuliani, it doesn't really have any of the party's up and coming talents and most telling of all, it doesn't have the endorsement of the 2012 nominee for President, nor the 2008 nominee for President (he is dead though; so perhaps he gets a free pass), nor the President from 2001-2009, nor the 1996 nominee for President.
In fact the most telling thing about the 2020 Republican Party National Convention is the absence of the Republican Party. If visibility is the central measure by which we are going to measure the direction by which the compass of policy is set, then I think that it is pretty obvious that the Republican Party has decided to abandon the 2020 election as a lost cause. I think that it is also fair to say that the policy mix which is being proposed by Donald Trump is exactly the same as it was in 2016; which can be summed up in two words 'Donald Trump'.
"RESOLVED, That the Republican Party has and will continue to enthusiastically support the President’s America-first agenda."
"RESOVLVED, That the 2020 Republican National Convention will adjourn without adopting a new platform until the 2024 Republican National Convention;"
- GOP Platform, as at 24th Aug 2020.
That is to that that the Republican Party in 2020 (and possibly for the first time), has no official platform.
Maybe this is about positioning one of the clan for a run at the 2024 election; maybe this because the Republican Party has already abandoned the Trump family and let them run the reality TV show on their own; maybe this is just the natural outworking of narcissism writ large, that it can not see anything beyond itself? I do not know.
Mr Trump has previously spoken about running for a third term, which assumes that he would have to win in 2020 first but as someone who says a bunch of stuff without thinking it through, this could be just him blowing hard. The Constitution was changed after the death of Franklin D Roosevelt to limit people to serving two terms as President; so him serving a third term would be impossible under the law. Or course were Mr Trump to lose 2020, then he wouldn't be operating with that as a hindrance and could serve another term from 2024 onwards: though whether or not the electorate would elect him again is another question and one that would be highly unlikely.
The general reason why I do not want to watch the Republican Convention is mostly congruous to why I didn't want to see the Democratic Convention; only more so for the Republicans. The Democrats basically have no policy strategy or vision in this election cycle because the Republican Party didn't either. The Republicans when they controlled all three branches of government from 2017-2019 didn't really do all that much with the power that they had and this time around, thy haven't even bothered to keep up pretense that there is any policy agenda or vision. Mr Trump himself is now famously reactive to the point that he appears to form his opinions based upon whatever the last person in his office said and more importantly, what he thinks will increase his personal glory and fame.
I do not see in all honesty how this Republican Convention can be any different to the rest of the substanceless rallies that Mr Trump is fond of holding. This American Carnage has now performed the experiment in democracy of what happens when the United States installs a cult of personality as the executive. It turns out to yield no legislative agenda and no purpose; likewise I fail to see the point of watching the Republican Convention if that's what's on offer.
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