Live From the RNC: The Republican Party's Identity Crisis
Aside from fealty to Trump, the party’s leaders don’t have a platform because they don’t know what they want.
At least they agreed on a logo.
Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
Few people follow Republican politics and policy more closely than Bloomberg Opinion columnists Ramesh Ponnuru and Michael R. Strain. Here is their take on the Republican National Convention so far.
Michael R. Strain: Public policy normally plays a big role in political conventions. This year is very different. The Republican Party didn’t even release a policy platform for its convention. In its place, it put out a bizarre and creepy statement of fealty to President Donald Trump. The political leadership of the GOP is increasingly uninterested in policy, viewing itself as fighting a broader war to “save Western civilization” — a major theme of their convention’s first night — from the Democrats. Ramesh, what does this mean for the future of a party built in part on a movement of ideas?