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July 10, 2024 - 9:00pm
The Republican Party’s updated platform has adopted a suite of populist policies, exacerbating divisions on the Right.
The document, dedicated to “the forgotten men and women of America”, distances the GOP from its longtime allies, religious and social conservatives, and solidifies the party’s rejection of foreign policy hawkishness. While some on the Left are portraying the platform as the final step in solidifying Trump’s control of the party, conservatives are deeply divided on the new creed.
For the first time in 40 years, the Republican platform did not mention support for a national abortion ban. Instead, it stated opposition to “late-term” abortions, which constitute about 7% of total abortions, and otherwise left the issue up to the states. This omission, among other issues, has exposed a rift on the New Right not only on policy positions but on the virtue of political compromises.
Former vice president Mike Pence called the move “a profound disappointment’, while Senators J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio, two favourites to become Trump’s next vice president, have come out in support of the party’s softened stance on abortion. Sohrab Ahmari, a conservative commentator who opposes abortion but supports the new platform, came under criticism after arguing that “politics is the art of the possible”, and that a strategic retreat on abortion was a practical move. Conservative legal scholar Adrian Vermuele, who, like Ahmari, is a prominent member of the post-liberal Right, publicly disagreed. “Higher politics is the art of changing what is politically possible”, he wrote, “the reshaping of the political constraints themselves.”
Abortion was not the only issue that angered social conservatives. Mentions of God were reduced from 15 times in 2016 to twice in 2024, and marriage was mentioned once in 2024 compared to 19 times in 2016. Language defining marriage as between a man and a woman was dropped, a move opposed by social conservatives like Sen. Josh Hawley. The issue remains incredibly divisive in the GOP, with only 38 House Republicans voting for legislation formally recognising same-sex marriage in late 2022.
The new platform says conspicuously little about foreign policy, making no mention of Ukraine, Russia or Nato, and only one mention of Israel, compared to 19 mentions of the Jewish state in its 2016 platform. Instead, it focuses on promoting peace in both Europe and the Middle East and encouraging American allies to bolster their own military defences. This change cements a longstanding drift in the GOP away from foreign policy interventionism and toward what this platform labels “America First” foreign policy.
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SubscribeBig nothing burger.
So divisive!! You cant just abandon performative cliches for policy positions with 80% approval rates. That is so Anti-Democratic!
Unless you’re alienating, you’re dividing!
Trump will be the great divider, surprise surprise
This is how political re-alignment works.
If he wasn’t such an ass, Trump might be a good president.
In terms of what was actually done during his first term, he was a reasonably good president. His one serious policy misstep was slavishly following Fauci, rather than allowing debate with the ideas of the Great Barrington declaration. We could have followed Sweden (where by some odd happenstance I am on holiday) and not wrecked our economy and blighted our children’s education, but no…
But he is as you say, an ass, and like both of his opponents a wannabe Caesar.
It is truly amazing the more either side campaigns the less popular they become. It’s truly a paradox.
When the GOP is following on from 4 years of Biden’s hysteria and damage, then undoing the top 10 crazy things that the Dems did is all you need to talk about. Start with restoring appropriate punishment for crime, fair elections, a secure border, ending wars, a sound military and a return to transparent Constitutional government.
Ok, the foreign policy area has a lot of division, but there is no serious disagreement anywhere else, sure abortion sorta but not really as hardline pro-lifers will not hesitate to support Trump and the party down the road.
There is a world of difference between what politicians say and what they do, never take anything they say at face value. Trump is notorious for this and is rarely ever consistent or coherent even knows what he wants beyond his ego needs let alone cares, it a feature not a bug with with him. The same can be said about Biden to a certain extent. Both of them are snakes and American is the Hens egg they lust for.