2022 RNC and DNC Party Platforms Leave This Independent Unimpressed
Dog whistles, incompetence, and oblivion infect both party platforms
I have been an Independent voter all my life. Typically, I have voted conservative. I grew up in a rural area, and I have worked in ag-adjacent industries for most of my life. I’m attracted to values like fiscal responsibility, free trade, and resource conservation.
But the last few years have brought massive changes in the political landscape. To get a better of idea what the two-party system has to offer, I decided to visit the websites of the Republican and Democrat national committees — and specifically, their party platforms.
This article has three sections — the actual RNC platform, Kevin McCarthy’s recent “Commitment to America” presentation, and the DNC platform.
What I found was sometimes surprising, even shocking. Here’s my rundown.
RNC Party Platform
RNC — Paleoconservatism, dog whistles, divisiveness and incompetence
First off, there are two glaring things about the RNC’s public-facing website at gop.com.
Paleoconservative messaging right up front
I was surprised to find blatantly paleoconservative language in the RNC’s summary of its party platform. Paleoconservatism is a political stance that stresses American nationalism, evangelical Christian ethics, and regionalism. It co-exists with far-right populism, isolationist tendencies, and intolerance of foreign cultures and immigration. This is not the Republican Party that I grew up with.
But hey, to each his own. If this is the new party identity, I say: Thank you for letting us know up front.
It just seems weird that for a party trying to bill itself as a Big Tent, that it would adopt such a narrow identity. It sounds like the party leaders are trying to lift the whole tent and carry it back to the 1950's.
Fear-mongering attack language
I was also turned off by the attack language against “the left”. “The left” as they always refer to the opposition, represents just as many Americans (or more) than their own party does. It’s disrespectful to a huge swath of Americans, and as a branding message, it’s neither inspirational or engaging.
Not only are they trying to carry their tent back in time, they’re also hiding behind it and throwing water balloons at a villainized boogeyman.
Incorrect link to the most important page — the Party Platform
There’s also a third glaring thing if you count the fact that I could not find a single link from the home page to the “About Our Party” page: https://gop.com/about-our-party/. The link provided on the RNC website (at the time of writing) was incorrect and took viewers to an obsolete page discussing arcane party rules. I was only able to find the party page through persistent online searches.
The link called “Learn More” on the “About Our Party” page — which is apparently the ONLY link in their website to the actual party platform — takes us to the RNC Committee Rules page. Which, trust me, is boring as dust and has absolutely nothing to do with a platform. What a bungle!!
This is an epic level of incompetence.
Actual Republican Party Platform …
Here is the link to the actual Republican Party Platform: https://prod-cdn-static.gop.com/media/documents/DRAFT_12_FINAL%5B1%5D-ben_1468872234.pdf
As you can see, they are still coasting on a 2016 draft. They did not adopt an updated platform to address the 2020 primary election, nor have they updated it in time for the 2022 midterms.
Of the 65 pages in this document, not including the cover, there are 8 useless pages — dedications, blanks, final splash, lists of committee members. It all looks very nice and professional, but leaves only 57 pages for the meat-and-potatoes.
Page 1 starts with a statement of values, and the first half-ish is actually quite clear and potentially inspiring. But the second half immediately dissolves into a blistering rebuke of everything Obama (although they only refer to him as “The President” in this section). He’s accused of pretty much destroying everything Americans hold dear, and even “defying the laws”. It’s a long rant, and it focuses solely on “the past 8 years”.
The rest of the manuscript is well-organized, with just six main sections. The language is heavy on “protecting traditional values” and generously frosted with specific attacks on Obama, who they now identify by name. Basically, I estimate that nearly half of the entire document is an anti-Obama screed.
Unfortunately for Republicans, the fact that the document is so badly out-of-date means that many of their arrows miss the mark. When it was written, the authors were still predicting that Obama would fail, as in this excerpt predicting that Obama would fail to reach 3% economic growth (annualized):
However, in spite of much ballyhoo, neither did Trump. In fact, annual economic output under Trump averaged 2.5%, compared to 2.4% under Obama.
There’s also a very long rant about Dodd-Frank and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which although amended, appear to be here to stay.
All in all, the RNC platform is sadly outdated, and the RNC doesn’t seem to think its voters will care or even notice.
“Commitment to America”
The “new” RNC agenda …
… is NOT a new party platform. “Commitment to America” links take you to a site called “republicanleader.gov” which is a campaign site for Kevin McCarthy.
Whether it’s referred to as a plan, direction, or agenda, this brochure-length screed is NOT an approved party-wide platform. It is basically a chest-thumping campaign by McCarthy to boost votes for Republican candidates, as well as his hopes for the Speaker’s gavel.
The rollout was marred by the fact that McCarthy purchased Russian and Ukrainian stock footage for his promo video. As critics pointed out, nothing says “America First” and “Made in America” like paying for Russian video footage to portray the golden wheat fields, innocent children, and productive oil fields of America.
From McCarthy’s front page, you can download a Preamble, which is so vague it nearly slides off the paper it was written on. It does, however, replace the mean paleoconservatism with pretty, inspiring, yet vacuous sentences; it also softens but retains the attack language. Same gift, different wrapper.
NPR was equally unimpressed.
The “Commitment to America” includes four broad pillars focusing on the economy, safety, individual freedom and government accountability. Big on ideas (“expand U.S. manufacturing”) but short on policy specifics, the agenda is in keeping with tradition established in 1994 with Rep. Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America,” where the minority party releases their agenda priorities ahead of Election Day.
When you click on any one of McCarthy’s four pillars, the website does take you to walking-tour pages that spin out some stats and claims. It appears to be a Wordpress construction (it’s full of WP plugins) and seems to be built using a Magenta PageBuilder drag-and-drop template. It’s heavy on photos and really big graphics, short on text. It looks attractive on a smartphone, but is visually awkward on a computer. And every click presents only a paragraph or two of actual text, which means the reader has to perform an awful lot of labor for a paltry amount of information.
McCarthy’s claims are still heavy on attack language and blame game — he blames Joe Biden and the Democrats for every evil that has befallen the US — including some imaginary ones — and positions Republicans as the only antidote. Some of the statistics are authentic, but in every page I visited, I also found claims that were misleading or flat out lies.
Somehow, in the course of doing a Google search, I came across this page which exists on McCarthy’s “Commitment to America” site, but does not seem to be accessible from the public-facing pages: https://www.republicanleader.gov/commitment/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/CTA-One-Pager.pdf
This is the one page that is the outline for everything. Look at this, and you’ve got the gist of the whole thing. Unfortunately for McCarthy, nearly every line is a set-up for an oppo-attack ad or a NowThis feature. He either claims problems that don’t really exist (like prosecutors refusing to prosecute crimes), or commits to solutions that he previously blocked or ran away from.
DNC Party Platform
DNC — More trash talk, and helicopter mom syndrome
First impression: The RNC is a “.com” (with a dysfunctional link) whereas the DNC website is a “.org”. Small detail, but that right there defines the RNC as a party that identifies as a business, and the DNC (democrats.org) as a party-for-the-people.
Also, the entire DNC platform is available as both a .pdf file and/or viewable as .html links to each major section, clearly available on the “Where We Stand / Party Platform” page. Options! Accurate links!
The DNC document is also an updated, current, official DNC 2020 party platform. As opposed to the RNC’s tired 2016 draft.
The RNC table-of-contents was only six lines long. The DNC table-of-contents is 2.5 pages long. Far more detailed. Which also makes the document much easier to navigate if you are looking for a particular subject.
Aside from a nod to Native Americans (their 2020 convention was held on or near tribal lands), the 96-page document wastes no time on long preambles about values, and does not spend any space listing committee members and thanking people. It’s all meat-and-potatoes.
Trash Talking Trump
The DNC actually spends far more time trash talking a former president than even the RNC — and I thought the RNC was over the top. One major difference, however, is that instead of a volley of poorly aimed arrows, the DNC uses just two spears, over and over again. They hammer “President Trump” and the “Trump Administration” on Covid, and his/its handling of pandemic issues as being the source of multiple societal and economic woes; they also consistently refer to the “Trump recession”.
If you’re going to trash talk, it’s smart to be focused and consistent. Still, I would like to see less reactionary attack language from either party. If you have solid policies, they should be able to stand on their own.
America’s Helicopter Mom
One of the more unfortunate Democrat traits, in my opinion, is that they’re determined to solve problems that really should be left up to states and communities.
The Democrat platform is very, very detailed in places — outlining step-by-step plans for things like supporting education and affordable housing. But in many areas, I can’t help but wonder … did their hamster wheel come off its frame? Should the federal government be helping frontline workers unionize? Should it be dictating what private charter schools do or don’t offer?
Every time Democrats see a perceived need or issue, they race to put a federal bandaid on it; unnecessarily creating more confusion and more dependence on government.
Are farmers a prop or a plan?
Finally, I wanted to see what each party had to say about issues that are important to me. Things like farmers and small agriculture, the bedrock importance of rural communities, national security, cybersecurity, adult illiteracy, and so on.
So to that end, I searched both platforms for keywords relating to just two issues: “farmers” … and “national security” or “cybersecurity”.
Democrats mention “farmers” 17 times. Of those, 3 were attacks on Republicans, and 14 were part of positive proposals. None of the mentions were noncommittal or exploitative.
Republicans mention “farmers” 11 times. Of those, 5 were attack language, 4 were exploitative, and only 2 were part of positive proposals.
Cybersecurity is dead last on both platforms
On “national security” Dems mention it 11 times — 1 attack, 4 neutral, 6 positive. They mention “cybersecurity” only once, in passing.
Republicans mention “national security” a whopping 21 times — but 5 as attacks, 11 neutral-to-exploitative, and only 5 positive. “Cybersecurity” was used as a subheading for a short section which outlined in lascivious detail all the ways they would punish cyber crimes. They did also address the dangers of electromagnetic pulse attacks (EMP) and internet tyranny. I would like to think this indicates a serious interest in national security, but when I put that side-by-side with their constant attacks on our intelligence agencies, it zeroes out as probable bloviating.
Overall, I was not terribly impressed with either platform, although the Democrats are clear winners when it comes to detailing goals and plans. My priorities differ from theirs, but at least I come away from the Democrat party platform with a sense that I have a clear understanding of their direction. Republicans, sadly, are drowning in rhetoric, stale bullet points and dog-whistling white nationalism. A far cry from the “shining city on a hill” of my youth, and the Republicans I once admired.
I’ve spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don’t know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That’s how I saw it, and see it still. — Ronald Reagan, January 11, 1989
