Dear Friend:

To be honest, there was no way I could stomach a full week of the Republican convention. So with the exception of catching a few minutes here and there (was Melania in the Rose Garden or a Trump hotel?), I generally took a pass. Luckily, my colleague, Alex Shephard, kept me filled in.

The GOP decided it didn’t need a new party platform. Why? Alex Shephard answered that question: “It isn’t just that the party has surrendered to Trump. It’s also because its policies are deeply unpopular.… By not writing a platform, Republicans can punt on the question of what, if anything, the GOP stands for until 2024.”

But there was more to it than that, as Alex Shephard observed: “On the one hand, viewers have been told the country has never been stronger, greater, or more prosperous, all thanks to the focused and empathetic leadership of President Trump. On the other hand, the country is so fragile that it will immediately collapse into full-on anarchy if Joe Biden gets elected in November.”

With the presidential election season upon us, now’s the time to join Alex Shephard, and the best investigative reporters, opinion writers, and cultural critics in America. 

Subscribe to The New Republic today.

Sincerely,

Kerrie Gillis, publisher

Read Alex Shephard’s “The Republican National Convention’s War on Reality”

Read Alex Shephard’s “Why the GOP Didn’t Write a New Platform”