Jay Weber Show transcript 7/12/24
I love this take.
The Republicans’ new party platform is scary – because it can win
It is from the liberal ‘Gaurdian’: this is a side of Trump we haven’t previously seen. He is campaigning to win in a dangerously coherent way.
Isn’t that great?
A grudging compliment from a lefty newspaper, talking about the RNC platform that was just adopted-which was basically Trump’s platform.
I went thru it the other day: it’s brief and clean and has 20 very good platform points- that focus on the most popular issues and the ones Americans say they care about the most.
It is a very good ‘white paper’ for any voter who isn’t sure what ‘either side’ stands for.
One criticism of both Trump and Biden-including after the debate-is that neither one of them seems to be talking about ‘what they are going to do’ in a second term.
That’s not really the case with Trump: he’s been talking about it, but the news media only ever focuses on his ‘festivals’ style ‘airing of the complaints’ at every rally.
And it-does-cause Trump’s second-term agenda to get ‘lost in the wash’. And it shouldn’t be. It’s a good one.
These liberal editors find this ‘alarming’ and/or cynical because they want to characterize it as trump and republicans abandoning some of the long-time planks of the conservative and GOP platform.
The least popular ones to independent voters.
Those are the ones that Trump and the RNC removed. Like-cutting entitlements and reducing the national debt and pushing for a national abortion ban.
Folks, I’m a conservative who understands those planks in the long-standing platform are important to large numbers of GOP voters.
I get it.
But those same voters should understand that if a party platform is meant to appeal to the largest number of ‘persuadable’ Americans-it needs to be unifying, not divisive-
And it needs to be ‘appealing’, not scolding.
Yes. We need to lower the national debt.
Yes, entitlements need to be reformed.
Yes, many GOP voters want a national abortion ban.
We cannot do-any-of those things if we don’t win elections and gain the power to do so.
Bottom line. We must cast a wide net for voters-and when it comes to the national party platform-
It hasn’t mattered to most voters in decades.
Let’s be honest. Many voters on either side of the aisle couldn’t even tell you what’s on their party’s platform or whether they have read it.
Let’s not pretend that this has been a document for anyone-other than-the most committed diehards and organizers.
So, why not ‘reinvent it’ as something that might-actually-get wider attention this year and-if most voters see it- might clarify in their minds-what a second Trump term would be about?
Why not-make this ‘matter’ in elections, again?
This is what trump and the RNC are trying to do. And the liberals at the Gaurdian get it-and are upset about it. I’d say that’s a win.
This platform-released a few days ago-has already gotten more media attention than i can remember any other GOP platform getting-probably since Reagan.
The editors at the Gaurdian try to inject as much Trump-bashing as possible into the larger piece-but- that’s a heck of an endorsement for the 2024 RNC agenda.
Again-I get the ideologs and hard-core insiders for being upset that it underwent changes in format and focus-
But- in today’s America-is it more effective for the parties to put out ‘weighty declarations? Or put out a more relatable agenda that more directly addresses most voters’ concerns?
Eli lake is another columnist who isn’t a Trump fan- and admitted this week: Trump’s new approach is ‘Maga for the masses’...as he puts it.
Some conservatives want to insist that Trump’s platform somehow ‘betrays’ the party or ‘betrays’ the conservative agenda: not if Trump gets into office and has the majorities in congress to move the conservative agenda, anyway.
Why ratchet up the controversy in a party agenda? Why not put out a ‘mass appeal’ agenda, and then, when you win, move the conservative agenda that you’ve always wanted to move? But never could?
This remains my biggest beef with people like Charlie Sykes and Bill Kristol: these 40-year litmus test conservatives who just hate Trump. And just hated the Trump years.
Yes, he is hard to like, at times.
Yes, he was an unconventional candidate and -on several issues-was not and is not conservative.
However- he and his advisors and cabinet members- as well as republican congressman at the time-implemented a hell of a lot more of the conservative agenda than any republican who came before him did.
Sykes and Kristol complained for decades about the need to cut taxes. The need to deregulate. The need to move a pro-life agenda. Preached the importance of the supreme court.
So, Trump gets in and he had his team pass the largest tax cut in US history- they do a massive amount of deregulating-erasing eight. Eight regulations to every ‘one’ they put in place.
Trump nominates three originalist judges to the supreme court and follows the advice of the federalist society and tips the overall makeup of the federal courts dramatically back toward ‘even’ with more conservatives on the appeals courts...
And...aw. What crap, this Trump is. What a terrible president. We can’t live with ourselves or say we are still conservatives if we support trump.
He moved more of the long-time conservative agenda than George Bush did. By far! If you couldn’t appreciate that fact-as a conservative-you really do have trump derangement syndrome.
Even now-
Well, Trump is saying he won’t touch entitlements. I just don’t know if I can support him, then.
He’s vowing to make the big tax cut you got in his first term -permanent- as Biden is vowing to let your taxes jump again.
He’s vowing to close and control the border again.
He’s vowing to tackle the rampant crime in our cities and deport illegal criminals.
You lived thru his first roaring economy...
But...yeah, I really wanted to see a promise to reform entitlements out of him.
Oh-shut up.
So-called ‘conservatives’ like that, who won’t take the ’80-20’ or even the 70-30 win for us because they can’t be reasonable....drive me crazy
I’m a never-Trumper because I’m so smart and conservative.
No. You’re not.
photo credit: Getty Images
audio version of the segment here>The new Trump/RNC agenda has tremendous mass appeal