Political parties’ platforms – their statements of where they stand on issues – get little respect. In 2020, then-President Donald Trump mused he might shrink his party’s platform from 66 pages in 2016 to just one page – but ultimately the party just kept the same platform document from four years earlier. Even as far back as 1996, Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole claimed he had never read his party’s platform.
The 2024 Republican Party platform, released July 8, closely follows Trump’s policy proposals and campaign rhetoric. If the Republicans just adapted Trump’s regular speeches, and Dole didn’t even read it, why should you care about a party’s platform?
