MADISON, Wis. (SPECTRUM NEWS) - As the Republican National Convention wraps up, political experts believe it could be harder for undecided voters to make an informed choice.
The Republican Party opted not to adopt a new platform this year. Leaders say that was because of coronavirus limits on the convention size, and they didn’t want a small committee making decisions for the whole party. Instead, they’re relying on the 2016 platform.
“This is basically unprecedented in American history,” says Ellie Powell, a political science faculty member and researcher for the University of Wisconsin. Her research focuses on answering questions in American politics that could feel nebulous without analysis.
A party’s platform is usually a big part of trying to sway voters.
“They go way back to essentially the 1840s for the Democrats, 1850s for the Republicans,” says Powell. "Essentially, they're the statement of what the party believes in both in terms of ideals, but also in terms of specific policy prescriptions.”
Powell says this decision represents the Republican Party under President Trump.
“Well, I think they've really become a party of the President and essentially what they believe is what the President believes,” Powell says. “They're unified and support [him], and they don't want to advocate or suggest other policies.”
The 2016 platform focuses on Republicans’ interpretations of the Constitution. It includes policies on free trade in agriculture and manufacturing, the right to own guns and anti-abortion rights principles.
But it also includes some wording that now looks confusing, to say the least.
“A lot of the specific language was about criticizing the current president, who at the time, of course, was President Obama,” Powell says. “But that language now looks very strange, because it appears as if it's criticizing President Trump, [who] of course, the party’s been very loyal to.”
Powell says years from now, the decision not to update the platform could be perplexing to historians and politicians.
“Because the platform was developed in 2016 there's no mention of the pandemic and the COVID crisis. And sometimes that is the big issue of the election,” Powell says. “I think that's something that historians are gonna look at look at this or was a really strange and glaring omission.”
It could be tougher for undecided voters to make an informed decision because they’d have to watch RNC speeches to understand Republicans’ priorities. In a regular year, they could read the platform or a breakdown of the platform.
“What the Republican Party is saying is they’re a party of the President and if you support the President, then you're going to support Republicans,” Powell says. “And if you're concerned about the President, then you may look elsewhere, to the Democrats.”
Click here for the 2016 Republican Platform. Click here for the 2020 Democratic Platform.