Party killer

That sound you hear in the background is the unconventional Republican National Convention trying to make Americans forget about the ravages of coronavirus and pledge allegiance to Donald Trump. Besides being the place where candidates get nominated, conventions are typically where a party finalizes and ratifies its platform.

We don’t care much about platforms, but the parties are supposed to. They’re the glue of principle that supposedly holds them together.

The Party of Lincoln stood for the Union and ending slavery. The Party of Reagan opposed communism and slashed taxes.

Not this year and not this Republican Party. The GOP this year reaffirmed its 2016 document, not even bothering to update it to remove confusing language denouncing “the president” (then Obama), and adding that the party “will continue to enthusiastically support the President’s America-first agenda.”

In 2020, the Grand Old Party has no platform, because it has morphed into a personality cult. That’s reason number 30 on our list of 99 reasons Trump must be defeated.

Meantime, the convention speaker list is dominated by the Trump family, albeit skipping his niece and his sister; Trump himself plans to speak every night.

Right on cue, more than twodozen once-loyal former GOP officeholders — including recent ones like exSen. Jeff Flake of Arizona and Rep. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania — endorsed Joe Biden.

They know the truth: Their party has been crushed to death under a giant gold-plated TRUMP sign.