Editor's note: Mike Cormack is a writer, editor and reviewer mostly focusing on China, where he lived 2007-2014. He edited Agenda Beijing and is a regular book reviewer for South China Morning Post. The article reflects the author's opinions, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Political parties are usually complex matrices of influences. They aim to influence society but, of course, are themselves subject to huge amounts of pressure and tension, both internal and external. They have members, representatives, donors, staff, histories, and cultures. They have rising powers, and fading stars whose now see the sun setting upon their influence; they have backroom engines and media favorites; they have their own myths, legends, taboos and totems. For example, the British Labour Party is still haunted by the ghosts of its split in 1931 and its near-meltdown in the early 1980s, while the Conservative Party longs for Margaret Thatcher in a way that its MPs and members were less inclined to when she was in power. U.S. Democrats still venerate Franklin D Roosevelt with his New Deal, and to be a Kennedy there is still to have an open door to high status.

The U.S. Republican Party had – until recently – its own shibboleths and catechisms. It espoused smaller government, free trade, lower taxes, lower deficits, strong defense, limited or zero abortion, gun rights, immigration control, and American exceptionalism. These might not have been philosophically coherent (the outlawing of abortion essentially means government control of a basic human function), but they comprised an easy-to-comprehend package.

But that's how it should be. Life and politics are messy. Parties do, however, require organizing themes to give them some kind of meaning beyond the acquisition of power and the enjoyment of its spoils. Besides giving parties something to campaign on and with which to enthuse voters and the foot soldiers, these philosophies are for the most part genuine attempts to solve the issues facing a nation. They might be wrong, or muddle-headed, but at least they were sincere.

Not anymore. In the 2020 Republican National Convention to declare Donald Trump the candidate for the presidential election in November, the party has not bothered to prepare a political platform outlining its beliefs and policies. It has merely released a number of resolutions, such as:

WHEREAS, The Republican National Committee (RNC) has significantly scaled back the size and scope of the 2020 Republican National Convention in Charlotte due to strict restrictions on gatherings and meetings, and out of concern for the safety of convention attendees and our hosts;

WHEREAS, The RNC enthusiastically supports President Trump and continues to reject the policy positions of the Obama-Biden Administration, as well as those espoused by the Democratic National Committee today; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That the Republican Party has and will continue to enthusiastically support the President's America-first agenda;

RESOLVED, That the 2020 Republican National Convention will adjourn without adopting a new platform until the 2024 Republican National Convention.

So, the official reason for the lack of a program is that the coronavirus made it impossible to gather together to hammer one out. This is an obvious falsehood: any team could work remotely to put one together. The Democrats managed it just last week. And it's not like the presidential election couldn't be seen coming: the date is fixed by law.

But the clear point is that the Republican party has decided it has no aims, no goals, no policies, beyond boosting Donald Trump. It has traded its values and credo – and to paraphrase Walter Sobchak in The Big Lewbowski, "I mean, say what you want about the tenets of modern Republicanism, but at least it was an ethos" – for a personality cult.

The Trump campaign has, to be fair, released a fifty-point "set of core priorities." These are a series of bullet points, capitalized in the manner of a tabloid headline and with the same political sophistication: "Drain the Globalist Swamp by Taking on International Organizations That Hurt American Citizens", for example, and "Hold China Fully Accountable for Allowing the Virus to Spread around the World". These aren't policies, of course: they're talking points. There's not the slightest sense of how or when they could be achieved.

And that's how government policy is under Trump. He is a man noted for his capriciousness, someone who follows the dictates of cable TV rather than his own advisors. His ego means he cannot listen to advice because he feels patronized, and that he cannot form working relationships with any traditional U.S. allies. There is no point in giving any political or philosophical context to his presidency, because he has no ideas or ideology, beyond profiting from the racial and economic resentments of his electoral base.

But that's just him. To see an entire political party, which until recently still proudly considered itself the heirs of Ronald Reagan, decide to abase itself before a personality cult is astonishing. Should Trump win the election, it would herald the death of American rationalism, giving way to something darker, less constrained, more febrile – and far more dangerous.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)