What the RNC will reveal to Republicans who look carefully

When Americans tune into the Republican National Convention this week, they will see a trashy spectacle. Those who adore Donald Trump are bound to be delighted — because they adore everything he says and does. But what about the rest? I mean those Republicans (and Republican-leaning independents) who held their noses voting for him, who maybe liked the judicial appointments and tax cuts of the past three years, but who find the president personally off-putting. These voters may be inclined to do what they have since Trump prevailed in the 2016 primaries, which is to tune him out and rationalize their continued support for the party.

But they shouldn't. They should watch the RNC with eyes wide open to behold what their party has become under Trump — so they understand full well what a vote for Trump tells the rest of the country and the world about them and their decision on Election Day.

What will they see if they dare to look? A party that's a fully-owned subsidiary of the Trump family. That couldn't be bothered to put forth a policy platform beyond whatever Trump wants. That released a bullet-point list of priorities that looks like it was written at 2 a.m. by a recently hired White House intern. That won't hesitate to take a controversial statement or omission by a handful of Democrats and use it to tar the Democratic Party as a whole, including its presidential ticket, as hostile to religion or America. That will be giving a prime-time spotlight to a couple caught on video waving firearms at protesters and to a teenager who has been turned into a culture-war martyr by the right for having to endure misleading mainstream media coverage for a few days.

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That's the GOP in 2020: A machine for the enrichment and empowerment of one man and his family, for the airing and intensification of cultural grievances, and for the sowing of dissension and resentment throughout the country.

If Republicans look in the mirror, that is what they'll see glaring back.