Theme of the GOP: It could be worse
The convention was presented against the backdrop of a nation hurting and divided, unnerved by four crises happening at once.
The upshot of four nights of the Republican National Convention could be summed up in four words: It could be worse. It may be a less than inspiring message for a nation unnerved by four simultaneous crises: A pandemic that has claimed 180,000 U.S. lives, a resulting economic shock that has brought doubledigit unemployment, police killings of African Americans that have led to a national reckoning about race, and epic wildfires and hurricanes that are bringing death, property damage and a stark reminder of the cost of years of obliviousness and neglect to the scientific consensus about climate change.
The drumbeat of warnings about “Joe Biden’s America” was all the more incongruous considering that President Trump has held the levers of power for the past four years.
Trump maintained that theme of fear and loathing in his Thursday night acceptance speech on the South Lawn of the White House — the use of the people’s house was in open defiance of the 1939 Hatch Act, which was designed to insulate government business from political campaigning. In a rambling speech that exceeded 70 minutes, Trump suggested that “Biden is a Trojan horse for socialism” and that “no one would be safe in Biden’s America.”
The dire warnings throughout the convention were interrupted only occasionally with testaments to the president’s empathy and compassion and speeches by women and African Americans trying to raise his dismal approval ratings among those constituencies. Viewers of the GOP infomercial were told a Democratic victory in November would bring the end of religious freedom, the Second Amendment, safe streets and even suburban life itself.
Kimberly Guilfoyle, the onetime San Francisco prosecutor and exwife of Gov. Gavin Newsom, set the tone on opening night in railing against the Golden State she once called home, painting it as a socialist dystopia of “discarded heroin needles in parks, riots in streets and blackouts in homes.”
Guilfoyle was hardly alone. Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz suggested a Trump loss would mean, “They’ll disarm you, empty the prisons, lock you in your home and invite MS13 to live next door.”
One of the segments that seemed tasteless beforehand and even worse afterward featured Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple facing weapons charges for waving guns at protesters outside their home in June.
“It seems as if the Democrats no longer view the government’s job as protecting honest citizens from criminals,” Mark McCloskey said, adding, “if you stand up for yourself, the mob, spurred on by allies in the media, will try to destroy you.”
Two nights later, in Kenosha, Wis., the danger of armed civilians trying to take the law into their own hands turned tragic. Armed vigilantes confronted people protesting the police shooting of Jacob Blake, paralyzed after being hit with seven bullets.
A 17yearold with an affinity for guns and an expressed admiration for Trump allegedly opened fire on the protesters, killing two and seriously wounding another. The suspected shooter, Kyle Rittenhouse, has been charged with firstdegree intentional homicide.
The Republican National Convention was presented against the backdrop of a nation hurting and divided — battling a virus, battling to pay bills, battling wildfires, battling racial injustice and battling one another on the streets. The coronavirus pandemic rated no more than fleeting mention in the convention’s first three days. In his speech, Trump went out of his way to blame the virus on China and accentuate his administration’s response, even though he downplayed it for months after it reached U.S. shores.
On Thursday night, Trump had one last chance to show a sincerity and specificity about addressing the four crises that have been amplified on his watch. What Americans heard instead was the denial, deflection and disassociation from the facts that have defined his presidency.