Mirror, mirror on the wall, which Republican is Trumpiest of all? The official theme of the second day of the
Republican National Convention was "Make America Safe Once Again." But one could not help but notice another theme,
namely "Republicans who will never be president," as a parade of politicians whose White House dreams were crushed by
Donald Trump competed to see who could most aggressively grovel before the former president, parroting his favorite
talking points. We certainly weren't buying these people's shticks, and we don't think that the crowd at the
Convention—a.k.a., the base—was largely buying it, either.
If you wish to watch,
here
is the main session from Day 2, courtesy of C-SPAN:
Alternatively, if you would like something more lively, reader S.G. in Durham, NC sent in
this video
of paint drying.
And now, our rundown (again, in chronological order, as much as is possible) of the most notable storylines of RNC
Day 2:
Looking Backward, Part I: Before we talk about Day 2, we wanted to double back on a few Day
1 stories. To start, we
noted
in yesterday's write-up that reality star Amber Rose, in her speech, declared that the Trumpublican Party does not care
if you are Black or white, gay or straight. We suspected that would not sit too well with some members, and we were right.
In fact, there was much vitriol directed at Rose by far-right elements of the GOP, such as
this
from Daily Wire pundit Matt Walsh:
The RNC gives a primetime speaking slot to a pro-abortion feminist and self-proclaimed slut with a face tattoo whose
only claim to fame is having sex with rappers. Truly an embarrassment. Not a single voter will be mobilized by this
person.
Note that Rose is part of an anti-rape movement called SlutWalk, so that's the context for that part of Walsh's comment.
That does not make it better, mind you; the misogyny veritably drips from the tweet, as is often the case with him.
Walsh is a world-class a**hole, but he does speak for, and to, a segment of the modern-day GOP.
Looking Backward, Part II: There have been a few bits of news on the J.D. Vance front
since his selection as the VP candidate was announced Monday. To start, and to nobody's surprise, he was
a last-minute
pick. Trump Sr. was inclined to go with Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND), but Trump Jr. and Eric managed to sell Vance
to their father. Reportedly, a MAJOR selling point was that Karl Rove thought Burgum was the best pick.
Can't be on the same page with a member of Team Bush, now can we?
Moving along, in yesterday's item, we observed that one problem with Vance is that he tends to shoot from the hip, and to say
impolitic things. Regular U.K. correspondent A.B. in Lichfield, England, UK, promptly sent in
this story
from The Guardian, which talks about a speech that Vance gave just last week, in which he said:
And I was talking about, you know, what is the first truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon, and we were
like, maybe it's Iran, you know, maybe Pakistan already kind of counts, and then we sort of finally decided maybe it's
actually the UK, since Labour just took over.
This is not a misstatement in the sense of "macaca" or "legitimate rape," it's Vance doing what he does, which is frame
things in a way that makes hard-right partisans' blood boil. That's the calling card of the New Right, as personified
most prominently by Vance and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO). The problem is, this kind of rhetoric is a turnoff to everyone
else. It doesn't matter so much in this case, since Britons can't vote in the U.S., but Vance is guaranteed to say
something like this about some group of Americans, at some point during the campaign.
Incidentally, A.B. concludes by noting that there was not time to write and submit a longer piece about Vance's remarks,
because "ever since Sir Keir Starmer (may Allah bless him with good health and long life) passed the Forced Conversion
to Islam Act of 2024, I find I have much less time for writing you e-mails over lunch, what with my new obligations to
carry out the cycle of Zuhr and Asr afternoon prayers."
Finally, we also remarked yesterday that we don't believe that blue-collar folks are actually buying Vance's
"hillbilly" bit. That produced a number of e-mails from readers pointing out that his book was very popular
in the part of the country from whence he hails. Maybe so, but even if we assume that many of his readers were
"hillbillies," he has completely
betrayed
the arguments of the book, which included "don't blame other people for your problems" and "Trump is America's Hitler."
We saw a number of op-eds yesterday from fellow Appalachia-residents-turned-writers, like
this one,
in which author Neema Avashia declares:
I barely read 30 pages before I saw the book Hillbilly Elegy for what it was: a political platform masquerading as
memoir. Before I saw J.D. Vance for what he was: an opportunist. One willing to double down on stereotypes, to paint the
people of Appalachia with a culture of poverty brush, rather than be honest about the ways in which both electoral
politics and industry have failed our region.
Here's the thing: J.D. Vance doesn't represent Appalachia. JD Vance only represents himself.
We stand by our view that "hillbilly" voters aren't buying what Vance is selling. Many of them may vote GOP anyhow,
but that is because they were already Trumpers, not because of Vance.
Looking Backward, Part III: In yesterday's write-up, we also noted our surprise that, per
Teamsters president Sean O'Brien, the Republicans are allegedly now the pro-union party. On that note, the corporate
sponsors of the RNC
were made public
earlier this week. A lot of them are what you would expect, like Turning Point USA and the American Conservative
Coalition. But also in there is... Starbucks. Typically, given that corporation's leadership and base of operations
in Seattle, they are regarded as left-leaning. However, there is one big way in which Starbucks and the GOP
are simpatico: union-busting. Indeed, just over a month ago, the seller-of-mediocre-coffee
won
a major lawsuit in service of its anti-union efforts.
Now, Now, Children: Former speaker Kevin
McCarthy is in Milwaukee, of course, because he's trying to land himself an appointment in a second Trump
administration. And while he was being interviewed, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) crashed the conversation in order to mock
McCarthy for not being given a speaking slot at the convention (Gaetz is speaking tonight, according to the published
schedule). Is it any surprise that nearly everyone in the House hates Gaetz? He's the Ted Cruz of the lower
chamber.
Disunity: There have been several pieces in the last few weeks, many of them based
on reporting from The New York Times' Maggie Haberman, that Trump's criminal conviction scared the daylights
out of him, and really brought home the reality that he could end up spending much of the rest of his life behind
bars if he doesn't regain the White House. This, in turn, reportedly caused him to be newly open to possibilities
he would not previously have considered, like keeping his mouth shut during Joe Biden's time of crisis, or preaching
unity in hopes of reaching beyond the base and getting some moderate votes. This, plus the assassination attempt,
set the stage for Day 1 of the Republican convention, which was about as kumbayah as the modern-day GOP gets. Well,
except for Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), and his "oops, wrong version" speech.
The problem is that unity just does not work for Trump, at least not for long. First of all, it's just not his
personality, anymore than Joe Biden could be a demagogue, or Barack Obama could be "Scranton Barack," or George W. Bush
could be an egghead. More importantly, Trump's movement was built on disunity, on the message that it's "us" versus
"them," with "them" being a host of allegedly un-American evildoers, from immigrants to deep staters to liberals to
trans women (and did you notice, it's ALWAYS the trans women and not the trans men?) to Muslims and beyond.
Truth be told, the Republicans were never serious about unity or pulling together or kumbayah or any of that. What
really happened was that the assassination attempt, in particular, put Trump & Co. in a position (temporarily)
to demand that Democrats stop their criticism of him and of the GOP, while Republicans could continue to say whatever
they pleased. This is, of course, terribly hypocritical. It's also unsustainable, since it runs contrary to the
fundamental nature of Trumpism, and because anyone and everyone is eventually going to notice that people are
talking out of both sides of their mouth, and saying "Unity!" with one breath and "Damn, aren't those Democrats
evil?" with the next.
Trump himself made pretty clear what the tone of Day 2 would be with a late-night message on his
being-shot-added-$10-a-share social media platform:
The Radical Left Democrats are desperately trying to "Play the Ref" by calling for an illegal and unConstitutional
attack on our SACRED United States Supreme Court. The reason that these Communists are so despondent is that their
unLawful Witch Hunts are failing everywhere. The Democrats are attempting to interfere in the Presidential Election, and
destroy our Justice System, by attacking their Political Opponent, ME, and our Honorable Supreme Court. We have to fight
for our Fair and Independent Courts, and protect our Country. MAGA2024!
Tuesday's speeches were, on the whole, much, much darker than Monday's were. There were also a lot more attacks on
(and cheap shots at) Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, a whole lot of anti-immigrant rhetoric (no surprise, given the
theme of the day) and the return of election denialism. None of this is unexpected since, in the end, Trumpers
gotta Trump. But, boy howdy, it did not take long for the Trumpy water to re-find its level.
Savannah Chrisley:
"Don't be divisive"/"vitriol for our enemies" was not the only hypocrisy on display yesterday. Another big one was "we are the
party of law and order, except when law and order means that one of us gets in trouble." And that was certainly the
gist of Savannah Chrisley's remarks. This RNC has been particularly heavy on reality TV stars; maybe that is an attempt to
appeal to the kiddies, or maybe because the party's candidate is himself a reality TV star, we don't know. In any case,
Chrisley starred on the show Chrisley Knows Best until both of her parents were popped for tax evasion and wire
fraud, and were sentenced to substantial prison sentences (about a decade each).
Chrisley talked about how important it is to back the badge and support law enforcement, and then went on an extended
harangue about how prosecutors in Fulton County (wonder why she included that detail... hmmmmm) framed her parents and
sent them to the big house. We were not in court, of course, but we'll note that financial crimes tend to be among the
biggest slam dunks out there, because of the paper trail. In any case, as Chrisley continued her complaining, she also
launched into a tirade about how unfair it is that Hunter Biden has been convicted of multiple crimes, and yet he's
still walking around free while his appeals are pending. We are not clear if anyone in the room saw the irony in that
comment, especially the guy in the front row who's still walking around free while his appeals are pending.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX):
As we note above, Day 1 may have been vaguely kumbayah, but Day 2 was all about the dark forces that are trying to
destroy the country, and how only Donald Trump can stand up to them. Of all the speeches, Cruz' was the darkest, so
if you want to see what we're talking about, click on the link (as a reminder, all of the list headers in this section
that are blue are links to the moment in the proceedings that we are describing, so if you click on Cruz' name,
it will take you to his speech). If you don't want to watch, here's a representative quote:
Americans are dying, murdered, assaulted, raped by illegal immigrants that the Democrats have released. Teenage girls
and boys wearing colored wristbands are being sold into a life of sex slavery.
We suppose it's not surprising that a guy from Texas is particularly good at delivering large amounts of red meat.
Too bad he couldn't provide a little BBQ sauce, but Texans don't really do that. Now if he was from Kansas City...
Nikki Haley and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL):
We think it is not a coincidence that this duo appeared one after the other; they initially weren't even given speaking
slots, and their pairing was a none-too-subtle reminder of who is, and who is not, the boss when it comes to the Republican
Party.
Haley's main purpose was to explain how, when she was critical of Trump, she wasn't REALLY criticizing him. She is
also a particularly clear example of the general phenomenon we describe above, of talking about how it's terribly
wrong to demonize your opponents, and then using the next breath to demonize your opponents.
As to DeSantis, he was also more than happy to eat crow/kiss some a**. That said, the most notable thing about his
speech was the "jokes." We put that word in quotations because you would have struggled to recognize them as such, but
for the fact that the Governor would pause and smile at how clever he is. If you don't want to click and watch, we'll
give you a sense of things by telling you that his biggest zinger was a reference to the movie Weekend at
Bernie's (it was a "Joe Biden is basically dead" joke and not a joke at the expense of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT).
That movie came out in 1989—way to keep your cultural references fresh, there, Governor.
Madeline Brame:
There were three more "everyday American" speakers yesterday, and since the theme of the day was ostensibly making
America safe, all of them were relatives of victims of violent crime. Brame was the most forceful of them, and got the
biggest reaction out of the crowd. Given that she is also Black, and thus serves to argue that the Republican Party is
"diverse," don't be too surprised to see her end up as a contributor on one of the right-wing networks, à la the
now-defunct partnership of Diamond and Silk. Brame's speech, like Cruz', is a good illustration that "unity" was
most certainly not what was being preached yesterday.
Ben Carson,
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)
and
Lara Trump:
This trio was charged with bringing the night's festivities to a close. Unfortunately, someone forgot to wake Carson,
while someone else forgot to oil MarcoBot. Those two are terrible at public speaking. Trump was much, much better. Was
she given the most plum spot because organizers know she's a better speaker, and thus a better closing act? Or because,
in the end, the Republican Party belongs to the Trump family? Probably both.
Perhaps this review was a little on the acidic side, but we gotta call 'em as we see 'em. There were a staggering
44 speakers yesterday, and we continue to struggle to understand how you can connect with voters when you trot out
an endless parade of people saying the same things, over and over, for hours on end. Maybe the goal is to give everyone
a chance to produce a meme-worthy moment, and to hope that three or four of them actually pull it off.
Anyhow, even if we are dubious that this is moving the needle, we'll be back at it tomorrow, because that's
what we do. (Z)
This item appeared on www.electoral-vote.com. Read it Monday through Friday for political and election news,
Saturday for answers to reader's questions, and Sunday for letters from readers.
