The klieg lights have been extinguished, the props have been put away, and the cast is relegated to the film vaults, and while many felt that the show was reality television at its best, replete with all the trappings of Hollywood, but the show was in fact the 2020 Republican National Convention, where President Trump accepted the nomination for the 2020 presidential race, at the White House, in a precedent shattering nearly virtual event.
The three-day event also confirmed what many have known for some time: that Donald Trump now owns the Republican Party, lock, stock and barrel, which essentially began on the day that he was inaugurated, when he registered with the Federal Election Commission for a second term.
Noteworthy was the absence of old-guard conservatives such as George W. Bush, Mitt Romeny and the like, and most glaringly the absence of a party platform of issues, with simply one goal: re elect Donald J. Trump.
If that seems shortsighted then the continuance of what has been one of the most controversial presidents has thrown the United States into a swirling mass of controversy from putting immigrant children in cages to fights at the southern border to tariffs with China (that elevated consumer good prices in America) to insults to Canadian leaders, and officials, and a redrafting of a George H.W. Bush era NAFTA, that gained the United States little more than a few gallons of milk, claimed one wag, to the cancellation of the Paris (Climate) Agreement, and a later claim for victory, that some say was pyrrhic
Much of this has played into the hands of the Democrats who are not only anxious to defeat Trump, but to restore a sense of normalcy to domestic and global policies, but face a well-financed opponent, plus the spectre of the electoral college that could reign once again, and defeat their candidate, former Vice-President Joe Biden, and render the entire election meaningless.
Claiming that the Republicans dwell in an alternate reality, might capture search engine hits, but the reality is anything but alternate as the country reels from not merely the headline grabbing tweets that Trump has issued, but also the more than 3,000 less-factual statements that some have said, feed the wishes off of his supporters; and White House advisers, who see his false claims as red meat to feed the base.
Against the COVID-19 pandemic and a violent summer of racial unrest from brutal police shootings of unarmed black men and women, replete with scenes of fires, gulag style detentions, and white vigilante shooters, who invoke the president’s name, and whom, he subsequently praises in a waterfall of tweets.
Law and order he proclaims, yet the very idea, redolent of Nixonian politics, gives rise to more fear mongering, and of course, the subtext of keeping blacks in their place.
This is not an entirely new strategy and ties to the Southern Strategy of mid-century American politics, begins to give an edgy skew to what will no doubt continue to be an ugly stream of violence throughout the fall, in the run-up to the election.
In a news report from The Hill, “President Trump on Monday defended the actions of Kyle Rittenhouse, a teenager accused of killing two protesters in Kenosha, Wis.
"We’re looking at all of it. That was an interesting situation. You saw the same tape as I saw," the president told reporters during a news conference at the White House.
Trump described Rittenhouse as acting in self-defense, saying he was "very violently attacked" by demonstrators.”
This self styled warrior has now been eulogized as a hero while America grapples with the age-old problem or race.
If this all seems more militaristic that seems to be the intention, right down to First Lady Melania Trump’s olive green belted suit, worn during her convention speech, which emulated battle fatigues.
Added to the long-held view that Trump is a racist which had its earliest viewing in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 when the town was overtaken by members of the Ku Klux Klan, the president said: "We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides," Trump said, with many objecting to the “many sides” aspect, but also that there were good people on both sides.
"You had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides," Trump said, angering even more, on both sides of the political aisle.
The die was cast and as NPR reported in 2018: “Republican Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado was among those who argued that Trump needed to be more clear about who he was condemning.
"This is not a time for vagaries. This isn't a time for innuendo or to allow room to be read between the lines. This is a time to lay blame ... on white supremacists, on white nationalism and on hatred," Gardner said on CNN the day after Trump's initial statement.
Adding to the Convention were those black speakers who supported him, such as Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, and Herschel Walker, giving even more of a surreal air to the affair when he said, among other statements praising Trump, “He shows how much he cares about social justice and the Black community through his actions, and his actions speak louder than stigma or slogans on a jersey,” Walker said. “He keeps right on fighting to improve the lives of Black Americans and all Americans.”
It was strongly hoped that the economy --- mostly positive, despite low wages - would keep the president in office, for a second term. Now that has abated with his weak handling of the coronavirus, COVID-19, and in even more damaging tones, he advocated drinking bleach as a cure for the virus, startling many, and shocking others.
With the U.S. leading the world in infections, and deaths, when asked about it, in an interview, Trump commented simply, “It is the way it is.”
That way of dismissing the dangerous pandemic has given way to 71 percent of American, reported The Hill, having serious concerns about his handling of the pandemic, with only a 42 percent approval.
This is a further endangering his reelection office, and especially may alienate white suburban voters, particularly women, whose dual roles of caregivers and employees are burdening even the strongest of them.
Another poll has 66 percent of registered voters disappointed with Trump’s handling of the epidemic, while 58 percent are strongly disappointed.
Then again, there are those who according to a recent article from The New York Times, has the “president’s back” and “who believe he is fighting in America’s best interests and has achieved many of his goals - which are their goals too.”
Some of those interviewed, stated categorically that the coronavirus was “ a lot less severe,” than initially felt with the worst cases confined to older people; a statement rendered false when looking at the statistics.
While often viewed, with some accuracy, as having less than a college education, mostly white and mostly, if not semi rural, there are exceptions, these people believe that Trump is helping American achieve their best interests.
Then there are the fringe groups, of Trump supporters, like QAnon, a group of conspiracists that believe the there is a “deep state” with ties to satanism and child sex trafficking, according to the Associated Press, and which we glimpsed during the 2016 election.
In a no-holds barred charge, and the near fatal attack on a pizza parlor in Washington DC’s Dupont Circle, neighborhood, and that believers associated with Hillary Clinton.
It’s not difficult to see that the 2020 campaign is just as close in pattern, and form, to the 2016 Trump campaign with fear mongering at the forefront, and the recent racial troubles in Kenosha, Wis. from the shooting of Jacob Blake, have added to the president's agenda of fear: this is what your city will look like if you vote for Biden.
Tuesday’s appearance in Kenosha may provide the necessary optics for Trump, as a law and order president, but the state of Wisconsin is vital to his winning, and also for Democratic candidate Biden who after a narrow win, for Trump, needs a solid win.
As Nancy Pelosi and former Attorney General Eric Holder, said, “No pressure, it's all riding on Wisconsin.”
“Democrats, as well as President Donald Trump, have made no secret how essential winning Wisconsin is to the race this year. Wisconsin did not get the national attention it hoped for when the Democratic convention originally planned for Milwaukee moved online. But Trump and his surrogates have flooded the state this week, drawing a sharp contrast with Democratic nominee Joe Biden, who decided against traveling to the state to accept the nomination due to concerns over COVID-19,” reported the AP.
Holder, with some humor added, “The road to the presidency runs through Wisconsin,” and, “The fate of the United States, the fate of the western world, is on your shoulders. Not too much pressure.”
It may not be politics as usual for some, but then again, as the old adage states, “all politics is local,” and for Trump, all bets are on to stay in the Oval office.
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