GOP Convention Takes a Major Twist with Democrats Left Speechless
Donald Trump announced Sunday that he won’t be delaying his trip to Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention, having “decided that I cannot allow a ‘shooter,’ or potential assassin, to force change to scheduling, or anything else.”
Good for him, but the RNC will proceed differently: It has to.
Oh, it’ll still stick to planned nightly themes: Make America Wealthy (Mon.) /Safe (Tues.) / Strong (Weds.) / Great (Thu.) Once Again — but the tone will be more restrained and sober, with calls for national unity and political sanity far more pronounced.
Expect to hear a lot of echoes of former First Lady Melania Trump’s heartfelt letter Sunday morning about the “monster” who saw “my husband as an inhuman political machine.”
And: “Let us not forget that differing opinions, policy, and political games are inferior to love. Our personal, structural, and life commitment — until death — is at serious risk. Political concepts are simple when compared to us, human beings.”
More: “Ascend above the hate, the vitriol, and the simple-minded ideas that ignite violence. We all want a world where respect is paramount, family is first, and love transcends. We can realize this world again. Each of us must demand to get it back. We must insist that respect fills the cornerstone of our relationships again.”
All the planned speakers are reworking their remarks, and note that Trump’s last GOP rival standing, Nikki Haley, was added to the list on Sunday.
The convention will still feature plenty of tough talk, but it was already going to focus on policy — because that’s the center of Trump’s case to replace President Joe Biden.
It’s Biden’s economic policies that have working Americans losing ground, his party’s approach to crime that’s produced carnage in our cities, his foreign policies that have wars ablaze in Europe and the Middle East and threatening in the Pacific.
Trump’s own speech Thursday night was already going to be different from his past convention addresses: His time in “exile” has left him more sober and disciplined — more focused on getting his core message out to all Americans, not just his core fans and Republican-leaners.
That focus was clearly on display in the Trump-Biden debate — and Biden’s disastrous performance there was already pushing the race firmly Trump’s way, whether or not Democrats dump Joe.
America knows the Democratic elite (including any Biden replacement) colluded to cover up Biden’s mental decline, and the former president is looking at a potential Electoral College landslide and possible Republican gains in the House and Senate that will make it far easier to deliver on the Trump agenda.
Getting there already meant a convention and a campaign appealing to reluctant swing voters.
The fact that the Democrats’ scorched-earth “dictator” rhetoric has now inspired a would-be assassin only increases the stakes.
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And of course leaves voters wanting milder rhetoric on both sides of the aisle.
Fact is, we’re no longer sure what Democrats will have to say at their convention next month, unless they spend the whole time switching their nominee.
The Biden campaign is already taking down its old ads, and will have to retool everything: Ruthlessly, and insincerely, demonizing their opponent just doesn’t play very well now.
Let us emphasize the “insincerely” there: Dems’ leaders have never acted like they believe Trump and his MAGA movement pose an existential threat to the Republic.
They’ve routinely intervened in GOP primaries to push the “Trumpiest” candidates, figuring it makes it more likely a Democrat will wind up winning and accepting the obvious fact that it would help Trump’s movement grow.
All the “Hitler” fearmongering was a cynical ploy because they can’t win on the issues.
That’s why they’ve recently seized on the Heritage Foundation’s (year-old!) Project 2025 as Trump’s “real” agenda, utterly ignoring the actual Republican platform and what Trump himself is saying.
And never mind that their entire approach — from the lawfare that aims to jail Trump or at least bankrupt him, to rigging the Democratic primaries to produce a Biden coronation while concealing his decline, to all the conspiring to oust Biden now that the nation’s seen his true state — is itself profoundly anti-democratic.
So much so, again, that it inspired an assassin (actually, a third one, following the mass shooter who nearly killed Rep. Steve Scalise and two others and the poor soul who turned back outside the home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh).
Biden is reacting to Saturday by calling for “national unity.”
We welcome the change of attitude, but:
If he meant it, he’d start by apologizing for his September 2022 “Dark Brandon” speech that declared, “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic.”
If you want national unity, reject the cynical dividers.
