Last week in this space, I critiqued the Democratic National Convention and promised to offer a similar review of the Republican National Convention, if warranted. As you may recall I characterized the DNC convention as being rather dark and focused mainly on what they see as being wrong in America, of course blaming all our ills on President Trump.
The RNC convention last week, by contrast, was far more upbeat and positive, in my opinion. It was obvious the Republican organizers had two main goals for their convention: 1) to prove President Trump is not a racist; and 2) to give voters who might consider voting for Trump, but are reluctant to do so, some solid reasons why Mr. Trump should be their guy.
The RNC rolled out numerous speakers who were “people of color” who argued passionately that President Trump is definitely not a racist, based on their personal experiences with him. While some voters will never be convinced that Trump is not a racist, I thought the minority speakers made a strong case that the president will fight hard for ALL Americans, including people of color, if given a second term.
On the second objective – convincing voters reluctant to vote for Trump to do so – I thought the RNC speakers made a pretty strong case. Polls have consistently shown that most “Likely Voters” trust President Trump more than Joe Biden when it comes to handling the economy.
In an effort to woo these voters, of all colors, the RNC speakers repeatedly reminded Americans that President Trump engineered the strongest economic rebound and the lowest unemployment rate in decades – with his tax cuts and deregulation – until the COVID-19 pandemic hit us in the first quarter of this year.
In his long acceptance speech on Thursday night, the president once again promised to rebuild “the strongest economy in the history of the world, quickly returning to full employment, soaring incomes and record prosperity,” if given a second term.
He also vowed to end the riots and violence in some of our large cities, as did many of the RNC speakers, whereas the issue of violence in our big cities was not mentioned even once at the DNC convention – as has been acknowledged by even some in the mainstream media.
The other observation I would make about the president’s acceptance speech is that I was not aware of some of the Trump administration’s accomplishments over the last almost four years, because the media simply has not reported them.
In fairness to the “Never-Trumpers” in my audience, I recognize not everything President Trump said in his acceptance speech was true, and he often embellishes his accomplishments. But that’s true of most politicians, in my experience, although that is no excuse for it. I will admit Mr. Trump has taken it to new heights.
The bottom line is I thought the RNC convention was considerably more effective than the DNC gathering the prior week. Most importantly, I think the RNC convention gave people reluctant to vote for Trump more of a reason – or permission, if you will – to do so than the DNC convention did for voters reluctant to vote for Biden.
I read a very good article this week along this line of thinking about the two conventions. So, I’ll cut my remarks a little short this week and recommend you take a few moments and read this OpEd by Marc Thiessen in, of all places, the liberal Washington Post, entitled “The RNC Did What It Needed to Do: Give Reluctant Voters Permission to Pick Trump.”
Enjoy, if you are so inclined.
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