Donald Trump’s Angry, Dark Speech Caps Off a Disastrous RNC went up on the website of The Nation shortly after 1AM (EDT) this morning. It is subtitled “The only thing Republicans could seemingly agree on is that Hillary Clinton belongs in prison.”
Walsh says of Trump that
he described a country rocked by crime, riven by race, menaced by terrorists, and overrun by illegal immigrants.
She also said
he was a voice of fear and anger, a loud, screaming voice promising retribution for the crimes that have laid the nation low, including the “terrible, terrible crimes” committed by Clinton. He shouted at the country, red-faced, for an endless 76 minutes.
What caught my attention is her analysis of what was needed and what Trump did.
Will it work to beat Clinton? I don’t think so. This convention spent amazingly little time trying to reach out to skeptics or the undecided, and Trump didn’t try to reach them either. It was also a disaster in terms of production and execution. One thing even Trump haters give him credit for is being good at television. He promised a glitzy convention that would entertain, not bore, and he failed miserably. We got B-, C-, and D-list celebrities. He promised Tom Brady; we got long-ago New York Giants quarterback Fran Tarkenton, who paid a six-figure fine for security fraud in 1999. He hinted at tennis goddess Serena Williams; we got golfer Natalie Gulbis.
Her penultimate paragraph is delicious:
Even his children’s speeches lacked the kinds of humanizing stories one might have expected. Tiffany Trump’s tale of her absentee dad calling her personally after a friend died was not heart-warming, as she intended, but heart-breaking. The single person who delivered personal anecdotes that shone light on the candidate, billionaire real-estate investor Tom Barrack (and Trump Super PAC founder), mainly talked about his business exploits and front row seats at boxing matches. Trump, he confessed, had “played me like a Steinway” in one deal, which was not the best testimony to Trump’s integrity. (Describing himself as the anchovy on Ivanka Trump’s “Caesar salad” was even ickier.) But Trump also alluded to his checkered business history in his speech, when he said, “I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves. Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.” Hmm.
Side note — that comment on the anchovy somehow connects with Trump running his hand down to his daughter’s hips, and perhaps reminds one unfortunately of some of what Trump has expressed about lust directed towards his daughter.
The real question is what the impact of the speech will be. Let me offer her final two sentences:
We already knew this election was going to be an ugly fight for the state of the country’s soul. I don’t think Trump helped his chances much on Thursday night, but the fact that he has any chance at all is chilling.
Chilling indeed.
For myself, I still think the speech was too dark, and his presentation was too angry.
Until we see the Democratic convention for comparison, we will not know what impact it may have on the outcome of the election.