As serious as the threat to democracy former President Trump poses, it is hard not to see the humor in his acceptance speech last night in Milwaukee. First, when I began typing, it was just past 9 a.m. (the following morning), and I was unsure if he had finished speaking. In what turned out to be the longest nomination acceptance speech in history, the amount of lies, incoherent, and non sequitur rambling that went on was a fantastic assault on truth and orators like Obama and Reagan, who were blessed with the gift of grammatical flourish. The crowd cheered on convicted felons before and during his speech, starting with Peter Navarro, who exchanged his prison stripes for a suit—as a long-time and enthusiastic professional wrestling fan since age five, watching Hulk Hogan—who was fired from the WWE for racist comments, rip open his shirt as he did so many times before his matches was as choreographed for effect as his lifting of Andre the Giant at WrestleMania 3.
We saw crotch-grabbing (Kid “Bob” Rock) blue-haired old ladies gleefully holding up “Mass Deportation” signs and Trump cultists—who would not wear masks for COVID-19 but donned Maxi Pad-like bandages on their right ears in solidarity with Mr. Trump’s injury. Let us also not forget the cringe-worthy moment when Mr. Trump turned from the dais, strode to the back of the stage to massage the uniform of slain firefighter Corey Comperatore, and kissed the top of his helmet. Had President Biden hosted last night’s RNC debacle, I would have called for his resignation from the campaign. Once Mr. Trump took the stage, he praised Dana White, the President of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, who was seen on videotape slapping his wife. Not long after that, he told the crowd this would be the only time he would recount the assassination attempt on his life publicly. Then, he went on to again tout the exploits of a fictionalized cannibalistic serial killer [Hannibal Lecter].
I predict in coming rallies, the story of the attempt on his life will grow into a full-blown MS-13, Black Lives Matter, “illegal” immigrant plot to kill him. The anxiously awaited tone of unity he promised in a rewritten speech was short-lived and insincere. Mr. Trump cannot constrain his natural 4th-grade inclination to call names “Crazy Nancy” (Pelosi) and “stupid politicians” flowed like the sludge and slurry he is willing to return to our waters with ill-considered deregulation on businesses—now sanctioned by the Supreme Court with the recent Chevron ruling. As funny as Trump supporters find him when he hurls insults and lies, a lot of those lies are detrimental to the fundamentals of freedom and fairness America strives to make more perfect.
Listening to him herald Dwight D. Eisenhower’s racist and xenophobic mass deportation program, known as “Operation Wetback,” which was an insight into the White Christian Nationalist eutopia his base yearns to hear. The lies about hundreds of thousands of Americans dying at the hands of immigrants and taking “black jobs” away are provably wrong, and he and others in his party know it. What used to be subtle, breathless dog whistles, because decency kept them at a low frequency, are now loud bullhorns blaring the call to arms for every bigot, racist, and isolationist cultist in the country. It is a cliché to say every Republican is a racist, but it seems every racist is a Republican.
Recounting the number of lies in any Trump speech is futile in trying to convince his minions of the man's danger because his lies are designed to confirm their worst fears and bolster their worst beliefs. So, being told people of color are evil and history is inconvenient soothes them. President Joe Biden is an old, honest man, and Donald Trump is an old, dishonest liar; you make the choice.
Vote Against Guns