It is with no small amount of elation that I note that the Republican National Convention is half over. Two nights down, tonight and tomorrow to go. I sit through this exercise in derangement because I feel compelled to do so. How else can I write about what Donald Trump’s reelection campaign is about, if I don’t sit inside the belly of the beast and listen to Trump bubble-world platitudes for four days? That said, it is not easy, because along with the expected flattery for their candidate and demonization of ours that come with any political convention, this one simply departs from reality as we know it. We’ve never seen anything like this. This is not your standard political theater that comes ’round every four years, this is science fiction and fantasy. MAGA theater, theater of the absurd. Frank Bruni at the New York Times has captured it perfectly:
“President Trump was elected to defend the American way of life,” said Charlie Kirk, a young Republican activist with a spellbound expression. “The American way of life means you follow the law, you work hard, you honor God, you raise your kids with strong values and you work to create a civil society.”
Excuse me? Trump doesn’t bow to the law, not to go by the tax returns that journalists have gotten their hands on, by the hush money paid to a porn star, by his rescue of Roger Stone. The examples abound.
His godliness is confined to photo ops, his work ethic is impressive only if the units of measurement are hours of Fox News watched and the values he imparted to his kids are reflected in an Instagram post by Donald Jr. in May that suggested — with zero backing — that Biden was a pedophile.
As for creating a civil society, I direct you to Trump’s tweets.
Kirk at least gets credit for the phrase of the event so far. He called Trump “the bodyguard of Western civilization.” Sounds like a movie starring Kevin Costner and a bust of Aristotle.
If only it stopped there. But no way. Massive amounts of revisionist history has been taking place the past 48 hours, and Trump has actually saved lives that would have been lost to the coronavirus. Isn’t it amazing that in light of that, Americans are effectively quarantined, because other countries don’t want us coming to theirs?
To recast Trump’s record on the coronavirus as a triumph isn’t revisionist history. It’s science fiction. It’s historical erasure: of all the times that he said or suggested that the virus was some hoax; of all the times that he or his enablers charged Democrats with hyping its threat just to hurt him; of “it is what it is”; of his ruminations about the potentially curative ingestion of bleach; of briefing after briefing in which he crowed about his ratings and bellyached about his critics, caroming from self-love to self-pity and back again.
Me, me, me, me. And the speakers at this convention dare to praise his outward focus, generosity of spirit, compassion and tenderness? They are standing — no, grandstanding — at the confluence of audacity and absurdity.
We hear from the speakers at this convention a description of a Donald Trump that has never manifested itself in public. Maybe it exists somewhere else, in some spirit realm that only MAGAts can see, but in this dimension we have never seen the Trump-as-tireless-foe-of-COVID-19, that Melania spoke of. The Trump we know minimized it, called it a hoax and swept it under the carpet until he flat out could no longer do so. Now we find out that he’s our main champion in the cause, “Donald will not rest until he has done all he can to take care of everyone impacted by this terrible pandemic.” Okey doke. First we’ve heard. Oh, and he’s also a champion of women, now. Did you hear that one? “He has built an administration with an unprecedented number of women in leadership roles.” I’m so glad he respects women, now. All of the female journalists he’s insulted, not to mention Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris will be so relieved. Whew.
And Pam Bondi got up and spoke, without a trace if irony, about how Trump generously donates his salary to charity, oblivious to the fact that his foundation was shut down for legal and ethical violations and he was forced to pay $2 Million dollars as a settlement for misappropriation of funds. Somehow that little tidbit got lost in all the serenade about Trump the Big Hearted.
And if you missed Eric Trump’s contribution, you missed a doozy. A Donald Trump of immense social conscience realized the plight of the forgotten man and woman and it just ate at his soul. “My father ran not because he needed the job, but because that he knew hard working people across this great country were being left behind.[…]The silent majority had no one fighting for them in either party.” So Donald Trump, man of wealth, like Batman, heard the call and knew he must go to the rescue. That’s the fantasy — and Melania echoed it! “From the day that I met him, he has only wanted to make this country the best it can be.” I’m sure that’s what he said during their first conversation at the Kit Kat Club. Uh, huh.
Eric’s hyperbole went on, “the economy soared to new heights, heights never seen before. Wages went through the roof.” Whose roof? Are you sure it just wasn’t a meteor or blue ice from an airplane that went through a roof? Because I don’t know of a living American soul and I talk to a lot of people, who witnessed the phenomenon of “wages going through the roof.” But this theme has been rampant for two nights now, let’s see if it goes for a third. Everybody’s wealthy now that Trump is in office. Whether that extends to the 30 million unemployed, they don’t say, unfortunately.
This is what it’s like, watching MAGA theater otherwise known as “Presidential Apprentice: Fantasy Edition.” You find yourself hunching forward and squinting at the screen, “Huh? Say what? When did that happen?” These people don’t care about what’s truthful, they’re hoping, apparently, to just throw enough stuff at the wall and something will stick, and turn into a vote. They’re completely shameless, and Bruni makes that point.
And they are scaring me, because they are demonstrating Trump’s most formidable advantage over Joe Biden, which isn’t incumbency. It’s shamelessness.
Another few hours until showtime, at the time of this writing. I expect more of the same, crescendoing most likely, and I still wonder what the big Thursday night finale will be. I guess we will live and learn.
It is just the last three and a half years condensed into a four night free for all. It will be forgotten next week when Trump does his next heinous thing.
It’s one thing to ‘donate’ your salary to ‘charity’ (if government departments are ‘charities’) but it’s sort of outclassed by the amount of government cash paid to his properties so he can go and drive round in a little four wheel cart and hit a ball (occasionally landing it in a hole)
I’ve never understood why rich people get kudos for saying they are donating their government salary. They are effectively giving the people they were elected to serve the finger, saying “I don’t work for you assholes, but for myself.” I’d be more impressed if he promised to live ONLY on his government salary.
“Steal a little, they throw you in jail, steal a lot & they make you king”. Bob dylan. Hey it’s simple math. I rip off the election with the help of the enemies of the US, break every law that stands in my way to grifting on a scale that allows me to steal whatever, including the next election, gaslight & lie to a public that’s been lied to for the entire duration of the country. It’s been done before to a majority Christian democratic republic. It turned their populace into serial killers. Germany 1933-1945.
*rump is losing. He’ll try all sorts of things but he’ll lose. And that will be sweet.
I just want him to lose so resoundingly that he doesn’t even try to contest it. I just want him to go.
In 1976, a friend & I stripped down to only tennis shoes, dropped lsd, & ran like wild animals through the woods. Exhilerating. Now that I can see what sober, serious folks have led us to, i.e., madness, I’m feeling like nature’s child, born to be wild.
Charlie Kirk’s America is the one he saw on TV as a kid – the one that never really existed, apart from the “work hard” bit.
Did anyone at this pep rally say anything about this hurricane Laura? One of the most powerful storms to make landfall in Louisiana. 2020 is turning into a year of horrors. The fires in California and the storms out of the Atlantic. Pandemic. Police run a muck. Highest unemployment in years. GDP crashing. Looks like the only real bright spot will be election day.
Thank you for making this sacrifice of sitting through this drivel so we don’t have to. Hopefully you will come out the other side with your sanity intact.
Honest to God, my sympathies for your torture of sitting through the most outstanding display of gaslighting ever known to man. I get nauseous every time I hear their whiny voices and have to leave the room to avoid a barfarama.