I’ve been following American politics since I was teenager in the mid-1960s (that’s 50+ years). I had never before witnessed anything like what we’ve seen during the Trump era, essentially since that golden escalator ride five years ago, but especially during his tenure in the White House.
Trump’s transgressions against democratic institutions and practices, common purpose across our political divides, and a commitment to Constitutional limits and the rule of law have grown increasingly aggressive. The past week has been beyond anything I would have thought likely — certainly not three and a half years ago, but not even early in 2020.
First, there is the torrent of lies from the Republican National Convention. I’ll remark on a prominent theme of the convention later in this post. Limiting our focus now to the whoppers the President told, consider Daniel Dale’s review of Trump’s 70-minute address Thursday night. Definitely worth a listen (20 or so lies and misleading half-truths in 3 1/2 minutes flat):
That’s one speech, from a man whose lies since taking office total more than 20,000 (as of July 13, 2020).
More troubling than the lies, though, are the chronic violations of law and of customs that have served our nation by nurturing democracy and boosting unity.
Let’s begin with the Hatch Act, which both parties have mostly respected — at least until Trump, and the staging of a television extravaganza with political speeches by Melania and Donald Trump on nights three and four of the Republican National Convention on the south lawn at the White House.
Congressional Democrats, although outraged, were powerless to stop these breaches, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s video endorsement of Trump, convention videos of Trump issuing a pardon and observing a swearing in of immigrants as new citizens, and the other executive branch personnel participating in and preparing for the RNC. Congressional Republicans either murmured mild disapproval or acquiesced in silence. Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was an exception: “Nobody outside of the Beltway really cares. They expect that Donald Trump is going to promote Republican values and they would expect that Barack Obama, when he was in office, that he would do the same for Democrats.”
There were also anonymous exceptions: “Some of Mr. Trump’s aides privately scoff at the Hatch Act and say they take pride in violating its regulations.”
The Trump administration had long since expressed contempt for this law. Kellyanne Conway had this to say after openly violating the law in spring 2019: “Blah, blah, blah. … If you’re trying to silence me through the Hatch Act, it’s not going to work. Let me know when the jail sentence starts.”
The Trump White House ignored the recommendation of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (the federal agency with oversight responsibility for the law) that Conway be dismissed.
Since no president in the 231 year history of our republic has ever commandeered the White House for a political convention in the midst of his campaign for reelection; since no previous president has been so willing to disregard the law, past practice, and democratic values; and since Donald Trump has repeatedly voiced admiration for authoritarian rulers; the spectacle (in the image at the top of this post) brings to mind something more akin to 1930s-era Europe, when democracy was at bay, than to an American reelection campaign.
I promised to return to one theme of Trump’s reelection campaign — a portrayal of Joe Biden and the Democratic Party that presaged a dystopian future. The comments of Congressman Matt Gaetz about the Democrats ware representative:
They will disarm you, empty the prisons, lock you in your home, and invite MS-13 to live next door.
Kimberly Guilfoyle took a similar tack and added a slam at California:
As a first-generation American, I know how dangerous their Socialist agenda is. My mother, Mercedes, was a special education teacher from Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. My father, also an immigrant, came to this nation in pursuit of the American Dream. Now, I consider it my duty to fight to protect that dream. Rioters must not be allowed to destroy our cities. Human sex drug traffickers should not be allowed to cross our border. The same Socialist policies which destroyed places like Cuba and Venezuela must not take root in our cities and our schools.
If you want to see the Socialist Biden/Harris future for our country, just take a look at California. It is a place of immense wealth, immeasurable innovation, and immaculate environment, and the Democrats turned it into a land of discarded heroin needles in parks, riots in streets, and blackouts in homes.
Vice President Mike Pence summed things up in a sentence:
It’s not so much whether America will be more conservative or more liberal, more Republican or more Democrat. The choice in this election is whether America remains America.
A handful of excerpts from Donald Trump’s speech (all focused on disqualifying a middle of the road Democrat who has been in public life since his first election 50 years ago without revealing his covert subversive agenda) illustrate the Trump campaign’s reelection strategy:
This is the most important election in the history of our country. At no time before have voters faced a clearer choice between two parties, two visions, two philosophies, or two agendas.
This election will decide whether we SAVE the American Dream, or whether we allow a socialist agenda to DEMOLISH our cherished destiny.
. . .
Your vote will decide whether we protect law abiding Americans, or whether we give free reign to violent anarchists, agitators, and criminals who threaten our citizens.
And this election will decide whether we will defend the American Way of Life, or whether we allow a radical movement to completely dismantle and destroy it.
At the Democrat National Convention, Joe Biden and his party repeatedly assailed America as a land of racial, economic, and social injustice. So tonight, I ask you a very simple question: How can the Democrat Party ask to lead our country when it spends so much time tearing down our country?
. . .
If the left gains power, they will demolish the suburbs, confiscate your guns, and appoint justices who will wipe away your Second Amendment and other Constitutional freedoms.
Biden is a Trojan horse for socialism. If Joe Biden doesn’t have the strength to stand up to wild-eyed Marxists like Bernie Sanders and his fellow radicals, then how is he ever going to stand up FOR you?
The most dangerous aspect of the Biden Platform is the attack on public safety. The Biden-Bernie Manifesto calls for Abolishing cash bail, immediately releasing 400,000 criminals onto your streets and into your neighborhoods.
When asked if he supports cutting police funding, Joe Biden replied, “Yes, absolutely.” When Congresswoman Ilhan Omar called the Minneapolis police department a cancer that is “rotten to the root,” Biden wouldn’t disavow her support and reject her endorsement — he proudly displayed it on his website.
Make no mistake, if you give power to Joe Biden, the radical left will Defund Police Departments all across America. They will pass federal legislation to reduce law enforcement nationwide. They will make every city look like Democrat-run Portland, Oregon. No one will be safe in Biden’s America.
. . .
If the Democrat Party wants to stand with anarchists, agitators, rioters, looters, and flag-burners, that is up to them, but I, as your President, will not be a part of it. The Republican Party will remain the voice of the patriotic heroes who keep America Safe.
. . .
If the Radical Left takes power, they will apply their disastrous policies to every city, town, and suburb in America.
Just imagine if the so-called peaceful demonstrators in the streets were in charge of every lever of power in the U.S. Government.
Liberal politicians claim to be concerned about the strength of American institutions. But who, exactly, is attacking them? Who is hiring the radical professors, judges, and prosecutors? Who is trying to abolish immigration enforcement, and establish speech codes designed to muzzle dissent? In every case, the attacks on American institutions are being waged by the radical left.
Always Remember: they are coming after ME, because I am fighting for YOU.
We must reclaim our independence from the left’s repressive mandates. Americans are exhausted trying to keep up with the latest list of approved words and phrases, and the ever-more restrictive political decrees. Many things have a different name now, and the rules are constantly changing. The goal of cancel culture is to make decent Americans live in fear of being fired, expelled, shamed, humiliated, and driven from society as we know it. The far-left wants to coerce you into saying what you know to be FALSE, and scare you out of saying what you know to be TRUE.
. . .
So tonight, I say again to all Americans: This is the most important election in the history of our country. There has never been such a difference between two parties, or two individuals, in ideology, philosophy, or vision than there is right now.
Our opponents believe that America is a depraved nation.
. . .
For contrast, Donald Trump mentioned Joe Biden by name 41 times. The former vice president failed to utter Donald Trump’s name once at the Democratic Convention.
Finally, there’s the failure to govern, to lead, to accept the responsibilities of office as the president.
Let’s reflect on what passes for public policy in Trump’s U.S.A.
More than 183, 000 Americans have died from COVID-19, while Donald Trump has refused to even make a plan for crushing the virus. This past week, consistent with Trump’s oft-spoken wish to reduce testing, the CDC stealthily changed its testing guidelines (before the director walked this back, slightly, after an outpouring of criticism from the medical community).
As part of a furious months-long campaign vilifying by-mail voting, the President has been willing to cripple service at the Post Office, amid continuing evidence of the damage that has resulted.
Donald Trump’s aversion to hearing well-established conclusions by the intelligence community that Putin’s Russia assisted in Trump’s election in 2016 and has continued to do so as we approach November 2020 has led officials to decline to brief him on such issues. In that context, and with his reelection in the balance, the decision last week to stop all in-person intelligence briefings to Congress is consistent with a campaign strategy of smothering unwelcome information.
And, in spite of Trump’s insistence that he is uniquely positioned to solve America’s problems — “Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.” — and his obsession with disorder in the streets, he evades responsibility. Instead, he blames others. Moreover — and this is most damning of all for a president sworn to “faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” he has not only relished the disorder, he has in view of local and state officials added to the chaos (most recently in Kenosha and in Portland).
The unbridled Kellyanne Conway clearly articulated the strategy for Fox News, “The more chaos and anarchy and vandalism and violence reigns, the better it is for the very clear choice on who’s best on public safety and law and order.”
Sixty-three days to go until Americans cast judgement.