Day 1 of the unsurprisingly screwy GOP convention. We knew it was going to be a train wreck - how could it not be? So we just had to watch to see just what kind of train wreck it would turn out to be. But it's always the little thing - the small detail - that you didn't expect that tends to grab your attention.
In this respect, Melania did not disappoint. It was small and stupid and insignificant but in many ways it was the perfect embodiement of Trumpian incompetence and flim-flam: a microcosim of all things Trump. That they would go on to blame CNN was almost genetically pre-ordained: attack, attack, attack.
The story of course that is much bigger than Melania's pathetic plagiarism has been the focus - right out of the box - of the GOP's hastily thrown together circus. Complete with its menagerie of C-list celebreties (Chachi? Really?), paranoids and deranged ex-politicians, violence, bloodshed and betrayal by political enemies were the themes of the day. As ever, fearmongering, self-pity, resentment and forging identity through defining and de-legitimising the “other” (“liberals”, purveyors of “political correctness”, BLM, week-knee’d appeasers, Christian-haters, etc.) were the tools.
It’s a time-worn, well-trodden path taken by every demagogue in order to whip up a mass movement. Trump has just appropriated a GOP work-in-progress that has been under construction for over 30 years. Republicans have been playing the victim card (oh-so-necessary in order for resentment or identity politics to work) for a long time. Watching FoxNews for 5 minutes makes clear this is the essence of their highly successful business model. The “War on Christmas”, portraying Obama as some kind if dictator, the crazy birther stuff, premising an absolute refusal to countenance even the most innocuous restrictions on guns on the certainty liberals will take them all away, the obsession about federal lands in the west, transgender bathrooms and gay marriage, Mexican illegals murdering, plundering and raping with abandon, Obamacare as a communist plot, prayer and teaching creationism in schools and – of course - Benghazi!(TM) are but a few examples of the same fundamental strategy since each of them serves dependably as a dog whistle to whip up the required frenzy whenever needed. This has had the added benefit of rendering it impossible to make progress on issues of importance.
Trump has taken what the GOP built and turned it up to 11. I’m not saying people aren’t suffering (many are) nor am I saying they shouldn’t be angry about dysfunction in the US government. But in turning in frustration to Trump, they’ve entered new territory: at the same time, it can also be said we’ve seen this movie before throughout history. It never ends well.
Josh Marshall:
What has been unfolding in Cleveland is simply another example of the amateur grifterism that is everything Trump. Marshall is right: Trump happens to be a dangerous man for a dangerous moment. We can only hope the GOP hasn't brought the rest of us down with it.
In this respect, Melania did not disappoint. It was small and stupid and insignificant but in many ways it was the perfect embodiement of Trumpian incompetence and flim-flam: a microcosim of all things Trump. That they would go on to blame CNN was almost genetically pre-ordained: attack, attack, attack.
The story of course that is much bigger than Melania's pathetic plagiarism has been the focus - right out of the box - of the GOP's hastily thrown together circus. Complete with its menagerie of C-list celebreties (Chachi? Really?), paranoids and deranged ex-politicians, violence, bloodshed and betrayal by political enemies were the themes of the day. As ever, fearmongering, self-pity, resentment and forging identity through defining and de-legitimising the “other” (“liberals”, purveyors of “political correctness”, BLM, week-knee’d appeasers, Christian-haters, etc.) were the tools.
It’s a time-worn, well-trodden path taken by every demagogue in order to whip up a mass movement. Trump has just appropriated a GOP work-in-progress that has been under construction for over 30 years. Republicans have been playing the victim card (oh-so-necessary in order for resentment or identity politics to work) for a long time. Watching FoxNews for 5 minutes makes clear this is the essence of their highly successful business model. The “War on Christmas”, portraying Obama as some kind if dictator, the crazy birther stuff, premising an absolute refusal to countenance even the most innocuous restrictions on guns on the certainty liberals will take them all away, the obsession about federal lands in the west, transgender bathrooms and gay marriage, Mexican illegals murdering, plundering and raping with abandon, Obamacare as a communist plot, prayer and teaching creationism in schools and – of course - Benghazi!(TM) are but a few examples of the same fundamental strategy since each of them serves dependably as a dog whistle to whip up the required frenzy whenever needed. This has had the added benefit of rendering it impossible to make progress on issues of importance.
Trump has taken what the GOP built and turned it up to 11. I’m not saying people aren’t suffering (many are) nor am I saying they shouldn’t be angry about dysfunction in the US government. But in turning in frustration to Trump, they’ve entered new territory: at the same time, it can also be said we’ve seen this movie before throughout history. It never ends well.
Josh Marshall:
We've become so inured to Trump's brand of incitement that it's barely gotten any notice that Trump had three parents whose children had been killed by illegal/undocumented immigrants tell their stories and whip up outrage and fear about the brown menace to the South. These were either brutal murders or killings with extreme negligence. The pain these parents experience is unfathomable.
But whatever you think about undocumented immigrants there's no evidence they are more violent or more prone to murder than others in American society. One could just as easily get three people whose children had been killed by African-Americans or Jews, people whose pain and anguish would be no less harrowing. This isn't illustration; it's incitement. When Trump first did this in California a couple months ago people were aghast. Now it's normal.Underlying all of this is a demand for vengeance and punishment. If you haven't (and if you have the stomach for it) it's worth watching the speeches by Rudy Giuliani or - even more nutty - ret. Gen Michael Flynn. Again, Josh:
These are not normal convention speeches. It is only a small skip and a jump to the state legislator in West Virginia who demanded Clinton by executed by hanging on the National Mall.The Trump campaign has always been about revenge and reclamation. Trump is a catalyst and a symptom - he's certainly not the cause. It is all borne of a social and cultural transformation that has been changing the country for some time, change that the GOP assiduously has hurried along. At the end of the day, they own their own destruction.
What has been unfolding in Cleveland is simply another example of the amateur grifterism that is everything Trump. Marshall is right: Trump happens to be a dangerous man for a dangerous moment. We can only hope the GOP hasn't brought the rest of us down with it.
