| youtube.com |
Hello Everyone:
After taking a day to digest all that was said and done during the Republican National Convention, The Candidate Forum is back for the summary and convention wrap up. A quick programming note, Blogger will be back on Monday with a fresh post but before we go any further, are you a registered voter?
If you are, good for you. Are you planning to mail in your secure ballot? Please make sure you have it postmarked by midnight, October 15, 2020. Can you safely vote in person. If so, pack your provisions, get in line, and stay in line even after the polls officially close. You cannot be denied a ballot if you are in line after closing time. If you are not a registered voter, stop reading, go to usa.gov, register to vote, then come back to read the post. Whatever you do, make a plan. Text VOTE to 30330. Thank you. Onward
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| The president making his acceptance speech The White House nytimes.com |
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| Protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin citynews1130.com |
The president intends to campaign as the candidate that will restore law and order. A campaign theme that will allow him to play the tough guy "but unignorable in reference to the ongoing racial injustice unrest" (abcnews.go.com; Aug. 28, 2020; date accessed Aug. 29, 2020). Going into the 2020 election cycle, the Republicans can proudly point its work on behalf of African Americans:
...the creation of economic opportunity zones, expanding funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and criminal justice reform (an issue not limited to the African Americans, but one the administration regularly ties to the Black community). It gave prime speaking slots to Black leaders like Sen. Tim Scot, R-S.C., and Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron. (Ibid)
Yet the party could not bring itself to say his name, Jacob Blake. Only Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson offered his sympathy to the Blake family. Rather, the RNC offered a four day steady stream of criticism of the protesters. Each of the speakers took turns spotlighting the violence, rioting, looting, and destruction without elaborating on their opposition to any specific reforms demanded by the peaceful protesters. Lawmakers are under no obligation to agree with some or any of the ideas proposed by the activists, but the RNC appeared unwilling to event entertain any discussion on the matter.
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| Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani people.com |
Thus, somewhere in all the declarations of bringing the rioters and looters to justice--while acknowledging George Floyd's death as unforgivable (Ibid) as former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani put it--the reason why protesters are on the streets got lost in the mix.
Mayor Giuliani blasted criminal justice initiatives, like the early release of non-violent offenders (Ibid), and the work of progressive district attorneys (Ibid)--some of changes and demonstration leaders are demanding when they go out into the streets. As the summer drags on, it has become quite obvious that the president is re-running his 2016 campaign playbook. Protesters have replaced immigrants as the "others." Warnings about the "radical left" have replaced warning about "radical Islam."
When the president speaks of "preserving the safety of suburban housewives from the threat of low-income housing (low-income housing one might find in a city, where most of the protesting is taking place)" (Ibid), he employs language similar to that from 2016, stopping short of building a wall around the country's more affluent communities.
The result,
...the same Black Americans that Republicans spent so much of the past four days courting--going so far, in the case of Georgia State Re. Vernon Jones, of accusing Democrats of wanting to keep them on their mental plantations (Ibid)-- were likely left question why the party appeared unwilling to have a serious conversation on the root causes of the very demonstrations they so desperately want to stop (Ibid)
Why, indeed.
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| news.yahoo.com |
National Economic Council Director Lawrence "Larry" Kudlow shocked many of the administration's critics on Wednesday during remarks praising the president's initial economic success before turning to COVID-19. He said,
Then came a once in 100-year pandemic...It was awful (Ibid)
Yes, the pandemic IS awful but not as awful as Mr. Kudlow's use of the past tense in speaking of the pandemic. It would have been largely forgotten had the president droned on Thursday about the "ongoing effort to produce a vaccine and 'crush' the virus," (Ibid) and as for the audience on White House South Lawn, they sat maskless underscoring Mr. Kudlow's use of the past tense in talking about the pandemic.
Through the four Trump-fest, supporters roundly praised the president's decision earlier this year to ban travel from China, exclaiming that it "may have saved thousands of lives" (Ibid). Full clarification: it was a partial ban that still allowed Chinese nationals to enter the country. They applauded his drive for faster approval of new treatments and fast tracking a vaccine. However, the question is how do voters reconcile the image of a president valiantly doing everything he can to keep Americans safe while beaming at maskless sea of potential spreaders?
This contradiction played itself out in the remarks given by speakers, who scolded those who disagreed with the administration while question the expertise of its advisers. One example is South Dakota Kristi Noem who told the viewers on Wednesday,
Government's power at all levels is limited to the confines of our Constitution, which protects our god-give liberties and civil rights,.... We are not and will not be the subjects of elite class of so-called experts (Ibid)
Thus, the RNC spent the week presenting Mr. Trump the ultimate virus experts who made all the correct decisions, despite the number of confirmed cases spiraling upward toward six million and the number of dead topping 180,000. Over the next two months, voters must ask themselves whether evidence is more persuasive than rhetoric (Ibid).
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| Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) kmph.com |
Where were the congressional Republicans? With the exception of a several rising stars, they were elsewhere. Rising stars like Senator Scott, Representatives Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) and Elise Stefanik (R-NY) were given the opportunity to introduce themselves to a national audience but there was a noticeable lack of candidates facing tough races.
Senator Scott is not up for re-election; neither is Tennessee Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn, Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul, Representatives Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), all popular on Fox News. You would think a party that currently holds a razor thin 3-seat majority in The Senate would want to feature people like Senators Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Susan Collins (R-ME), Cory Gardner (R-CO), right? Even House of Representatives Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) passed on mentioning down ballot races. It seems that MIA congressional Republicans have developed Trump-phobia in an attempt to save their candidacies. That left Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to represent the party's legislative efforts, albeit invoking a favorite scapegoat,
I'm immensely proud of the work the Republican Senate has done,... We are the firewall against Nancy Pelosi's agenda (Ibid)
Whether or not the president win re-election, if the Republicans lose control of The Senate, they may regret relegating the legislative branch to the back bench during the convention. A second Trump administration with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) would not be able to confirm prized conservative judges. A unified Democrat government--Biden White House, Democrat House and Senate--would undo many of the achievements touted by the convention speakers and implement an agenda derided as "Socialist" and "extreme" (Ibid)
We are done with political conventions for now, leaving voters two months to decide what sort of United States of America do they want? We are all in it together versus Everyone for themselves. Weighing heavily in this decision are protests and pandemic and how each of the candidates--up and down the ballot--plan to deal with them. Sitting out this election because your favorite candidate is not on the ballot or the candidate on the ballot does not tick off all the right boxes for is not an option. All elections have consequences, and this, perhaps more so than the previous one, will decide whether the United States joins the rest of the world in the 21st century or not.
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