The Republican National Convention has started out as one of the biggest political disasters since, well, since Donald Trump clinched the nomination. Really, what can you say about an event that starts with a floor fight and ends with plagiarism by the would-be First Lady? And that was just the first night. The succeeding nights weren’t any better.
As tempting as it is to have a good laugh at the amateurish antics on display in Cleveland, the more appropriate response would be to worry. Because what is happening at the convention is very, very bad. And very, very dangerous.
Don’t be distracted by Donald Trump’s acceptance speech, in which he promised to “protect our LGBTQ citizens” against Isis. Trump may not harbor the kind of strong disdain against us that the party base does, but he couched his support in the kind of language the right has been using to pit the gay community against Muslims. Even Ted Cruz uses that reasoning. Progress, it isn’t.
There are three elements combining to form a sickly brew among the Republicans. The first is a sense of loss. Speaker after speaker has been yearning for something that is gone–a sense of security, a feeling for what America once was, or, in the case of weaponized grief, a loved one killed in combat. The overall picture it paints is of an America that has gone off the rails and is in danger of disappearing altogether. Some of this is nostalgia for a time that never really existed, but that doesn’t make the feeling any weaker.
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The second element is anger. From Rudy Giuliani’s spittle-flecked speech to the calls to jail Hillary Clinton, the Cleveland attendees are seething with fury. This is not the sunny optimism of Reagan’s morning in America. This is a rage against the dying of the light. It signals a willingness to forgo the usual niceties of a constitutional democracy for an authoritarian figure who is willing to break the rules. What was once a fringe sentiment has now become the heart of the GOP. The party leadership, which coyly tried to harness this anger instead of squashing it, no longer has any control over it.
The final, and the deadliest, element is the party platform, the most antigay ever. Normally, platforms don’t count for much, but Trump doesn’t bother his pretty little bouffant about policy. So the furthest extremes of the party base seized the opportunity to craft a platform that is anti-marriage, anti-trans, and pro-conversion therapy. The worst of the worst homophobes had a hand in putting the platform together, discredited “historian” David Barton and Family Research Council head Tony Perkins chief among them.
The platform is going to be the cudgel that the far right will use to beat candidates after Trump’s likely (but far from guaranteed) loss in November. Instead of breaking the swamp fever, the party will find the extremists insisting that Trump lost because he wasn’t conservative enough. The platform is the agenda that the far right will pursue through the next election cycles.
And instead of being on the sidelines, the crazies will now be at the center of the party. They are the base, after all, and they are finally calling the shots.
Unfortunately, a lot of those shots are aimed at us.
money718
What a great speech. I really enjoyed it. And Ivanka did a splendid job introducing him.
Xzamilio
It’s amazing how fundie Christians and Muslims are so damn ignorant to how much alike their religion is… just as backwards, oppressive to women and gays, and worship the same made up god the Jews invented first from other gods around them.
Xzamilio
Just gonna put this here. Make of it what you want
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htafiCywieU
Bob LaBlah
@Xzamillio…………….and while we are on the topic of religion and their similarities guess what all three seem to have in common. Here, I’ll let you read it for yourselves.
http://www.alternet.org/30-most-violent-exhortations-bible-torah-and-quran
DCguy
Right wing Christians don’t hate radical Islam because it is different. They hate it because it is the same and they see it as a competitor.
They don’t hate Bhudism or Hinduism, they hate a regressive violent version of another world religion that has the exact same policies towards women and lgbts as their own scripture does.
redcarpet30
@Xzamilio: This doesn’t fucking matter! There will always be “terrorists” and nuts who want to harm people. The GOP and Trump are just xenophobic fear mongering power hungry opportunists. Vigilance and risk are the price we pay for freedom, anyone who offers you freedom without them are lying to you.
Xzamilio
@redcarpet30: Of course they are… and the only reason he’s gotten as far as he has is because dishonest people like with your “There will always be ‘terrorist’ and nuts who want to harm people”, completely dismissing the root of the terrorism occurring recently and around the world. It DOES fucking matter, which is why more and more liberals are growing tired of the regressive liberal double speak going on, which makes it really damn hard to support anything the left brings out while wondering “Hmmm… is it really gonna get to the point where I’m more worried about getting blown up than I am about which bakery won’t sell me a cake?” It’s not an issue with “terrorism”… it’s an issue with ISLAMIC terrorism.
“Vigilance and risk are the price we pay for freedom, anyone who offers you freedom without them are lying to you.”
……what? Are you under the impression that I am pro-Trump? Because I’m not. But, I’m also not so stupid to think Hillary’s got this one in the bag, because she doesn’t. The fact that Trump has even gotten to this point is a perplexing testament to how sick a lot of people are of wormy politicians.
And now, we have Munich. More of that terrorism that’s just terrorism… no specific group or anything.
Kangol
@Xzamilio: Munich was horrible, and I condemn it. But you do realize that a US airstrike four days ago just killed SIXTY innocent women and children who were fleeing ISIS. They were trying to get to safety and the US killed them, not the Islamic radical monsters. This kind of crap inflames hatred against the West, but the US media barely reports it. It has to stop. Trump keeps talking about defeating ISIS, but he has no plan. Clinton is a warmonger to the core. So what are we supposed to do? Just keep screaming about radical Islam, while the US keeps bombing people all over the Middle East? What is your answer?
Xzamilio
@Kangol: I’ve been aware of that since it happened. What does that have to do with Islamic violence in the Philippines? Indonesia? Places that have nothing to do with the conflict in the middle east but still have to endure terror attacks its population? And then of course there’s the obvious truth… Islamic violence has the most detrimental effect on OTHER MUSLIMS. I would never defend the taking of innocent life, but there’s a huge difference in the unfortunate death of innocent civilians when taking out enemy combatants and intentionally murdering innocent people… and it was the “Islamic radical monsters” being there that made that area a target.
I don’t give a fuck about Trump. Trump is a buffoon who should have NEVER even gotten past the first round, but after seeing how dishonest and cowardly and bought the media is, his rise makes perfect sense. It’s not just the Middle East anymore… it’s global.
Xzamilio
An explosion in Kabul… I’m done with this.
rjmaquay
Did the DMV yell you to write this Queerty?