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If voters, particularly older Americans and white suburban women, come to the same conclusions as Trump and the Republican Party about where to assign credit and blame, it could determine the outcome of the 2020 election.
Pretend the pandemic is over
The convention was designed to project a post-pandemic world. Throughout the week, Trump was credited with added work to the economy under his watch, though speakers failed to mention that those gains and more had evaporated since March. They held events without masks, not to mention that anyone who approaches Trump, including more than 1,000 guests on the South Lawn during his Thursday night speech, is screened for the virus.
The comment underscored Trump’s compelling need to convince voters that the pandemic is coming to an end, and that voting to give him a second term on Nov. 3 would occur without the risk of wasting the sacrifices Americans have made. to try to limit its spread.
Biden’s agenda manufactured by the Republican Party
Most of the Republican characterizations of the agenda and positions of Biden and his running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, were false.
Repeatedly, Trump and others accused Biden of seeking to defund police, a notion that Biden has directly and repeatedly rejected, saying he wants to increase police funding to pay for additional training and community policing efforts.
They accused Biden of having ignored the violence and property damage that has taken place in some cities amid what have been largely peaceful protests. Biden has condemned that violence and that damage. His campaign, in fact, did so repeatedly during the RNC.
Another flash from Thursday night: Trump said that “instead of following the science, Joe Biden wants to inflict a painful shutdown on the entire country.” It was the opposite of what Biden actually said. The former vice president recently said that if scientists said such a shutdown was necessary, he would follow their guidance.
Personal stories full of emotion
Trump’s most effective messengers came from outside the political world.
“The Obama administration said it was doing everything it could. The Trump administration is actually doing it,” said Carl Mueller.
His personal stories, much like those told at the Democratic convention a week earlier by people like 13-year-old Brayden Harrington, who spoke to Biden about his stuttering, were moving. And, just like the Democratic stories about Biden did, they could reach a wider audience on social media than anything else that happened during the RNC.
But those testimonials sometimes painted inaccurate pictures
The Trump administration has long sought to repeal Obamacare, which requires insurers to cover people with pre-existing conditions. His administration has joined a lawsuit aimed at repealing the law. And while Trump has long insisted that he would guarantee coverage for those with pre-existing conditions, and promised that details on how he would do so will be released, he has never come up with a plan.
Diverse lineup overlooks the reality of representation
Polls show that black voters overwhelmingly support Biden. And despite the alignment, other speakers repeatedly attacked those protesting racial injustice and police violence, while insisting that systemic racism does not exist.
Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, demonized the Black Lives Matter movement, calling it part of “vicious and brutal riots.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Washington, DC, a majority black city, does not deserve representation in the Senate.
Trump, Pence and others warned that Biden would destroy the suburbs, referring to an Obama-era housing policy that would seek to curb the public housing ghetto by locating new buildings in more affluent areas.
Instead, Trump’s goal appears to be to convince white suburban voters, the people who left the Republican Party en masse in the 2018 midterm elections, that voting for Trump is not tantamount to supporting racism.
The Hatch Act is not a thing, apparently
Experts used the phrase “breaking the rules” all week, but it obscures the reality of what was really going on: by using the government’s arguments and getting cabinet officials like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to speak, Trump and Republicans flagrantly flouted the Hatch Act, a Depression-era law designed to limit the mix of campaigns and official government business.
The law is the reason why, for example, the White House had never before been used in a political convention and why top diplomats had not participated. Trump also harnessed other powers of the presidency for political purposes. He held a naturalization ceremony for new US citizens and issued a pardon, broadcasting both during the RNC.
“What is the name of that building?” Trump said during his speech Thursday night, gesturing toward the White House behind him. “We are here. And they are not.”
How will it play?
Across the country, people have postponed weddings due to the pandemic. Funerals have been delayed. They have cried from afar when their loved ones died alone. Many work from home, while their children are at home from schools that they cannot safely open.
The densely packed crowds, largely without masks, outside the White House Thursday night and in Fort McHenry Wednesday night for Pence’s speech appeared to ignore social distancing guidelines.
Those images, even more so than speeches that addressed the coronavirus in the past tense, underscored that the Trump administration views the pandemic as a thing of the past.
That disconnect from reality could enrage many Americans whose lives have been uprooted by the virus. And it could reinforce the beliefs of others that it is time to return to normal life, even when thousands are diagnosed and hundreds die every day.
