Some politicians at the Republican convention in recent days did not give the speech they really wanted to give. Last Monday, Senator Ron Johnson caused a sensation when he said of the Democrats that they “pose a clear and immediate danger to America, our institutions, our values and our people.”
That raised eyebrows. Didn’t he remember, after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was nearly shot dead on Saturday, that portraying opponents as traitors should stop?
It later turned out that it was all due to a misunderstanding. Johnson had toned down his speech, just as Trump promised to do with his big speech on Thursday night. But the old text was still used for the reading screen. Apparently, convention attendees had to forget that Johnson had thrown it into the hall with conviction.
It is more common to agree than to disagree
On Tuesday, Nikki Haley had the right text on the screen. But the former South Carolina governor, until recently her rival for the Republican nomination, also had another speech in mind. It’s safe to assume that her earlier assessment of Trump as someone who is “lost” and “haunted by chaos” has not suddenly been erased because he won the primary. But only if you listen very carefully will you hear her assurance of political life by the time the Trump era is over: “I didn’t always agree with him. But we agree more often than we disagree.”
His other former competitors bowed even further to the party leader. “Donald Trump has been demonized, impeached, prosecuted and nearly lost his life. We cannot abandon him,” said Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
A party convention is meant to exude unity, including losers supporting the winner, but it doesn’t always work. In 2016, Senator Ted Cruz didn’t have the courage to endorse the surprising newcomer and anti-politician Trump in his convention speech: He was greeted with loud boos. This year, Cruz thanked God for saving Trump. And, totally in the spirit of the former president, he painted a picture of a country overrun by foreigners: “Americans are dying, being killed, assaulted, raped by illegal immigrants that the Democrats have let through.”
Own career
Loyalty to Trump is what a Republican politician in 2024 must exude if he does not want to jeopardize his own career. Because Republican voters in his own district, who can make or break a race in the primaries, will not settle for anything less. But this also makes it difficult to remain faithful to traditional Republican ideas about how to keep society orderly, the country safe and the economy healthy.
For example, the party’s manifesto now states that Republicans consider marriage important, but no longer that it should be a marriage between a man and a woman. Nor does the party promise to ban abortion nationwide. And just a few years ago, the intention to apply a standard tariff on everything coming from abroad would have dismayed most Republican politicians and their economic advisers.
Familiar Republican positions can apparently be thrown out the window. Because the party has definitely been taken over by someone who realized that the average Republican voter has more important things on their mind.
Now that this was concluded this week in Milwaukee, the party can try to recruit voters who have not voted Republican until now. That is probably why the last and most important speaker of the day on Monday was Sean O’Brien, leader of the Teamsters, a union with 1.3 million members. He unabashedly attacked companies that commit “economic terrorism” by preventing their employees from joining a union.
He did not receive anywhere near the generous applause of the other speakers. There is still some getting used to the fact that white-collar workers now also have to defend blue-collar workers within the Republican Party. And it would be naive to think that big business, which can spend millions to help or hinder politicians, will soon be left empty-handed in Washington DC.
But the Republican Party that would not have thought to let this union leader say this is a thing of the past.
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