So here we are, wrapping up the third night of the GOP convention, and yet there was very little to appeal to a broader American mainstream, to communities that Trump is losing bigly. There was the one guy proclaiming that Clinton had failed the Latino community, but ha ha yeah good luck with that. There’s been no effort to woo millenial voters. No effort to woo women. No effort to emphasize a message beyond “WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!1!” and shit about Clinton’s private server (though that was dropped tonight, since perhaps they’re realizing it’s landing with a thud).
This was a convention designed to further right-wing anti-Clinton bloodlust. Death! Destruction! Mayhem! Lock her up! Lamestream media sucks! How any of that is supposed to win new votes? Who the fuck knows. And yet, they couldn’t even pull that off! As one conservative wrote today:
The TV cameras may show a lot of excited delegates cheering Trump on the floor. What the cameras can’t show is the discontent represented by those who refused to attend in the first place — nor the grumbling distress deep in the bowels of the Grand Old Party.
This is a divided party, and a Trump operation that is more interested in exacerbating those tensions than in patching things up. So we got a frothy mix of right-wing hysteria and junior-high-level infighting.
If Donald Trump hoped to use this convention to re-introduce himself to America, then congratulations, Donald Trump! Your convention is perfectly reflecting your values and incompetence.
As I write this, Mike Pence is still talking, overseeing delegates chant “lock her up”. Failure is assured. Half the hall is empty anyway, so I’m going to follow their lead and close shop. One more night of this shitshow, and America will get to see what real competence looks like next week.