Tale of Two Conventions: Dems Are Betting Against America and They Will Lose
The Republican National Convention certainly offered a sharp contrast from the Democratic convention the previous week.
Whereas the overriding theme of GOP convention was the greatness of America, the Democrats focused on their grievances against America and its current leader, particularly involving matters of race.
In his remarks accepting the Republican nomination on Thursday night, President Donald Trump called out Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats for their pessimistic view of the country.
“At the Democrat National Convention, Joe Biden and his party repeatedly assailed America as a land of racial, economic and social injustice,” Trump said.
“So tonight, I ask you a simple question: How can the Democrat Party ask to lead our country when it spends so much time tearing down our country?
“In the left’s backward view, they do not see America as the most free, just, and exceptional nation on earth. Instead, they see a wicked nation that must be punished for its sins,” the president said.
And of course at the top of the Democrats’ list of supposed sinful racists is Trump. It should be noted that Democrats have accused pretty much every Republican president going back to Ronald Reagan of being a racist.
“The current president has cloaked America in darkness for much too long. Too much anger. Too much fear. Too much division,” Biden, the former vice president, said in his nomination acceptance speech last week.
“Here and now, I give you my word: If you entrust me with the presidency, I will draw on the best of us, not the worst. I will be an ally of the light, not the darkness,” he added.
Apparently, offering leadership from the “light” includes continuing to propagate the lie that Trump said — in response to the Charlottesville unrest in August 2017 — that there were “very fine people on both sides,” including “neo-Nazis and Klansman.”
But this claim, which Biden also used in his campaign launch video in the spring of 2019, is categorically false.
In the comments Biden referenced, Trump in fact stated there were people peacefully protesting both for and against the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
The president explicitly said: “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists, because they should be condemned totally — but you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists, OK? And the press has treated them absolutely unfairly.”
Trump went on to note among those protesting for the statue to be removed were “troublemakers and you see them come with the black outfits and with the helmets and with the baseball bats — you had a lot of bad people in the other group too.”
He was apparently referring at least in part to antifa members/supporters, who were present and engaged in violence.
During the Democratic convention, former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama, like Biden, also offered a dark assessment of Trump and Americans.
“Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t,” Obama said. “And the consequences of that failure are severe. 170,000 Americans dead, millions of jobs gone while those at the top take in more than ever.
“Our worst impulses unleashed, our proud reputation around the world badly diminished, and our democratic institutions threatened like never before.”
Are you serious? Trump is responsible for all the deaths and jobs losses? Did a worldwide pandemic play any part?
Further, it was the governors in the individual states who decided whether — and to what extent — to shut down their economies because of the coronavirus outbreak, and how quickly they would open them back up.
Not surprisingly in an election year, the Democrat-led states, by and large, had the most severe shutdowns and have been the slowest to reopen.
“Our worst impulses” were also “unleashed,” thanks to Trump? I don’t think so, if Obama is referring to civil unrest. A very small fraction of Americans have engaged in violence and most of us, while supporting the cause of equality under the law, also want law and order in our streets.
Michelle Obama was equally gloomy in her views about Trump and Americans.
Like her husband, she placed blame on the president for the coronavirus deaths and the impact the shutdowns have had on the economy.
The former first lady then hit the requisite racist charge in an apparent reference to the false Charlottesville narrative.
“[Our children] see our leaders labeling fellow citizens enemies of the state while emboldening torch-bearing white supremacists,” she said.
Michelle Obama suggested Americans (apparently in large enough numbers that she felt compelled to raise the issue) will not listen to her harsh rhetoric about Trump because she’s not of their political persuasion, and she’s black.
“Now, I understand that my message won’t be heard by some people. We live in a nation that is deeply divided, and I am a black woman speaking at the Democratic convention,” Obama said.
Does she really have such a low assessment of Americans? I believe the vast majority of us hold to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s exhortation to judge people by the content of their character.
That was the spirit on display each night of the Republican convention, which was themed, “Honoring the Great American Story.”
On Monday night, GOP Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the first African-American to serve in both the House and the Senate, shared his family’s journey from “cotton to Congress in one lifetime.”
“There are millions of families just like mine all across this nation, full of potential, seeking to live the American dream,” he said.
Scott further stated: “We don’t give into cancel culture, or the radical — and factually baseless — belief that things are worse today than in the 1860s or the 1960s.”
Likewise, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, the child of Indian immigrants, spoke of her experience growing up in a small town in South Carolina to become the state’s first female and minority governor.
“America is a story that’s a work in progress,” she acknowledged. “Now is the time to build on that progress and make America even freer, fairer and better for everyone.
“That’s why it’s so tragic to see so much of the Democratic Party turning a blind eye towards riots and rage. The American people know we can do better. And of course we value and respect every black life.”
Each night, African-American and other minority speakers offered their own life stories to dispel the notion that Trump is racist or that America, as a whole, somehow is.
Former NFL star Herschel Walker said he takes it as a “personal insult” that people would think he’d have a 37 year friendship with Trump if the president were a racist.
Daniel Cameron, Kentucky’s first African-American attorney general, directly called out Biden for his past controversial comments, including when the former vice president said in May that African-Americans who can’t decide between him and Trump “ain’t black.”
Biden also also stated earlier this month that black political viewpoints are not as diverse as Hispanics.
“Mr. Vice President, look at me, I am black. We are not all the same, sir,” Cameron said. “I am not in chains. My mind is my own. And you can’t tell me how to vote because of the color of my skin.”
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron to Joe Biden: “Mr. Vice President, look at me. I am Black. We are not all the same, sir. I am not in chains. My mind is my own and you can’t tell me how to vote because of the color of my skin.” https://t.co/HqLszE3RUb #RNC2020 pic.twitter.com/aEEsvp1p80
— ABC News (@ABC) August 26, 2020
On Thursday night, Alice Marie Johnson related how Trump commuted her prison sentence in 2018, from life to the nearly 22 years she had already served for a nonviolent drug offense.
She noted that Trump went on to sign a landmark criminal justice reform bill later that year to help thousands of people like her — serving long sentences for nonviolent crimes — to be released.
“When President Trump heard about me — about the injustice of my story — he saw me as a person,” Johnson said.
“He had compassion. And he acted. Free in body thanks to President Trump.”
On Friday, Trump fully pardoned Johnson, completely clearing her criminal record.
In his nomination acceptance speech the previous night, the president reminded Americans that the Republican Party is the party of Abraham Lincoln, and that it stands ready “to welcome millions of Democrats, independents and anyone who believes in the greatness of America and the righteous heart of the American people.”
Ah, what a contrast to the Democratic convention: Instead of a grievance fest, the Republicans hosted a celebration of all America.
The Democrats have bet against America, and they will lose.
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