Extract from The Guardian
Michael Cohen
Political
conventions in the US nominally exist so that a political party can
choose its presidential nominee, but in reality simply ratify decisions
made by voters in state primaries and caucuses. The real purpose of
conventions is to give each political party four days to present its
best possible face to the world.
But if last week in Cleveland is any indication, no one gave this message to the Republican party. Rather than present a positive, aspirational image to the US people, voters were subjected to the ugliest, angriest, nastiest, most nativist, disorganised, terrifying and fascistic political convention in modern American history.
I’d like to say I’m exaggerating, but I don’t think I’m doing justice to the ugliness that took place in Cleveland. Republican delegates regularly chanted “lock her up” in reference to Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee for president. In most stable democracies, rooting for your political opponents to be thrown in prison would be considered completely unacceptable. In Cleveland, it was the convention’s dominant mantra, often egged on from the podium.
When Republicans weren’t calling for Clinton to be fitted with a prison jumpsuit, they chanted “USA! USA! USA!”, an empty and charmless paean to patriotism. Or: “Trump!, Trump!, Trump!”, an empty and charmless paean to the authoritarian leader who is now the standard bearer of the party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan. Still, for all the ugliness of the first four nights of speakers at the convention; for all the incessant and dishonest threat-mongering about Islamic terrorists; for all the xenophobic attacks on immigrants and refugees; for the myriad misstatements, exaggerations and lies told and re-told by convention speakers, it paled in comparison with Trump’s repellent acceptance speech on Thursday.
Since the announcement of his intention to seek the Republican nomination for president, Donald Trump has trafficked in the basest political impulses in American society.
He kicked off his campaign by attacking undocumented Mexican immigrants to the US, whom he said were rapists and criminals. He pledged to build a wall to keep out the alien hordes and deport the 11 million undocumented immigrants who overwhelmingly work, pay taxes and raise their families. In December, when the gunman who pledged loyalty to Islamic State massacred 15 people in San Bernardino, California, Trump responded with a ban on not just Syrian refugees, but on all Muslims entering America.
He attacked his primary opponents with belittling names – Low Energy Jeb (Bush), Little Marco (Rubio) and Lyin’ Ted (Cruz). He derided past Republican presidents and presidential nominees, such as Mitt Romney, as a “loser”. He even mocked 2008 nominee John McCain for being held as a PoW during the Vietnam War. He incited violence at his political events, stated his desire to punch protesters in the face and offered to pay legal fees of supporters who did just that. He threatened to use the Department of Justice to investigate political opponents and newspapers that wrote critical articles about him. He refused to denounce neo-Nazis and white supremacists such as David Duke, who have gravitated to his campaign, or apologise when he tweeted antisemitic imagery.
Yet somehow in his acceptance speech he descended further into a fetid political sewer. Trump’s vision of America, as expressed in Cleveland, and bolstered by all those who spoke before him, is not hopeful or optimistic. It’s a dark, bleak, foreboding place riven by chaos and lawlessness. It’s a land in which illegal immigrants walk the streets intent on snuffing out the lives of hard-working, God-fearing Americans.
It’s a place in which jihadi terrorists lurk in the shadows prepared to strike at a moment’s notice. It’s a place where Americans can’t walk in safety because of the omnipresent threat of violence. Never mind that since 9/11 fewer Americans have been killed on US soil by terrorists than the number slain in gun violence on a typical US weekend. Pay no attention to the fact that crime rates in the country are historically low or that few illegal immigrants break the law. America is on the knife’s edge, said Trump. And there’s only one man who can repair the breach: Donald Trump.
“I alone can fix it,” said Trump. “I am your voice”; “I’m going to make our country rich again”; “I will restore law and order to our country.” “When I take the oath of office, Americans will finally wake up in a country where the laws of the United States are enforced.” The party that has long railed against the “nanny state” gave its support to a man whose overriding message was that he’ll take care of them. Trump offered few policy proposals and few ideas for how he would “fix” America. Rather, he told the American people: “Believe me, believe me.”
There was no evoking of enduring American values; no call for shared sacrifice or national unity in pursuit of American renewal, but rather a pledge that by electing Trump, America will be restored and made “great again”.
This is the authoritarian mindset that has infected the Republican party – spurred on by hate-mongering and de-legitimising attacks on “others” and political and cultural opponents. It’s one thing to see Trump’s rise as a sickness of the Republican party and his nomination for president as the logical outcome of decades of growing Republican extremism. But it’s hard not to see Trump’s rise as an indictment of America, writ large. What does it say about the world’s most powerful democracy that in 2016 a man such as this can be nominated for the highest office? This presents a unique opportunity for Hillary Clinton. When she travels to Philadelphia this week to accept the Democratic party’s nomination for president, she will do so with the political wind at her back. The Republican convention, for all its sound and fury, was so clearly geared toward those who are planning to vote Republican that it’s hard to imagine any voters leaning towards Clinton being swayed by it.
And at a point in the race when Trump’s unfavourability ratings are the worst in modern US history – and he needs desperately to expand his support beyond the approximately 40% of citizens who currently support him – Cleveland was a historic missed opportunity. It will not be difficult for Clinton to present to the country a more optimistic, hopeful and tolerant vision of America. And armed with the knowledge that the 30% of non-white Americans will vote for her in overwhelming numbers, she begins the race as a huge favourite to win.
But her challenge is larger. This race is now about something greater than her pursuit of the presidency. It is about destroying the sickness of Trumpism. Every American, whether they love or hate Trump, is sullied by his rise to power. The question now is: what are we going to do about it?
Michael Cohen is the author of American Maelstrom: The 1968 Election and the Politics of Division
But if last week in Cleveland is any indication, no one gave this message to the Republican party. Rather than present a positive, aspirational image to the US people, voters were subjected to the ugliest, angriest, nastiest, most nativist, disorganised, terrifying and fascistic political convention in modern American history.
I’d like to say I’m exaggerating, but I don’t think I’m doing justice to the ugliness that took place in Cleveland. Republican delegates regularly chanted “lock her up” in reference to Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee for president. In most stable democracies, rooting for your political opponents to be thrown in prison would be considered completely unacceptable. In Cleveland, it was the convention’s dominant mantra, often egged on from the podium.
When Republicans weren’t calling for Clinton to be fitted with a prison jumpsuit, they chanted “USA! USA! USA!”, an empty and charmless paean to patriotism. Or: “Trump!, Trump!, Trump!”, an empty and charmless paean to the authoritarian leader who is now the standard bearer of the party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan. Still, for all the ugliness of the first four nights of speakers at the convention; for all the incessant and dishonest threat-mongering about Islamic terrorists; for all the xenophobic attacks on immigrants and refugees; for the myriad misstatements, exaggerations and lies told and re-told by convention speakers, it paled in comparison with Trump’s repellent acceptance speech on Thursday.
Since the announcement of his intention to seek the Republican nomination for president, Donald Trump has trafficked in the basest political impulses in American society.
He kicked off his campaign by attacking undocumented Mexican immigrants to the US, whom he said were rapists and criminals. He pledged to build a wall to keep out the alien hordes and deport the 11 million undocumented immigrants who overwhelmingly work, pay taxes and raise their families. In December, when the gunman who pledged loyalty to Islamic State massacred 15 people in San Bernardino, California, Trump responded with a ban on not just Syrian refugees, but on all Muslims entering America.
He attacked his primary opponents with belittling names – Low Energy Jeb (Bush), Little Marco (Rubio) and Lyin’ Ted (Cruz). He derided past Republican presidents and presidential nominees, such as Mitt Romney, as a “loser”. He even mocked 2008 nominee John McCain for being held as a PoW during the Vietnam War. He incited violence at his political events, stated his desire to punch protesters in the face and offered to pay legal fees of supporters who did just that. He threatened to use the Department of Justice to investigate political opponents and newspapers that wrote critical articles about him. He refused to denounce neo-Nazis and white supremacists such as David Duke, who have gravitated to his campaign, or apologise when he tweeted antisemitic imagery.
Yet somehow in his acceptance speech he descended further into a fetid political sewer. Trump’s vision of America, as expressed in Cleveland, and bolstered by all those who spoke before him, is not hopeful or optimistic. It’s a dark, bleak, foreboding place riven by chaos and lawlessness. It’s a land in which illegal immigrants walk the streets intent on snuffing out the lives of hard-working, God-fearing Americans.
It’s a place in which jihadi terrorists lurk in the shadows prepared to strike at a moment’s notice. It’s a place where Americans can’t walk in safety because of the omnipresent threat of violence. Never mind that since 9/11 fewer Americans have been killed on US soil by terrorists than the number slain in gun violence on a typical US weekend. Pay no attention to the fact that crime rates in the country are historically low or that few illegal immigrants break the law. America is on the knife’s edge, said Trump. And there’s only one man who can repair the breach: Donald Trump.
“I alone can fix it,” said Trump. “I am your voice”; “I’m going to make our country rich again”; “I will restore law and order to our country.” “When I take the oath of office, Americans will finally wake up in a country where the laws of the United States are enforced.” The party that has long railed against the “nanny state” gave its support to a man whose overriding message was that he’ll take care of them. Trump offered few policy proposals and few ideas for how he would “fix” America. Rather, he told the American people: “Believe me, believe me.”
There was no evoking of enduring American values; no call for shared sacrifice or national unity in pursuit of American renewal, but rather a pledge that by electing Trump, America will be restored and made “great again”.
This is the authoritarian mindset that has infected the Republican party – spurred on by hate-mongering and de-legitimising attacks on “others” and political and cultural opponents. It’s one thing to see Trump’s rise as a sickness of the Republican party and his nomination for president as the logical outcome of decades of growing Republican extremism. But it’s hard not to see Trump’s rise as an indictment of America, writ large. What does it say about the world’s most powerful democracy that in 2016 a man such as this can be nominated for the highest office? This presents a unique opportunity for Hillary Clinton. When she travels to Philadelphia this week to accept the Democratic party’s nomination for president, she will do so with the political wind at her back. The Republican convention, for all its sound and fury, was so clearly geared toward those who are planning to vote Republican that it’s hard to imagine any voters leaning towards Clinton being swayed by it.
And at a point in the race when Trump’s unfavourability ratings are the worst in modern US history – and he needs desperately to expand his support beyond the approximately 40% of citizens who currently support him – Cleveland was a historic missed opportunity. It will not be difficult for Clinton to present to the country a more optimistic, hopeful and tolerant vision of America. And armed with the knowledge that the 30% of non-white Americans will vote for her in overwhelming numbers, she begins the race as a huge favourite to win.
But her challenge is larger. This race is now about something greater than her pursuit of the presidency. It is about destroying the sickness of Trumpism. Every American, whether they love or hate Trump, is sullied by his rise to power. The question now is: what are we going to do about it?
Michael Cohen is the author of American Maelstrom: The 1968 Election and the Politics of Division
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