On Thursday night, Donald Trump addressed the Republican National Convention. A few hours early, the press had leaked the text of the speech; I praised the text heartily (here’s the link). The text of the speech has high emotional moments, and quiet moments. It has personal stories and passionate calls to action. It has devastating critiques and a grand finale.
Donald Trump bellowed his way through it like a braying jackass.
The lines that didn’t seem problematic on paper leapt off the screen as Trump howled for 75 straight minutes (microphones: how do they work?). The text was decent, if properly delivered; the delivery was a trainwreck filled with clowns dousing themselves in gasoline and setting themselves on fire while honking their horn-noses furiously and screaming.
Donald Trump Made Yelling Great Again™.
That actually had an impact. The personal touches disappeared into a maelstrom of anger. Lines that should have sounded sympathetic – “I am your voice” – came off like threats. When Trump made promises the crowd liked, they began chanting “Yes you will,” in creepy Messianic fashion. When Trump intoned, “I alone can fix this,” he was cheered wildly. Trump even took a moment to throw Republicans under the bus – when they cheered him for saying that he opposed the murder of gays by ISIS, he stopped to say that he found that great, implying that Republicans would have supported such a thing.
There was never a soft moment. Never a respite. It was a brutal assault on the senses. And it made what could have been a powerful, unifying speech into an over-the-top call for control.
I mentioned earlier today that the speech wasn’t Constitutional or conservative – it was a nationalist appeal to discontent over the state of the country. But as Trump delivered it, it was more than that: it was a diatribe that could only be cured by centralizing power in the Orange Godking.
Here’s something telling: a quick word count:
Freedom: 1
Liberty: 0
Constitution: 1
Unborn: 0
Marriage: 0
Values: 1
Morals: 0
I: 83
We can see where his priorities lie. And why he thinks a government run by him is the answer to all of our prayers. As his daughter, Ivanka said, with Trump, “all things are possible.” Which, as I recall, is exactly what the New Testament says in Mark 9:23.
Trump isn’t a conservative. But we already knew that. What Trump showed tonight is that he has no ability to dial down or modulate. This is a one-note campaign. Perhaps it’s the right note. But it came off sounding pretty tinny tonight.