Dem
52
Ties
2
GOP
46
The second and (thankfully) final night of the Republican National Quasi-Convention was last night, and the star of the show was supposed to be VP J.D. Vance, who is the current heir apparent to the MAGA throne (a status that could change at literally any time, like today by 8:00 a.m. ET).
If you would like to watch Vance's speech, which, at 41 minutes, was practically a sprint compared to Trump's marathon 2-hour speech on Wednesday, you can do so here:
Once again, we strongly urge you to consider if you really want to spend your valuable time in that way. Not to give anything away, but we're about to argue that the speech was entirely inconsequential, and that it will be forgotten by the end of the weekend.
Vance strode onto stage backed by "Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress)" by the Hollies, which has basically become his unofficial theme song. These Republican politicians certainly make interesting choices when it comes to their personal soundtracks. Donald Trump's theme song, of course, is "Y.M.C.A." which is about cruising for twinks at the local gym. "Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress)" is about a de facto mass shooting (the "speaker" in the song protects the "long cool woman" when shots are fired at a bar). That may not be the best subject matter for any politician, but it's particularly incongruous for a guy who immediately spent several minutes lionizing Charlie Kirk.
As with Trump, Vance delivered piles and piles of red meat for the folks who showed up to listen to his speech. He had a whole lot of "Democrats are bad people" stuff, some anti-trans stuff, a few nuggets for the MAHA crowd, and plenty of culture wars. The line that seems to be getting the most attention is "We are tired of being called racists." Usually, when someone says something like that, you know what's coming. And indeed, Vance followed with a snotty remark that implied that immigrants are dirty and prone to commit crimes. Later in the speech, he verbally attacked an audience member who was waving a Mexican flag, and told him to get his ass out of the country. If a person is tired of being called a racist, that is a curious way to go about solving the problem. Our approach, by contrast, would be this: Stop saying and doing racist things. Clever, eh?
Vance also endeavored to practice the Trumpian art of bending reality to his will. One of the very first things Vance did in the speech was to talk about how "tired" Americans were 2 years ago (i.e., under Joe Biden), and the things they were "tired" of. And the thing that got the most emphasis was that Americans were "tired of not being able to afford anything." That is a very interesting "accomplishment" to highlight, given the current rate of inflation, not to mention the current price of a gallon of gas. Oh, and by the way, the average price of a gallon of diesel is north of $6, which is the first time that's ever happened in the U.S.
Here's the good news for Vance. The crowd liked the speech. They cheered at all the "cheer" points, and they broke into a chant of "48! 48! 48!" To be honest, our initial thought was that they were encouraging him to hold off on running until 2048. But, of course, what they were really doing is saying that they would like to see him succeed Trump, who is president #47. The other positive note is that he managed to ad lib a couple of decent laugh lines. Nobody will ever confuse J.D. Vance with George Carlin or Chris Rock, but he's funnier than Trump, at least.
And now the bad news. Actually, three bits of bad news. The first is that Donald Trump is congenitally unable to cede the spotlight, for even a single night. So, he came on stage after Vance, and riffed and rambled for about half an hour. You can watch it here, if you must. Structurally, that instantly converts Vance from "the headliner" to "the warm-up act." It also juxtaposes the two men, serving to remind everyone watching that Trump is far better at delivering what that crowd wants than Vance is.
That brings us to the second bit of bad news. Trump says things that are utterly counterfactual, that are laughably misguided, and that are sometimes arguably outright crazy. But we are generally persuaded that he really believes what he's saying, wacky as it might be. Vance, on the other hand, is the phoniest politician in the country (which is saying something), and he doesn't hide it well at all. Virtually nothing he said felt or sounded genuine. And while much of the voting public is not great on the details of policy or civics, nearly all of them can separate "genuine" from "putting on an act."
Then there's the final bit of bad news. We did not believe that people would be interested in this convention, and... we were right. The ratings are in for Trump's speech, and they are abysmal. Fox "News" ended up carrying the speech, and drew 2.5 million viewers. That's actually a shade lower than Fox draws with its regular programming in that slot; Gutfeld averages 2.51 million viewers. In other words, Trump and Vance were just preaching to the choir, and nobody else. It would have been cheaper and easier to just let Fox handle the evening's propagandizing. Probably more effective, too.
And while we have given due attention to the actual event yesterday, the fact of the matter is that the news coverage was actually dominated by what happened on Wednesday—specifically, Donald Trump's promise of a $5,000 check for every U.S. adult if the Republicans win the election. As it turns out, most (or maybe all) members of his administration had no idea that was coming. So, they spent the day scrambling, trying to figure out how to make it work (Pro tip: Can't be done).
There was also a phalanx of Republicans who realize that offering money in exchange for votes is illegal, and who showed up on the news programs to try to spin things so they are back on the right side of the law. The main argument (and really the only possible argument) is that Trump wasn't actually promising payments, he was just suggesting that if the Republicans win, the average adult will be $5,000 richer thanks to Republican policies. The problem here is that is clearly not what Trump said and, in particular, he specifically used the word "check" several times. He also repeated that word during his mini-speech last night.
Oh, and there is also the small matter that people absolutely hate the idea. That includes Republicans. It is certainly possible, even probable, that quite a few Joe Sixpacks are dreaming of what they will do with their Trump windfall. But the people who know policy, and the people who make policy, know that this has "disaster" written all over it. Again, it would blow an even bigger hole in the budget, and would cause the deficit to balloon even further, while also triggering inflation. What's not to like? Anyhow, the proposal was slammed yesterday by many different Republicans of many different stripes.
And so the first ever midterm Republican National Convention is over. We may never see its like again. If we are lucky, that is. (Z)