Donald Trump has been resurrected and reborn. His near-death experience has given him a new perspective on life. Anyone who watched his acceptance speech at the RNC knows what I mean. Gone was the bullying, name-calling, sarcastic, bombastic, Don Rickles-imitating Trump. He was replaced by the calm, sedate, soft-spoken, unifying newbie. I guess a near-death experience will do that to you. I like this version of Trump better, and hopefully the voters will too. Hopefully, he will continue in this vein.
By his own admission, “I’m not supposed to be here (on earth, at the RNC or anywhere else). I’m supposed to be dead.” That was not hyperbole. As we all know his would-be assassin missed killing him by a mere millimeter. For those of you who are not familiar with metrics, that is 1/25 the of an inch. He was saved by a quick turn of the head just as the would-be assassin fired. As columnist Micharl Goodwin wrote in the NY Post “survival has given him a new lease on life.” He sees things differently now.
Various investigations of the assassination attempt by the Secret Service, the FBI, Congress and others are ongoing. Inexplicably, Kimberly Cheatle, the head of the Secret Service, has refused to accept responsibility for the agency’s inadequate protection of Trump, has not resigned and has not been fired. Nor has anyone else, and quite possibly regardless of the conclusion of the various investigations, nor will anyone else. There are a lot of questions that need to be answered, but don’t hold your breath.
Based on his aforementioned speech Trump does not intend to waste his “second chance.” He told reporters he had planned to give his usual tough, critical, firebrand speech, but he discarded it in favor of the speech we heard. For the most part he refrained from nasty name-calling, which in the past has angered some voters, (although he did slip once referring to “crazy Nancy Pelosi”). But, overall, his tone was unifying, not dividing. As he said, “I am running to be president for ALL America, not half of America because there is no victory in winning for half of America.”
CONCLUSION
In my view, the RNC was a rousing success. There were many highlights: Trump’s acceptance speech, the largely positive vibes with respect to the selection of J. D. Vance, the various introductory speeches by the Trump family members and Hulk Hogan being Hulk Hogan. Furthermore, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the uplifting speech by Kai, which humanized Trump as a typical grandfather (sneaking candy to her when the parents weren’t looking.
However, the best takeaway was that the RNC demonstrated unity, which is something the GOP has not always been known for. The party showed that it was unified in supporting Trump, unified in its policies, and most importantly it truly wants to unify the entire country. The GOP emphasized it has a big tent, and it wants everyone, Republican, independents and Democrats to come under it.
That is in stark contrast to the current administration, which has sought to divide. I will address the Dems’ disfunction and disarray in my next blog.
Latest polls in the five key swing states: AZ – Trump +10; G – T +5; MI – T+3; NV – T+3; and NC T+9.
We Built It Blog by Larry Jacob 