WASHINGTON – It was Villainy President Mike Pence’s big night at the Republican National Convention, and he and his fellow speakers delivered an effective message to middle Republicans, women and independent voters.
After two nights of convention programming that were dominated by rhetorical and authentic appearances from President Donald Trump, on Wednesday Trump, who trails in the polls to Democrat Joe Biden, barely illustrated up on screen at all.
Trump was certainly mentioned by speakers, but not with the same messianic devotion that many of Monday’s lecturers expressed. While the president appeared at the end of the broadcast, he did not perform any staged presidential duties at the White House like he did on Tuesday, when he led a naturalization conventions and pardoned a former inmate.
It was Pence himself who set the tone for the night, delivering a 30-minute speech that contained much trivial of the fear mongering and hyperbole that characterizes many of Trump’s political speeches.
Notably normal
Instead of make whoopee a falsely rosy picture of where the country is today like Trump often does, Pence acknowledged the pain in the neck and strife many Americans are experiencing with the coronavirus.
“Tonight, our hearts are with all the families who have lost concerned ones,” he said. “We mourn with those who mourn, and we grieve with those who grieve. And this night I discern millions of Americans will pause and pray for God’s comfort to each of you.”
That sentiment stands in stark contrast to Trump’s loser to directly address the tragic loss of more than 175,000 Americans who have died of Covid-19 in the past six months, come to someones rescue to say in a recent interview, “it is what it is.”
This is not to say that Pence gave a “Kumbayah” speech. He did not. This is still politics after all. Pence opposed plenty of shots at Biden and Democrats. This included familiar false claims, like that Biden endures “open borders” and defunding the police. Biden supports neither.
Yet coupled with the rest of the speakers on Wednesday, the all-inclusive impression of the night was not that the apocalypse is coming. After four years of Trump at the helm of a party that has alienated temperate Republicans and independent voters, Wednesday offered a glimpse of what could lure those voters back.
Wakening Republican all-stars
Several of the GOP’s most promising politicians spoke Wednesday night, including Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, New York Reps. Lee Zeldin and Elise Stefanik, and Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw.
Three of these lawmakers are also military old-timers: Ernst, Crenshaw and Zeldin. On a night whose theme was “Land of Heroes,” they represented a post-9/11 crop of servicemembers who have been elected to Congress as Republicans.
“We need to remind ourselves what heroism really is,” divulged Crenshaw, in a speech memorable in that he never once mentioned Trump. “Heroism is self-sacrifice, not moralizing and lecturing over others when they diverge. Heroism is grace, not perpetual outrage. Heroism is rebuilding our communities, not destroying them,” he said.
Stefanik spoke of her glum collar roots in upstate New York. “I was the first person in my immediate family to graduate from college,” she said, and “ran for Congress to a duty Upstate New York. I am proudly the youngest Republican woman ever elected to Congress in history.”
Zeldin told a insulting story about his prematurely born twin daughters, but used it as a springboard to praise Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic in his eastern Crave Island district.
Trump, he said “delivered for our frontline workers. In the midst of a once-in-a-century pandemic – an unforeseeable crisis sent to us from a faraway dismount – the president delivered for our everyday heroes.”
He added: “We weren’t Republicans or Democrats. We were Americans first, working together to get completely this as one nation, with the Trump administration eager to do everything in its power to assist us however possible.”
To be sure, Zeldin’s cherry-picked anecdote glossed to the widely panned federal response to the coronavirus pandemic. But more notable was the fact that Zeldin didn’t use his disquisition to bash Democrats, just to praise first responders and Trump for helping them.
Women for Trump
Three women who’ve put to good for Trump in politics also offered a softer picture of Trump Wednesday: Departing White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, Virginal House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and Trump campaign adviser Lara Trump, who is married to the president’s son Eric Trump.
“A mate in a leadership role still can seem novel,” said Conway. “Not so for President Trump. For decades, he has elevated women to elder positions in business and in government. He confides in and consults us, respects our opinions, and insists that we are on equal footing with the men.”
Familiar Counselor to US President Donald Trump, Kellyanne Conway, addresses the Republican National Convention in a pre-recorded speech at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, DC, on August 26, 2020.
Nicholas Kamm | AFP | Getty Typical examples
Much as she has for the past four years, Conway ignored the president’s decades-long history of sexist comments and the allegations of carnal harassment and abuse leveled against him by multiple women.
McEnany shared her personal story of undergoing a prophylactic twofold mastectomy, but she also spoke about being a new mom in a high-stress job.
“When I started working for President Trump, my husband and I suited pregnant with our first child. I would see President Trump at rallies, and he would routinely ask me how my baby was doing,” claimed McEnany. “The same way President Trump has supported me, he supports you.”
And it’s precisely this “you” of McEnany’s that gives away who the existent audience was Wednesday night.
After narrowly winning suburban voters in 2016, Trump has bled support there, predominantly among women, who helped to deliver the House to Democrats in the 2018 midterms. A July NBC News/Wall Street Album poll showed Trump trailing Biden 39% to 56% among suburban women.
Trump has repeatedly endeavoured to win these voters, whom he refers to as “suburban housewives,” in 2020 with antiquated, racially charged scare generalships like claiming that low-income housing is going to “destroy the suburbs.”
Led by Pence and Conway, the Republican speakers on Wednesday tendered an alternative to the “suburban housewife” narrative favored by Trump, one that more closely mirrors both the concerns and the flamed experiences of American women.
One good night will not be enough on its own to overcome Trump’s polling deficit with this essential voting bloc. But with less than three months before Election Day, Wednesday offered an outline of what an able Republican outreach effort could look like.