One Giant Leap for Trump,“In the end, they’ll get their 15 minutes of fame and they’ll get behind Trump because they don’t want Hillary Clinton.”
Presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump introduces his wife Melania Trump (out of frame) to delegates on the first day of the Republican National Convention on July 18 2016 at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland Ohio. The Republican Party opened its national convention kicking off a four-day political jamboree that will anoint billionaire Donald Trump as its presidential nominee. (ROBYNBECK/AFP/IMAGEBANK)
There are 10 steps from the convention floor to the podium at the Republican National Convention. With the floor swarming with police and Secret Service agents unauthorized folks won’t get to first base much less the second step. That didn’t stop one anti-Trumper who approached the podium and unfurled an anti-Trump banner as his supporters clamored for a full roll-call vote of all convention delegates to change the convention rulebook to allow Ted Cruz’s name to be placed into nomination. The intruder was hustled out of harm’s way and the motion to change the rules — supported by just 6 states — failed by a voice vote and with that the final nail was driven into the anti-Trumper’s coffin. “It’s one of these issues that wasn’t going to happen but it caused a ruckus that makes the convention fun ” says Vic Sprouse a member of the GOP platform committee. “In the end they’ll get their 15 minutes of fame and they’ll get behind Trump because they don’t want Hillary Clinton.” Sprouse says the platform committee unanimously ratified the plank calling for Jerusalem to remain united and to leave it to Israel’s discretion if they want to renew negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. If Trump wins in November that could render the two-state solution deader than the anti-Trump movement.
The Calm and the Storm
The convention lasts 4 days so it may be premature to make judgments based on one day but so far the heat and humidity have been more of an issue than the state’s open-carry gun laws or extremist protestors. I haven’t seen more than one gun on the street carried by a civilian and the police are spending much more of their time directing delegates and media to their destinations than fighting the sporadic protestors. If White Supremacists were supposed to show up they’re keeping a very low profile. One of the more radical protests featured strident youths on megaphones shouting America was Never Great. Greatness may be subjective but a 20-year old should normally have trouble making that kind of case for a country that’s been around a few hundred years and the global superpower for well over a century. Most of the anti-Trump protestors were pro-Bernie Sanders millennials — and their small demonstration fell on mostly deaf ears. So far on Day 1 the loudest pop came from a 5:30 a.m. thunderstorm that lasted the better part of an hour.
A Nation of Opportunity
If the Republican Party is to overcome its reputation as the party for the country clubbers Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton may be its new standard-bearer. Taking a shot at Bernie Sanders for supporting a minimum-wage hike to “15 bucks an hour” as Sanders would put it Cotton said: “If we were a nation of economic opportunity we wouldn’t have to worry about raising the minimum wage because if a boss won’t give someone a raise he can just walk across the street and get a better paying job.” Cotton made his statements at a breakfast address to the Ohio state delegation. The freshman senator said while there are still some Republicans in Washington who say that the party needs to win the confidence of the nation Cotton begged to differ. Citing GOP control of Congress and the fact that 31 out of the nation’s 50 governors are Republican Cotton added: “We don’t have to show we can govern. We are America’s governing party. Why? Because we address the very real and practical anxieties of everyday working Americans and not the fantasy anxieties of liberals.”
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