The Trump Show
This is the week of the Republican National Convention. In a “normal” year, it would be a week of crowded convention floors in Charlotte, with funny hats and folks who spent last night (or even early this morning) “partying with the party”. But it’s not normal times. America is in the middle of a pandemic, and even the Republican Party has been forced to recognize it. So far in the United States, a little over 3% of those infected with the disease die. That’s really the statistic that matters, one of the only “facts” of COVID that seems to have held true since the beginning.
So it’s the Republican turn to put on a “pandemic” convention. The Democrats set a high bar with their “show” last week, and we’ll see what the response will be. But there is one major difference. The Democratic Party held a convention, and they featured their nominee, Joe Biden. The Republican Party of 2020 is not a political party sponsoring a candidate. It is the candidate himself. We are watching the Donald Trump Show this week, with the President scheduled to speak every night, along with most of his immediate family (though clearly his sister and niece aren’t invited anymore).
Incompetence
We are in a polarized environment, when even the simple act of putting a political sign in your front yard has become an act of “aggression” against your neighbors. Both political parties indulge in hyperbole: like a buffet menu, you can choose the issue that energizes you. And I certainly expect we will hear even more this week from Mr. Trump. In fact it started yesterday, before the convention even began. The President called an “emergency” media conference on Sunday evening, to tell about a miraculous advance in the treatment of COVID.
The President announced that “convalescent plasma” (plasma derived from patients recovered from COVID) has a 35% cure rate, and that HE, the President, has ordered it administered nationwide. The problem is that it’s already being used nationwide, and the best studies show that it’s helpful in about 3% of the cases. But it was a great way to start out Convention Week.
And Donald Trump is absolutely right about one thing: COVID is his greatest weakness. The Biden Campaign would do well to hammer Trump’s incompetence; it’s something every American confronts every day.
Myths
We will hear a series of themes this week. Joe Biden is weak a puppet. That he has been “radicalized” by the Sanders-Ocasio-Cortez-Socialist wing of the Party. That Black Lives Matters means burning cites, and it’s coming to your town, your suburb, and your middle class white housewife neighborhood.
So let’s bust some myths. Let’s start with the one we’re likely to hear the most about: DEFUNDING THE POLICE. There will be no police at all, and, to quote the Trump ad already running, there will be a five-day waiting line for 9-11 calls. Joe Biden, Kamal Harris, and a host of Democratic leaders have disavowed the term, DEFUNDING. But they have not disavowed repurposing.
Down in Austin
We’re likely to hear about Austin, Texas and the city council that has become the “poster child” for the DEFUNDING movement. You’ll hear that Austin City Council CUT $150 million from the police budget. That’s really not quite true, and it is a great example for understanding what the defunding/repurposing movement really is about.
Austin had a $420 million annual police budget. Austin city council cut their police budget by $31 million, mostly advanced license plate readers and a cadet class. They then took $120 million for police activities that weren’t direct policing functions, and moved them out of the police department. Those activities will still continue, but not as part of the policing role. And that’s what “DEFUNDING THE POLICE” is about. Like public education, society has thrown more and more of its “ills” on the police department, from drug addiction to suicide prevention. But those don’t have to be primarily police responsibilities, just as public health and nutrition don’t have to be public education responsibilities. The jobs are still done, just repurposed to folks not wearing “blue”.
Stealing Insurance
We are going to hear about socialized medicine, and how Democrats want to take away your health insurance and make you pay for some freeloader. And that’s not true either. Joe Biden wants to expand the Affordable Care Act, and he would like to include a “public option”. That means a government insurance that is purchasable by regular folks, rather than just the private insurance available on the “market place” today. Public option insurance would increase competition in the insurance marketplace, driving costs down, especially in those places where few private insurance policies are available.
But Biden is not Bernie Sanders, and even Bernie is behind Biden’s health insurance plan. Of course Bernie wants fully nationalized insurance, but his plan is NOT the Democratic plan in 2020. Conflating the two is the goal of the Trump campaign, but it’s simply not true. And by the way, you ARE paying for the “freeloader” without health insurance. You’re paying for them by increased costs of medical care, every time you pay a bill.
The “Bad” Child
And finally, we’re likely to hear a lot about Hunter Biden, Joe’s son. We are going to hear vague conspiracies about Joe protecting Hunter from prosecution in Ukraine, and about Hunter’s checkered past: cocaine use, a Navy discharge, and high salaried board memberships. President Trump’s own National Security Council has warned about Russia planting stories about Hunter and Joe Biden, but we will hear them anyway. For a President who employed Paul Manafort and was a party animal himself, sometimes with Jeffrey Epstein, it will be a lot of “the pot calling the kettle black”.
So it’s going to be a week of Donald Trump. He’s going to speak every night. And when it’s not the President, it’ll be the kid with the MAGA hat from Covington, or the couple with the guns from St. Louis.
Maybe the conventioneers are right. We should start drinking early.
