Our convention occurs at a moment of crisis for our nation. The attacks on our police, and the terrorism in our cities, threaten our very way of life. Any politician who does not grasp this danger is not fit to lead our country. . . .On people whose children were killed by illegal immigrants:
poverty and violence at home, war and destruction abroad . . . .
violence in our streets and the chaos in our communities. . . .
180,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records are tonight roaming free to threaten peaceful citizens. . . .
The number of police officers killed in the line of duty has risen by almost 50 percent compared to this point last year. . . .
gangs, violence, and drugs are pouring into our communities. . . .
This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction terrorism and weakness. . . .
I have a message to every last person threatening the peace on our streets and the safety of our police: When I take the oath of office next year, I will restore law and order to our country.
These families have no special interests to represent them. There are no demonstrators to protest on their behalf. My opponent will never meet with them, or share in their pain. These wounded American families have been alone. But they are alone no longer.Dark clouds loom, and wow are they dark.
I think this is a bizarre description of contemporary America, which is by most measures safer than ever before in history. I do think that some of the problems Trump points to are real; despite improvements we do still have major problems with violence, crime, and drugs, and the median family income really has gone down a little since 2000. But as always with Trump, there was not even the vaguest gesture of a program for doing anything about these problems. Sometimes he couldn't even keep straight what the problem is, viz., he denounced "fifteen years of war in the Middle East," which I applaud, but then promised "to defeat the barbarians of ISIS." All he offered was a promise to make America:
bigger, and better and stronger than ever before.I like Michael Barbaro's summation:
He conjured up chaos and promised overnight solutions.
1 comment:
This is Brexit all over again. Distorting reality to create a hysterical narrative that will potivate the ignorant to vote emotionally. "We give 350 million pounds to the EU a week! (But not really!) Let's spend that on public services instead! (But actually we won't!)"
His 180,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records are chiefly comprised of jaywalkers, litterers, and other non-violent minor offenders. His 50% increase in police fatalities is the product of the fact that very few officers are killed in the first place, and even a small increase in such a small number is a large percentage. His notion that gangs, violence, and drugs are pouring into communities is flat out wrong, as numbers in all three categories continue their decades long decline. His families victimized by illegal immigrants are cherry picked, and he fails to recognize that the vast majority of Americans are killed by other Americans. He wants to end war in the Middle East... by making war on the Middle East.
And people will vote for him. Lots of people will vote for him. They don't care about policy. They don't care about reality. They don't care about anything, except the fact that Trump calls himself strong and calls Clinton weak, and they hear that refrain or variations of it six times a day so that they believe it reflexively, unthinkingly, and in spite of any logic or rational arguments leveled against it.
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