Democratic organizers watching the Republican convention wrap up Thursday were shocked by Hulk Hogan’s appearance.
A wrestler, just think, what a vulgar and ridiculous way to end a political meeting. Muscles and tearing of clothes rather than ideas…
But like it or not, there is one thing that Donald Trump’s Republicans do that Democrats seem incapable of: telling a story to the nation.
PHOTO PAUL SANCYA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan ripped off his shirt during his speech at the Republican National Convention, revealing a tank top emblazoned with the names of Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance.
It’s full of lies, shortcuts and magic solutions, but it interests the voter. It speaks to his fears, his interests, his desires.
In the face of this, what is the story that Democrats tell to convince voters? I won’t even mention the one telling it, a whitewashed copy of himself from four years ago. Incapable of delivering with force what he has to say. Crashing in the middle of his sentences even when they are teleprompted in front of him.
I’m talking about what he’s trying to tell Americans: the danger of re-electing Trump as an existential threat to democracy.
It’s not enough. I would even say: it doesn’t work at all.
One of the less remarkable speeches of the week was from Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, the party’s co-chair, who spoke about her children’s grandfather.
In addressing those who do not like the former president’s aggressive style, she nevertheless put her finger on the flaw in the Democratic strategy: Donald Trump has Already was president. His message was simple. Yes, ladies (because it was women she was addressing), he exaggerates, he says too many things, but you know who you’re dealing with. They’re trying to scare you, but you know it, you’ve tried it.
PHOTO JIM WATSON, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Lara Trump, Co-Chair of the Republican National Committee
To this, the Democrats reply that the Trump II administration will be of a completely different kind. That it will surround itself with loyalists and extremists, ready to profoundly modify the structure and personnel of the American state. To abuse its power and set up an arch-conservative minimal state, as the “2025 Project” proposes.
It doesn’t work. The average voter doesn’t give a damn about institutional debates and you really have to have the taste to delve into the 900 pages of Project 2025.
The average voter will often tell you: we know what we’re buying. It may not be perfect, but stop scaring us, it can’t be that bad.
The other remarkable thing about this country is how deep the belief in the theory of checks and balances is, across all parties and in all strata of society. The average American knows, or thinks, that if the president goes too far, there will always be Congress to stop him. Or the judges. Or the voters in two years’ time in the midterm elections.
By adding a partisan takeover of the Justice Department and major state institutions, presidential immunity, a compliant Supreme Court and a Republican Congress, the checks and balances could be neutralized.
But voters don’t believe it. It never happened. We are America.
The Republican message is three key words: border, inflation, war. The world has become dangerous. The border is open. When they say the economy is better, they are essentially repeating one thing: Groceries, gas, and housing are more expensive — which is undeniable. And it all ties together in this narrative: Money that should be used to stop migrants is being sent to Ukraine, migrants are driving up rents and stealing jobs, and crime is at an all-time high — which is false, because it is down almost everywhere.
It is not enough to say “yes, but the GDP”, or “yes, but the stock market”, or “yes, but the economic indicators”. Inflation is felt, it hurts every day. Not the statistics.
Better, or rather worse: the American voter knows that Trump lies often. No problem. There is in what he proposes a vision, a project, as retrograde or crazy as you judge it from the outside.
Yes, but American democracy, institutions in peril? The middle electorate is either indifferent or immune to this discourse. Trump’s first term has generated antibodies in public opinion. We must not believe that Trump is popular, or loved, or even personally respected by all those who want to vote for him. Very, very far from it. But the merchandise has been tested. Yes, he is a liar of Olympic dimensions. But things were cheaper before, like it or not. What do we risk?
PHOTO YVES BOISVERT, THE PRESS
Republican supporters outside the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, where the party’s national convention was taking place this week.
The risk is immense. But Joe Biden has so far failed to offer an inspiring alternative narrative.
Biden’s old numbers, relevant in 2020, fall flat four years later. He’s still talking about the 2017 Nazi protest in Charlottesville and Trump saying there were “good people on both sides.”
It’s worn out. Outdated. Ineffective.
What is the inspiring project to respond to this apocalyptic vision?
On Thursday, a delegate from San Antonio told me he didn’t like having a candidate as weak as Biden on the Democratic ticket. “The system doesn’t work if there’s no competition, that’s what makes us better, you need a strong Democratic candidate,” Jackson Carpenter told me.
PHOTO YVES BOISVERT, THE PRESS
Jackson Carpenter
Perhaps it is time for Democrats to heed this advice from a political opponent who will never vote Democrat.
And they find a story to tell. Saying, “Trump is really terrible, come with us to save democracy,” doesn’t work anymore.