Helen H. Moore's Blog, page 711
July 22, 2016
An alternate universe in Cleveland: What America just witnessed was a shared psychotic disorder
Balloons fall on the final session of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, July 21, 2016. (Credit: Reuters/Aaron P. Bernstein)
The 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland has ended. Donald Trump is officially the Republican presidential nominee. The post mortem for the 2016 Republican National Convention can now begin.
There was political infighting. Melania Trump’s speech stole from Michelle Obama’s convention speech in 2008. Police and security guards appeared to outnumber the protesters. Gun fetishists paraded outside the venue. The “Alt-Right” wallowed in misogyny, sexual paraphilias, and conspiracy theories. The featured speakers included an avocado baroness. Lucifer was invoked. Violent threats were made against Hillary Clinton. Attendees were told that Barack Obama hates America and wants to destroy it from within. Apparently, illegal immigrants and Muslim terrorists are conspiring to kill white people. The Black Lives Matter movement is leading an armed rebellion against the police and “the (white) silent majority.” America is doomed. Only Donald Trump and the Republican Party can save it.
There are multiple audiences for a political convention. How these audiences process the event is one of the keys to electoral victory. Thus the question: What message did the 2016 Republican National Convention communicate to the American people?
For the most part, right-wing ideologues, Tea Party members, and Fox News viewers were validated and comforted. There were many millions of people watching at home who were likely left confused and befuddled. And there were also many other viewers who most certainly felt personally attacked and insulted by the type of white identity politics—with its dog whistle and overt bigotry—on display during the four days of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
To my eyes, it was a disgusting spectacle which undermined the claim that American democracy is somehow “exceptional.” In all, the 2016 Republican National Convention was a coronation for a proto fascist, an event which could have taken place in a banana republic or the alternate reality of the movie Idiocracy as opposed to the “greatest democracy” on Earth.
How did we get here?
Richard Hofstadter’s important work on “the paranoid style” is often cited in discussions of the Republican Party in the Age of Obama. Hofstadter also contributed powerful insights which can be used to make sense of the extreme polarization, zealotry, and revanchism that has taken hold over today’s Republican Party.
Hofstadter suggested that movement conservatism is actually a type of political religion. Writing at History News Network, Robert Toplin explains this as:
Historians and pundits often refer to Hofstadter’s ideas about the “paranoid style.” Much-overlooked, however, is a sub-theme in Hofstadter’s writing. That discussion focused on the emergence of “fundamentalism” in American politics. Individuals who seek a broader understanding of the present political standoff in Washington may find Hofstadter’s judgments thought-provoking.
Richard Hofstadter recognized that evangelical leaders were playing a significant role in right-wing movements of his time, but he noticed that a “fundamentalist” style of mind was not confined to matters of religious doctrine. It affected opinions about secular affairs, especially political battles. Hofstadter associated that mentality with a “Manichean and apocalyptic” mode of thought. He noticed that right-wing spokesmen applied the methods and messages of evangelical revivalists to U.S. politics. Agitated partisans on the right talked about epic clashes between good and evil, and they recommended extraordinary measures to resist liberalism. The American way of life was at stake, they argued. Compromise was unsatisfactory; the situation required militancy. Nothing but complete victory would do…
Here, then, is the significant marriage between practical politics and a fundamentalist-style political religion. Republican intransigence in clashes over Obamacare, budgets, and debt ceilings may reflect smart politics from the radical Right’s point of view. Militant conservatives in Washington can succeed in channeling the base’s anger while also boosting their political careers. They treat political fights in Washington like holy crusades and are generously rewarded for their militancy in conservative voting districts.
After watching the ghoulish 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, it is increasingly clear that Hofstadter’s belief that conservatism is a type of political religion is inadequate to explain the events that transpired there this week.
Matters are far worse.
The Republican Party, its media, and public are suffering from a political version of shared psychotic disorder (Folie a Deux).
Psych Central explains the symptoms of this disorder:
The essential feature of Shared Psychotic Disorder (Folie à Deux) is a delusion that develops in an individual who is involved in a close relationship with another person (sometimes termed the “inducer” or “the primary case”) who already has a Psychotic Disorder with prominent delusions.
The content of the shared delusional beliefs may be dependent on the diagnosis of the primary case and can include relatively bizarre delusions (e.g., that radiation is being transmitted into an apartment from a hostile foreign power, causing indigestion and diarrhea), mood-congruent delusions (e.g., that the primary case will soon receive a film contract for $2 million, allowing the family to purchase a much larger home with a swimming pool), or the nonbizarre delusions that are characteristic of Delusional Disorder (e.g., the FBI is tapping the family telephone and trailing family members when they go out).
Usually the primary case in Shared Psychotic Disorder is dominant in the relationship and gradually imposes the delusional system on the more passive and initially healthy second person. Individuals who come to share delusional beliefs are often related by blood or marriage and have lived together for a long time, sometimes in relative social isolation. If the relationship with the primary case is interrupted, the delusional beliefs of the other individual usually diminish or disappear.
WebMd also adds this dimension:
Shared psychotic disorders can also happen in groups of people who are closely involved with a person who has a psychotic disorder (called folie à plusiers, or “the madness of many”). For instance, this could happen in a cult if the leader is psychotic and his or her followers take on their delusions.
At its core, shared psychotic disorder involves the creation of an alternate world that exists outside of empirical reality. This is the Republican Party en masse. Its base tenets include such lies as tax cuts on the wealthy create economic growth for all people, global warming does not exist, institutional racism is a myth, there is a “war” on Christians, white people are oppressed, evolution is just a myth or theory, and America was founded as a “Christian nation.”
Donald Trump is the perfect leader for a political party where lies are treated as sacred truths. For example, he led the slanderous racist “Birther” campaign against Barack Obama. Trump has also been judged by fact checkers to be one of the most dishonest politicians in recent American political history.
The health of a democracy is tied to its ability to resolve political disputes by finding a consensus that respects the interests of the parties involved, is mindful of existing political institutions, and operates within a framework bounded by shared norms and values. The health of a democracy is also dependent upon how various interest groups, publics, elected officials, and leaders find ways to work together—while still pursuing their own goals—with an understanding that they should preserve the ability to find common ground in the future.
This model of normal politics was fractured by Republicans during the Clinton years. It was broken by “mainstream” Republicans and the most extreme wing of the conservative movement during the Age of Obama. The shared psychotic disorder and mass psychosis that has possessed the Republican Party at present makes it impossible for the country’s leaders to conduct normal politics. Political madness rarely if ever engenders civic virtue.
Normal politics is now on life support in America; if normal politics dies it was the Republican Party and its news entertainment media that killed it. The nomination of Donald Trump, a man who is a proto fascist, racist, nativist, strongman, demagogue, and professional wrestling political performance artist, is the dirt being thrown on the casket.
July 21, 2016
Trump’s RNC manifesto: Declares that America is in crisis — and he’ll fix it “fast”
U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. July 21, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar - RTSJ4HK (Credit: Reuters)
Declaring America in crisis, Donald Trump pledged to cheering Republicans and still-skeptical voters Thursday night that as president he will restore the safety they fear they’re losing, strictly curb immigration and save the nation from Hillary Clinton’s record of “death, destruction, terrorism and weakness.”
Confidently addressing the finale of his party’s less-than-smooth national convention, the billionaire businessman declared the nation’s problems too staggering to be fixed within the confines of traditional politics.
“I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves,” Trump said.
The 70-year-old celebrity businessman’s acceptance of the Republican nomination caps his improbable takeover of the GOP, a party that plunges into the general election united in opposition to Clinton but still divided over Trump. Underscoring his unorthodox candidacy, Trump doubled down on the hard-line immigration policies that fired up conservatives in the primary but broke with many in his party by promising protections for gays and lesbians.
His address on the closing night of the convention marked his highest-profile opportunity yet to heal Republican divisions and show voters he’s prepared for the presidency. Ever the showman, he fed off the energy of the crowd, stepping back to soak in applause and joining the delegates as they chanted, “U-S-A.”
As the crowd, fiercely opposed to Clinton, broke out in its oft-used refrain of “Lock her up,” he waved them off, and instead declared, “Let’s defeat her in November.” Yet he also accused her of “terrible, terrible crimes” and said her greatest achievement may have been avoiding prison for her use of a private email and personal server as secretary of state.
The more than hour-long speech was strikingly dark for a celebratory event and almost entirely lacking in specific policy details. Trump shouted throughout as he read off a teleprompter, showing few flashes of humor or even a smile.
He accused Clinton, his far-more-experienced Democratic rival, of utterly lacking the good judgment to serve in the White House and as the military’s commander in chief.
“This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction, terrorism and weakness,” he said. “But Hillary Clinton’s legacy does not have to be America’s legacy.”
In a direct appeal to Americans shaken by a summer of violence at home and around the world, Trump promised that if he takes office in January, “safety will be restored.”
As he moves into the general election campaign, he’s sticking to the controversial proposals of his primary campaign, including building a wall along the entire U.S.-Mexico border and suspending immigration from nations “compromised by terrorism.”
But in a nod to a broader swath of Americans, he said young people in predominantly black cities “have as much of a right to live out their dreams as any other child in America.” He also vowed to protect gays and lesbians from violence and oppression, a pledge that was greeted with applause from the crowd.
“As a Republican, it is so nice to hear you cheering for what I just said,” he responded.
Trump was introduced by his daughter Ivanka, who announced a childcare policy proposal that the campaign had not mentioned before.
“As president, my father will change the labor laws that were put in place at a time when women weren’t a significant portion of the workplace, and he will focus on making quality childcare affordable and accessible for all,” she said.
Trump took the stage in Cleveland facing a daunting array of challenges, many of his own making. Though he vanquished 16 primary rivals, he’s viewed with unprecedented negativity by the broader electorate, and is struggling in particular with younger voters and minorities, groups GOP leaders know they need for the party to grow.
The first three days of this week’s convention bordered on chaos, starting with a plagiarism charge involving his wife Melania Trump’s speech and moving on to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s dramatic refusal to endorse him from the convention stage.
Then, Trump sparked more questions about his Oval Office readiness by suggesting in the midst of the convention that the U.S. might not defend America’s NATO partners with him as president. The remarks, in an interview published online Wednesday by The New York Times, deviate from decades of American doctrine and seem to reject the 67-year-old alliance’s bedrock principle of collective defense.
Trump reinforced his position from the convention stage, saying the United States has been “picking up the cost” of NATO’s defenses for too long. He also disavowed America’s foreign policy posture under both Democratic and Republican presidents, criticizing “fifteen years of wars in the Middle East” and declaring that “Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo.”
“As long as we are led by politicians who will not put ‘America First,’ then we can be assured that other nations will not treat America with respect,” he said.
He had promised to describe “major, major” tax cuts. But his economic proposals Thursday night were vague, centering on unspecified plans to create millions of jobs. He promised a “simplified” tax system for the middle class and businesses, fewer regulations and renegotiation of trade deals that he says have put working class Americans at a disadvantage.
At every turn, Trump drew sharp contrasts with Clinton, casting her as both unqualified for the presidency and too tied to Washington elites to understand voters’ struggles.
Democrats will formally nominate Clinton at their convention next week in Philadelphia. She is on the verge of naming a running mate to join her in taking on Trump and his vice presidential pick, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, in the general election. Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine has emerged as her top choice.
“The single most negative speech I’ve ever heard”: Twitter reacts to Trump’s RNC acceptance speech
Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks during the final session of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. July 21, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar - RTSJ4CH (Credit: Reuters)
Donald Trump finally had his big moment in the spotlight Thursday evening, delivering his much-ballyhooed speech accepting the Republican Party’s presidential nomination to close the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
In a long and plodding speech that painted a grim vision of America and its standing in the world, Trump delivered little in the way of specific policy solutions.
After an introduction from his daughter Ivanka, Trump took the stage to cheers from the RNC crowd:
https://twitter.com/iamsharpe/status/...
BREAKING: TED CRUZ SPOTTED OUTSIDE QUICKEN LOANS ARENA. pic.twitter.com/q584Nc03Ur
— Jim Weber (@JimMWeber) July 22, 2016
A draft of Trump’s speech was leaked to the press hours before it was scheduled to be delivered, and despite speculation that the leak would prompt Trump to stray from the scripted remarks, his comments mostly mirrored the version of the speech published by multiple outlets earlier in the afternoon:
"If you’re running for president, you should not be allowed to use a teleprompter." — Donald J. Trump, 8/14/2015
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) July 22, 2016
Trump’s scripted speech stood in stark contrast to the freewheeling style he often utilized on the campaign trail:
Did anybody bet on this speech being a failure because Trump was too boring?#SpeedItUpSparky
— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) July 22, 2016
On a teleprompter @realDonaldTrump has all same fear-mongering & fascism but without the charm of his improvisational blundering. #RNCinCLE
— Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) July 22, 2016
The speech reads more effectively than he is delivering it, because his performance is so unbelievably unmodulated.
— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) July 22, 2016
Compared to previous RNC speakers, Trump even showed a measure of restraint in his response to the audience during his criticism of Hillary Clinton:
Crowd begins "Lock her up" chant.
Trump corrects crowd, "Let's defeat her in November"
— Mark Murray (@mmurraypolitics) July 22, 2016
Trump’s call for an end to political correctness drew a strong response from the crowd:
Trump: "We cannot afford to be politically correct anymore."
Translation: Our racism & bigotry should be tolerated.#RNCinCLE
— deray mckesson (@deray) July 22, 2016
Trump's best line with my focus group: “We can't afford to be politically correct anymore.”
Hit 77% with Repubs, 67% with Dems. #RNCinCLE
— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) July 22, 2016
At one point, Trump paused while a protester was removed from the arena:
A Code Pink protester interrupts @realDonaldTrump's speech pic.twitter.com/RL6Jiw90oQ
— POLITICO (@politico) July 22, 2016
REMINDER: Trump literally told his angry mob that he’d pay their legal bills if they assaulted a peaceful protester.
— Jamison Foser (@jamisonfoser) July 22, 2016
Bernie Sanders got in on the act, live-tweeting his reactions to Trump’s speech:
Trump thinks climate change is a “hoax.” My supporters understand that we must move away from fossil fuels, not expand them. #RNCwithBernie
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) July 22, 2016
Will there be one word about student debt or making college affordable? Or just concerned about more tax breaks for the rich? #RNCwithBernie
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) July 22, 2016
Looks like Ted Cruz was right about one thing. Trump does not understand what the Constitution is about. #RNCwithBernie
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) July 22, 2016
Trump’s economic plan: same old, same old trickle-down economics. Pathetic. #RNCwithBernie
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) July 22, 2016
While Trump’s speech was heavy on rhetoric about “law and order” and putting “America First,” it was light on specifics:
According to prepared remarks, Trump uses the word "plan" 11 times in the speech. But the speech does not seem to outline much of a plan.
— R. Stassen-Berger (@RachelSB) July 22, 2016
Agenda-less question: Has Trump said what he would do to restore law and order?
— Ramesh Ponnuru (@RameshPonnuru) July 22, 2016
Trump attacking trade deals. His running mate supported NAFTA, CAFTA, TPP.
— andrew kaczynski (@BuzzFeedAndrew) July 22, 2016
Anti-Trump conservatives, predictably, were not pleased with the remarks of their party’s nominee:
This is not a shining city on a hill speech. It’s a “we’re f**ked, but I can make it better” speech. Little optimism.
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) July 22, 2016
Why do demagogues scream so much? #RNCinCLE
— Max Boot (@MaxBoot) July 22, 2016
This is maybe the single most negative speech I've ever heard.
— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) July 22, 2016
This is a remarkably dark/bleak speech. More boos (about bad things in country/world) than cheers. No uplift; almost purely negative.
— Peter Wehner (@Peter_Wehner) July 22, 2016
Stalwart conservative Trump critic Bill Kristol, however, was a notable exception:
I have no confidence in my ability to judge whether a convention speech like this will prove effective. But I suspect this one will be.
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) July 22, 2016
Addressing the Orlando mass shooting, Trump pledged, “I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology.”
"As your president I will do everything in my power to protect LGBTQ from the hateful foreign ideology."
GOP Platform: No marriage, no kids
— Andrea Bernstein (@AndreaWNYC) July 22, 2016
Can't tell whether Trump is supportive of gays or someone accidentally put an eye chart on the TelePrompTer.
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) July 22, 2016
Trump pledged to “immediately suspend immigration from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism,” prompting speculation about which countries might be included in that category:
Trump's "suspend immigration" plan presumably includes France, which he said earlier has been ravaged by terrorism.
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) July 22, 2016
Trump: "we must immediately suspend immigration from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism." France? Belgium? The US? #RNCinCLE
— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) July 22, 2016
Trump earlier said ISIS is everywhere, so that means what, exactly, for this immigration policy?
— DENALI (@timothypmurphy) July 22, 2016
After an hour and fifteen minutes, Trump finally wrapped things up:
Trump has out-talked the previous record for longest acceptance speech, which was in 1996, @billclinton – who won the election
— Philip Gourevitch (@PGourevitch) July 22, 2016
Bill Clinton seeing how long this is going and taking it as a dare to go 90 minutes next week without taking a sip of water
— TALK ABOUT YR GLUTES (@edsbs) July 22, 2016
Imagine how long that speech would have gone if he'd talked in depth about policy?
— Nicholas Thompson (@nxthompson) July 22, 2016
The Clinton campaign responded to Trump on Twitter:
We are better than this.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 22, 2016
Trump’s overwhelmingly negative speech concluded an overwhelmingly negative convention that centered on criticism of Hillary Clinton and bleak assessments of America’s handling of crime, terrorism, and economics.
Dear world. Please ignore what the loud guy in the suit is saying. Americans are nothing like him. We love our country and are proud of it
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 22, 2016
It’s Demagoguery 101: When you don’t have actual answers, exaggerate the problems with fear & hatred in order to blind people with emotion.
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) July 22, 2016
That wasn't a convention. It was something closer to a lynch mob. Republicans, you should hang your heads in shame.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) July 22, 2016
Donald Trump deviates from prepared remarks to praise evangelicals for support — and for not booing the LGBTQ community
Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump gestures as he speaks during the final day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Thursday, July 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill) (Credit: AP)
Donald Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention on Thursday closely tracked with the version that was leaked earlier today, but one notable exception was that he went out of his way to make promises to veterans and to thank evangelicals for their support of his candidacy, two clear indications of where his campaign believes he will need to build bulwarks before November.
However, he also seemed to want to take a page out of his daughter Ivanka’s book and woo a younger generation, because not only did he thank evangelicals for their support — he thanked them for withholding their disdain when he spoke about LGBTQ issues.
Of course, he contextualized his support for the LGBTQ not by saying that he would support their constitutionally guaranteed rights within the United States, but by claiming he would protect them from terrorists of the sort who kill them overseas — but still, he considered the fact that the crowd cheered him at that moment something worth marking. “I must say, as a Republican, it is so nice to hear you cheering,” he said.
Trump for class president: A breakdown of Donald Trump’s campy infomercial during RNC
Before GOP nominee Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka graced the stage as the penultimate speaker at the Republican National Convention on Thursday, attendees were forced to sit through a not-brief-enough video bio about the party’s nominee.
The video, narrated by Jon Voight, brought to a screeching, campy halt any momentum garnered by tech mogul Peter Theil and Rebuild America Now super PAC chair Tom Barrack — who each gave independently noteworthy speeches.
Trump, according to the narrative, “learned about leadership early, at the New York Military Academy” — which he was sent to for disciplinary reasons — “where he was captain of the baseball team.”
“After college,” it claimed, “Donald faced a decision — join his father in Queens, or dream big and make it in the biggest city in the world.” That “city,” it should be noted, is the borough of Manhattan, and not Atlantic City. “The decision was easy.”
Yada yada yada, Trump rebuilds midtown with his bare hands, founds the Trump Organization, and “created tens of thousands of new jobs, many of them for women.”
One such woman interviewed — and not at all reduced to a token — was Suzie Mills, general manager of Trump International Hotel & Tower, who said that when Trump gave her the job nine years ago, “there were only three female general managers at five-star hotels in the whole of North America.”
“Donald could have continued his successful career and spent more time with his family,” narrator-Voight went on. “But instead he chose to run for president.”
“He doesn’t need to do this,” chimed in Trump’s literal and figurative middle-child Eric. “But what’s been happening over the last eight years has been so tragic for the course of our nation, he simply had to do this.”
Watch below:
“Donald Trump is color-blind and gender-neutral”: Ivanka Trump paints a picture of her father as “kind and compassionate”
Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump watches during the second day session of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Tuesday, July 19, 2016. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) (Credit: AP)
Ivanka Trump took the stage tonight at the Republican National Convention and attempted to humanize her father before he took the stage and proceeded to paint the bleakest picture of America since Nixon christened himself the “Law and Order” candidate — a moniker that Trump, of course, adopted for himself in his speech.
Instead of discussing how he would “Make America Great Again,” the Reagan-esque message he stole from the Reagan campaign, Trump’s leaked speech proves that he wants to be everything to all Republicans — the Nixonian pessimist to those in the base who’ve been prepping for the apocalypse since Barack Obama was first elected, and a Reagan optimist for those in the base who believe that America’s best days are still ahead of her.
Ivanka tried to play up the latter message, telling a story about the decision-making process behind her father’s run for the White House that would make Horatio Alger — or James Michener, as the previous speaker suggested — proud.
“For more than a year,” she said, “Donald Trump has been the people’s champion — tonight, he’s the people’s nominee.” She claimed that, “like many millennials,” she doesn’t affiliate with one party or another, but that she has no compunctions about supporting her father, who will “make America great again.”
Ivanka situated her father as a “fighter” from “outside the system,” and claimed that “was both the story of his life and a preview of his campaign.”
“This party and this country,” she said, “will learn what it’s like to win again.”
“My father not only has the strength and ability to be the next president, but also the kindness and compassion that will enable him to be the leader that this country needs,” she claimed. “My father has a sense of fairness that touches every conviction he holds. There have always been men of all backgrounds and ethnicities on my father’s job sites, and women long before it was common.”
“He is color-blind and gender neutral,” she added. “He hires the best person for the job, period. When Donald Trump is in charge, all that counts is ability, effort and excellence.” She received the most applause for claiming that her father supports equal pay for women, even when she takes maternity leave. “My father,” she said, “will change the labor laws [and] will focus on making quality child care affordable and accessible for all.”
“To people all over America, I say, when you have my father in your corner, you will no longer have to worry about being let down. He will fight for you all the way, all the time, every time.”
Peter Thiel endorses Trump: “Fake culture wars” don’t matter — “Who cares about who uses which restrooms?”
Peter Thiel (Credit: Reuters/Yuri Gripas)
PayPal co-founder and legendary Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel addressed the crowd at the Republican National Convention Thursday and continued to distance himself from his peers in the technology industry by openly advocating for a Donald Trump presidency.
Thiel is only the second openly gay man to speak at the Republican National Convention, but unlike Jim Cole, he is expected to address the issue — despite the fact that this is the most explicitly anti-LGBTQ platform in the party’s history.
Unlike his fellow leaders in the tech sector, who believe that Trump not only fails to embrace “the ideals that built America’s infrastructure,” he doesn’t believe in “freedom of expression, openness to newcomers, equality of opportunity, public investments in research and infrastructure, and respect for the rule of law,”
Thiel did not speak about Silicon Valley, however, but ordinary Americans and Wall Street brokers. “This isn’t the dream we looked forward to,” he said, before noting that his parents “found the American Dream right here in Cleveland.” In 1968, he continued, the tech community wasn’t limited to one city, but extended across the country, and was supported by the government.
He claimed that the government was “once high tech too,” but “today, our government is broken, our nuclear bases still use floppy disks, and our newest fighter jets can’t fly in the rain.” Thiel said that level of “incompetence” was unacceptable, and has led to a situation in which “instead of going to Mars, we’ve invaded the Middle East” — a problem which should clearly be laid at the feet of Democrats.
Thiel added that “Donald Trump is right — it’s time to end stupid wars and rebuild this country.”
As to his commentary on LGBTQ issues, he noted that when he was growing up, “the great debate was about the Soviet Union — now it’s about who gets to use which bathroom. Who cares?”
“Fake culture wars,” he said, “only distract us from our economic decline — and nobody in this race is being honest about it except Donald Trump.”
Paul Manafort explains to Chris Matthews why women will vote for Trump: “Their husbands can’t afford to be paying for the family bills”
(Credit: MSNBC)
During the final night of the Republican National Convention, MSNBC host Chris Matthews managed to rope the Trump campaign into admitting a manifestly absurd position that offends a significant swath of the voting base.
During a March town hall hosted by Matthews, Trump suggested that “there has to be some form of punishment” for abortions under a potential Trump presidency wherein Roe v. Wade is overturned.
“For the woman?” Matthews pushed Trump.
“Yeah,” he replied.
Months later, Matthews is still getting the Trump campaign to further alienate women voters with a simple set of questions.
Matthews asked Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort how the campaign “deal[s] with the problem” that “whenever a man, you’re a man, or Trump, who is a man, criticizes Hillary Clinton, they hear male criticizing woman,” during an interview Thursday.
“It depends which women you are talking about,” Manafort said. “Many women feel they can’t afford their lives, their husbands can’t afford to be paying for the family bills. Hillary Clinton is guilty of being part of the establishment that created that problem. They will hear the message. As they hear the message, that’s how we will appeal to them.”
Manafort’s response was apparently so startling to Matthews that he tossed him a mulligan.
“You heard what you just said didn’t you? You said women are concerned about their husband’s income?”
“I can speak personally to that,” Manafort earnestly offered.
In another interview inside Quicken Loans Arena Thursday night, Manafort suggested to CNN that the FBI simply cannot be trusted on crime statistics because the agency failed to recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton.
“How can the Republicans make the argument that somehow it’s more dangerous today when the facts don’t back that up?” anchor Jake Tapper asked, noting the convention’s striking focus on the myth of rising crime rates.
“According to FBI statistics, crime rates have been going down for decades,” Tapper pointed out to Manafort.
“I’m not sure what statistics that you’re talking about,” Trump’s campaign manager told Tapper, forcing the host to again cite the FBI statistics.
“Well, the FBI is certainly suspect these days after what they did with Hillary Clinton,” he said with a shrug.
Trump campaign manager asked about crime statistics: “The FBI is certainly suspect” https://t.co/KjpeNheq0X https://t.co/nY3LmvtJo8
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) July 22, 2016
WATCH: 6-year-old singer Heavenly Joy Jerkins’ incredible performance before the RNC
Heavenly Joy Jenkins (Credit: NBC)
Rehearsals for the fourth night of the RNC were exciting stuff. First, a child prodigy named Heavenly Joy Jerkins belts her heart out, showing off chops no 6-year-old should have.
Jerkins was scheduled to perform tonight at RNC before the main lineup of speakers kick off. The child star is the daughter of record producer Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins, who told Entertainment Tonight, that she’s the “No. 1 diva he’s ever worked with.”
Then, in a perfect moment of kitsch, a country singer played his ode to Donald Trump, “Make America Great Again”.
REPORT: Donald Trump embraces his inner-Richard Nixon in leaked copy of RNC speech
Donald Trump (Credit: Reuters/Rick Wilking)
According to Politico, Donald Trump will deliver the following “law and order” speech at the Republican National Convention Thursday night:
Friends, delegates and fellow Americans: I humbly and gratefully accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States.
Together, we will lead our party back to the White House, and we will lead our country back to safety, prosperity, and peace. We will be a country of generosity and warmth. But we will also be a country of law and order.
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.
Americans watching this address tonight have seen the recent images of violence in our streets and the chaos in our communities. Many have witnessed this violence personally, some have even been its victims.
I have a message for all of you: the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end. Beginning on January 20th 2017, safety will be restored.
The most basic duty of government is to defend the lives of its own citizens. Any government that fails to do so is a government unworthy to lead.
It is finally time for a straightforward assessment of the state of our nation.
I will present the facts plainly and honestly. We cannot afford to be so politically correct anymore.
So if you want to hear the corporate spin, the carefully-crafted lies, and the media myths the Democrats are holding their convention next week.
But here, at our convention, there will be no lies. We will honor the American people with the truth, and nothing else.
These are the facts:
Decades of progress made in bringing down crime are now being reversed by this Administration’s rollback of criminal enforcement.
Homicides last year increased by 17% in America’s fifty largest cities. That’s the largest increase in 25 years. In our nation’s capital, killings have risen by 50 percent. They are up nearly 60% in nearby Baltimore.
In the President’s hometown of Chicago, more than 2,000 have been the victims of shootings this year alone. And more than 3,600 have been killed in the Chicago area since he took office.
The number of police officers killed in the line of duty has risen by almost 50% compared to this point last year. Nearly 180,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records, ordered deported from our country, are tonight roaming free to threaten peaceful citizens.
The number of new illegal immigrant families who have crossed the border so far this year already exceeds the entire total from 2015. They are being released by the tens of thousands into our communities with no regard for the impact on public safety or resources.
One such border-crosser was released and made his way to Nebraska. There, he ended the life of an innocent young girl named Sarah Root. She was 21 years-old, and was killed the day after graduating from college with a 4.0 Grade Point Average. Her killer was then released a second time, and he is now a fugitive from the law.
I’ve met Sarah’s beautiful family. But to this Administration, their amazing daughter was just one more American life that wasn’t worth protecting. One more child to sacrifice on the altar of open borders. What about our economy?
Again, I will tell you the plain facts that have been edited out of your nightly news and your morning newspaper: Nearly Four in 10 African-American children are living in poverty, while 58% of African American youth are not employed. 2 million more Latinos are in poverty today than when the President took his oath of office less than eight years ago. Another 14 million people have left the workforce entirely.
Household incomes are down more than $4,000 since the year 2000. Our manufacturing trade deficit has reached an all-time high – nearly $800 billion in a single year. The budget is no better.
President Obama has doubled our national debt to more than $19 trillion, and growing. Yet, what do we have to show for it? Our roads and bridges are falling apart, our airports are in Third World condition, and forty-three million Americans are on food stamps.
Now let us consider the state of affairs abroad.
Not only have our citizens endured domestic disaster, but they have lived through one international humiliation after another. We all remember the images of our sailors being forced to their knees by their Iranian captors at gunpoint.
This was just prior to the signing of the Iran deal, which gave back to Iran $150 billion and gave us nothing – it will go down in history as one of the worst deals ever made. Another humiliation came when president Obama drew a red line in Syria – and the whole world knew it meant nothing.
In Libya, our consulate – the symbol of American prestige around the globe – was brought down in flames. America is far less safe – and the world is far less stable – than when Obama made the decision to put Hillary Clinton in charge of America’s foreign policy.
I am certain it is a decision he truly regrets. Her bad instincts and her bad judgment – something pointed out by Bernie Sanders – are what caused the disasters unfolding today. Let’s review the record. In 2009, pre-Hillary, ISIS was not even on the map.
Libya was cooperating. Egypt was peaceful. Iraq was seeing a reduction in violence. Iran was being choked by sanctions. Syria was under control. After four years of Hillary Clinton, what do we have? ISIS has spread across the region, and the world. Libya is in ruins, and our Ambassador and his staff were left helpless to die at the hands of savage killers. Egypt was turned over to the radical Muslim brotherhood, forcing the military to retake control. Iraq is in chaos.
Iran is on the path to nuclear weapons. Syria is engulfed in a civil war and a refugee crisis that now threatens the West. After fifteen years of wars in the Middle East, after trillions of dollars spent and thousands of lives lost, the situation is worse than it has ever been before.
This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction and weakness.
But Hillary Clinton’s legacy does not have to be America’s legacy. The problems we face now – poverty and violence at home, war and destruction abroad – will last only as long as we continue relying on the same politicians who created them. A change in leadership is required to change these outcomes. Tonight, I will share with you my plan of action for America.
The most important difference between our plan and that of our opponents, is that our plan will put America First. Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo. As long as we are led by politicians who will not put America First, then we can be assured that other nations will not treat America with respect. This will all change in 2017.
The American People will come first once again. My plan will begin with safety at home – which means safe neighborhoods, secure borders, and protection from terrorism. There can be no prosperity without law and order. On the economy, I will outline reforms to add millions of new jobs and trillions in new wealth that can be used to rebuild America.
A number of these reforms that I will outline tonight will be opposed by some of our nation’s most powerful special interests. That is because these interests have rigged our political and economic system for their exclusive benefit.
Big business, elite media and major donors are lining up behind the campaign of my opponent because they know she will keep our rigged system in place. They are throwing money at her because they have total control over everything she does. She is their puppet, and they pull the strings.
That is why Hillary Clinton’s message is that things will never change. My message is that things have to change – and they have to change right now. Every day I wake up determined to deliver for the people I have met all across this nation that have been neglected, ignored, and abandoned.
I have visited the laid-off factory workers, and the communities crushed by our horrible and unfair trade deals. These are the forgotten men and women of our country. People who work hard but no longer have a voice.
I AM YOUR VOICE.
I have embraced crying mothers who have lost their children because our politicians put their personal agendas before the national good. I have no patience for injustice, no tolerance for government incompetence, no sympathy for leaders who fail their citizens.
When innocent people suffer, because our political system lacks the will, or the courage, or the basic decency to enforce our laws – or worse still, has sold out to some corporate lobbyist for cash – I am not able to look the other way.
And when a Secretary of State illegally stores her emails on a private server, deletes 33,000 of them so the authorities can’t see her crime, puts our country at risk, lies about it in every different form and faces no consequence – I know that corruption has reached a level like never before.
When the FBI Director says that the Secretary of State was “extremely careless” and “negligent,” in handling our classified secrets, I also know that these terms are minor compared to what she actually did. They were just used to save her from facing justice for her terrible crimes.
In fact, her single greatest accomplishment may be committing such an egregious crime and getting away with it – especially when others have paid so dearly. When that same Secretary of State rakes in millions of dollars trading access and favors to special interests and foreign powers I know the time for action has come.
I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves. Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it. I have seen firsthand how the system is rigged against our citizens, just like it was rigged against Bernie Sanders – he never had a chance.
But his supporters will join our movement, because we will fix his biggest issue: trade. Millions of Democrats will join our movement because we are going to fix the system so it works for all Americans. In this cause, I am proud to have at my side the next Vice President of the United States: Governor Mike Pence of Indiana.
We will bring the same economic success to America that Mike brought to Indiana. He is a man of character and accomplishment. He is the right man for the job. The first task for our new Administration will be to liberate our citizens from the crime and terrorism and lawlessness that threatens their communities.
America was shocked to its core when our police officers in Dallas were brutally executed. In the days after Dallas, we have seen continued threats and violence against our law enforcement officials. Law officers have been shot or killed in recent days in Georgia, Missouri, Wisconsin, Kansas, Michigan and Tennessee.
On Sunday, more police were gunned down in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Three were killed, and four were badly injured. An attack on law enforcement is an attack on all Americans. 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 our country.
In this race for the White House, I am the Law And Order candidate. The irresponsible rhetoric of our President, who has used the pulpit of the presidency to divide us by race and color, has made America a more dangerous environment for everyone.
This Administration has failed America’s inner cities. It’s failed them on education. It’s failed them on jobs. It’s failed them on crime. It’s failed them at every level.
When I am President, I will work to ensure that all of our kids are treated equally, and protected equally.
Every action I take, I will ask myself: does this make life better for young Americans in Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Ferguson who have as much of a right to live out their dreams as any other child America?
To make life safe in America, we must also address the growing threats we face from outside America: we are going to defeat the barbarians of ISIS. Once again, France is the victim of brutal Islamic terrorism.
Men, women and children viciously mowed down. Lives ruined. Families ripped apart. A nation in mourning.
The damage and devastation that can be inflicted by Islamic radicals has been over and over – at the World Trade Center, at an office party in San Bernardino, at the Boston Marathon, and a military recruiting center in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Only weeks ago, in Orlando, Florida, 49 wonderful Americans were savagely murdered by an Islamic terrorist. This time, the terrorist targeted our LGBT community. As your President, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBT citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology. To protect us from terrorism, we need to focus on three things.
We must have the best intelligence gathering operation in the world. We must abandon the failed policy of nation building and regime change that Hillary Clinton pushed in Iraq, Libya, Egypt and Syria. Instead, we must work with all of our allies who share our goal of destroying ISIS and stamping out Islamic terror.
This includes working with our greatest ally in the region, the State of Israel. Lastly, we must immediately suspend immigration from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism until such time as proven vetting mechanisms have been put in place.
My opponent has called for a radical 550% increase in Syrian refugees on top of existing massive refugee flows coming into our country under President Obama. She proposes this despite the fact that there’s no way to screen these refugees in order to find out who they are or where they come from. I only want to admit individuals into our country who will support our values and love our people.
Anyone who endorses violence, hatred or oppression is not welcome in our country and never will be.
Decades of record immigration have produced lower wages and higher unemployment for our citizens, especially for African-American and Latino workers. We are going to have an immigration system that works, but one that works for the American people.
On Monday, we heard from three parents whose children were killed by illegal immigrants Mary Ann Mendoza, Sabine Durden, and Jamiel Shaw. They are just three brave representatives of many thousands. Of all my travels in this country, nothing has affected me more deeply than the time I have spent with the mothers and fathers who have lost their children to violence spilling across our border.
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. Instead, my opponent wants Sanctuary Cities. But where was sanctuary for Kate Steinle? Where was Sanctuary for the children of Mary Ann, Sabine and Jamiel? Where was sanctuary for all the other Americans who have been so brutally murdered, and who have suffered so horribly?
These wounded American families have been alone. But they are alone no longer. Tonight, this candidate and this whole nation stand in their corner to support them, to send them our love, and to pledge in their honor that we will save countless more families from suffering the same awful fate.
We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration, to stop the gangs and the violence, and to stop the drugs from pouring into our communities. I have been honored to receive the endorsement of America’s Border Patrol Agents, and will work directly with them to protect the integrity of our lawful immigration system.
By ending catch-and-release on the border, we will stop the cycle of human smuggling and violence. Illegal border crossings will go down. Peace will be restored. By enforcing the rules for the millions who overstay their visas, our laws will finally receive the respect they deserve.
Tonight, I want every American whose demands for immigration security have been denied – and every politician who has denied them – to listen very closely to the words I am about to say.
On January 21st of 2017, the day after I take the oath of office, Americans will finally wake up in a country where the laws of the United States are enforced. We are going to be considerate and compassionate to everyone.
But my greatest compassion will be for our own struggling citizens. My plan is the exact opposite of the radical and dangerous immigration policy of Hillary Clinton. Americans want relief from uncontrolled immigration. Communities want relief.
Yet Hillary Clinton is proposing mass amnesty, mass immigration, and mass lawlessness. Her plan will overwhelm your schools and hospitals, further reduce your jobs and wages, and make it harder for recent immigrants to escape from poverty.
I have a different vision for our workers. It begins with a new, fair trade policy that protects our jobs and stands up to countries that cheat. It’s been a signature message of my campaign from day one, and it will be a signature feature of my presidency from the moment I take the oath of office.
I have made billions of dollars in business making deals – now I’m going to make our country rich again. I am going to turn our bad trade agreements into great ones. America has lost nearly-one third of its manufacturing jobs since 1997, following the enactment of disastrous trade deals supported by Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Remember, it was Bill Clinton who signed NAFTA, one of the worst economic deals ever made by our country.
Never again.
I am going to bring our jobs back to Ohio and to America – and I am not going to let companies move to other countries, firing their employees along the way, without consequences.
My opponent, on the other hand, has supported virtually every trade agreement that has been destroying our middle class. She supported NAFTA, and she supported China’s entrance into the World Trade Organization – another one of her husband’s colossal mistakes.
She supported the job killing trade deal with South Korea. She has supported the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The TPP will not only destroy our manufacturing, but it will make America subject to the rulings of foreign governments. I pledge to never sign any trade agreement that hurts our workers, or that diminishes our freedom and independence. Instead, I will make individual deals with individual countries.
No longer will we enter into these massive deals, with many countries, that are thousands of pages long – and which no one from our country even reads or understands. We are going to enforce all trade violations, including through the use of taxes and tariffs, against any country that cheats.
This includes stopping China’s outrageous theft of intellectual property, along with their illegal product dumping, and their devastating currency manipulation. Our horrible trade agreements with China and many others, will be totally renegotiated. That includes renegotiating NAFTA to get a much better deal for America – and we’ll walk away if we don’t get the deal that we want. We are going to start building and making things again.
Next comes the reform of our tax laws, regulations and energy rules. While Hillary Clinton plans a massive tax increase, I have proposed the largest tax reduction of any candidate who has declared for the presidential race this year – Democrat or Republican. Middle-income Americans will experience profound relief, and taxes will be simplified for everyone.
America is one of the highest-taxed nations in the world. Reducing taxes will cause new companies and new jobs to come roaring back into our country. Then we are going to deal with the issue of regulation, one of the greatest job-killers of them all. Excessive regulation is costing our country as much as $2 trillion a year, and we will end it. We are going to lift the restrictions on the production of American energy. This will produce more than $20 trillion in job creating economic activity over the next four decades.
My opponent, on the other hand, wants to put the great miners and steel workers of our country out of work – that will never happen when I am President. With these new economic policies, trillions of dollars will start flowing into our country.
This new wealth will improve the quality of life for all Americans – We will build the roads, highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, and the railways of tomorrow. This, in turn, will create millions more jobs. We will rescue kids from failing schools by helping their parents send them to a safe school of their choice.
My opponent would rather protect education bureaucrats than serve American children. We will repeal and replace disastrous Obamacare. You will be able to choose your own doctor again. And we will fix TSA at the airports! We will completely rebuild our depleted military, and the countries that we protect, at a massive loss, will be asked to pay their fair share.
We will take care of our great Veterans like they have never been taken care of before. My opponent dismissed the VA scandal as being not widespread – one more sign of how out of touch she really is. We are going to ask every Department Head in government to provide a list of wasteful spending projects that we can eliminate in my first 100 days. The politicians have talked about it, I’m going to do it. We are also going to appoint justices to the United States Supreme Court who will uphold our laws and our Constitution.
The replacement for Justice Scalia will be a person of similar views and principles. This will be one of the most important issues decided by this election. My opponent wants to essentially abolish the 2nd amendment. I, on the other hand, received the early and strong endorsement of the National Rifle Association and will protect the right of all Americans to keep their families safe.
At this moment, I would like to thank the evangelical community who have been so good to me and so supportive. You have so much to contribute to our politics, yet our laws prevent you from speaking your minds from your own pulpits.
An amendment, pushed by Lyndon Johnson, many years ago, threatens religious institutions with a loss of their tax-exempt status if they openly advocate their political views.
I am going to work very hard to repeal that language and protect free speech for all Americans. We can accomplish these great things, and so much else – all we need to do is start believing in ourselves and in our country again. It is time to show the whole world that America Is Back – bigger, and better and stronger than ever before.
In this journey, I’m so lucky to have at my side my wife Melania and my wonderful children, Don, Ivanka, Eric, Tiffany, and Barron: you will always be my greatest source of pride and joy. My Dad, Fred Trump, was the smartest and hardest working man I ever knew. I wonder sometimes what he’d say if he were here to see this tonight.
It’s because of him that I learned, from my youngest age, to respect the dignity of work and the dignity of working people. He was a guy most comfortable in the company of bricklayers, carpenters, and electricians and I have a lot of that in me also. Then there’s my mother, Mary. She was strong, but also warm and fair-minded. She was a truly great mother. She was also one of the most honest and charitable people I have ever known, and a great judge of character.
To my sisters Mary Anne and Elizabeth, my brother Robert and my late brother Fred, I will always give you my love you are most special to me. I have loved my life in business.
But now, my sole and exclusive mission is to go to work for our country – to go to work for all of you. It’s time to deliver a victory for the American people. But to do that, we must break free from the petty politics of the past.
America is a nation of believers, dreamers, and strivers that is being led by a group of censors, critics, and cynics.
Remember: all of the people telling you that you can’t have the country you want, are the same people telling you that I wouldn’t be standing here tonight. No longer can we rely on those elites in media, and politics, who will say anything to keep a rigged system in place.
Instead, we must choose to Believe In America. History is watching us now.
It’s waiting to see if we will rise to the occasion, and if we will show the whole world that America is still free and independent and strong.
My opponent asks her supporters to recite a three-word loyalty pledge. It reads: “I’m With Her”. I choose to recite a different pledge.
My pledge reads: “I’M WITH YOU – THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.”
I am your voice.
So to every parent who dreams for their child, and every child who dreams for their future, I say these words to you tonight: I’m With You, and I will fight for you, and I will win for you.
To all Americans tonight, in all our cities and towns, I make this promise: We Will Make America Strong Again.
We Will Make America Proud Again.
We Will Make America Safe Again.
And We Will Make America Great Again.
THANK YOU.
