Yesterday, former North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr left the Republican convention, calling Donald Trump “a danger to the country.” In turn, NCGOP Executive Director Dallas Woodhouse said Orr “hasn’t been a good Republican for a long time.” Orr, though, is right and principled. The is not a Republican convention. It’s a Trumpist spectacle.
The RNC has been a reality show promoting Donald Trump and demonizing Hillary Clinton. There’s no overarching conservative philosophy unifying the participants and, so far, nobody has presented any vision for where the Republican Party wants to take the country. Instead of leaders taking the stage and telling the country what they want to do, third-rate reality show stars bash Clinton and praise Trump. Trump himself is promoting a kind of cult of personality with grand entrances and speaking every night of the convention.
The GOP is clearly split. Responsible conservative leaders are moving away from Trump while opportunistic ones are embracing his divisive, authoritarian rhetoric. Iowa Representative Steve King made the case for racial pride, arguing that no other “subgroup” has done more for civilization than white people. Speakers like Chris Christie, who has more than his share of ethical problems, declare Clinton a crook, leading the chant “Lock her up.”
This year, the RNC is not a convention of the conservative party in this country. It’s a rally in the guise of a reality show for a would-be dictator who plays on the fear and anger of a relatively small segment of the population. Trump is a modern-day P.T. Barnum presenting the current “Greatest Show on Earth” and knowing that there’s not only a sucker born every minute, but a whole bunch of them are in Cleveland right now.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
D.g., I am not aware of Donald Trump making a phony claim of minority heritage in order to be hired under affirmative action employment policies. That’s exactly what Elizabeth Warren did without any credible proof. And If you haven’t yet heard any of Warren’s vicious invective against Trump, just stay tuned. You’ll hear plenty of it from her and other Democrats in the coming weeks and months.
It infuriates me that a cadre of ignorant, hateful fascists have forced me to contemplate the systematic destruction of the country and ensuing Hell on Earth that would result from a Trump victory. For anyone to think/believe that Trump gives a rat’s ass about anyone other than himself should be grounds for being involuntarily committed to an insane asylum. Rounding up the idiots who are in Cleveland would be a good start but still just a drop in the bucket. I just hope that my friend was correct when he predicted that this was the last pathetic attempt at validation by some extraordinarily ignorant and clueless sociopaths. He said this would be their Alamo. We can only hope so.
Nothing more disingenuous and distorted than a liberal Democrat analyzing a Republican convention at it’s halfway point. And OMG, the Republican convention is actually “promoting Donald Trump and demonizing Hillary Clinton?” What a shock!
You don’t suppose the Democrats will demonize Trump and promote Hillary Clinton at their convention next week? Of course they will, but that will be ok with Mr. Mills and his minions here because liberals are notorious for applying double standards to their political opponents.
So is it fair to deduce from your post that you are in support of Donald Trump being the President of the United States?
PS-If you are I completely understand why you would want to keep your name out of it but a little surprised you are intelligent enough to do so
WTF? Interesting handle. Prefer to reference an obscenity rather than post under your real name? Or are those your initials?LOL
Please do brag away about the quality of RNC in Cleveland. It’s a broken party, led by a bankrupt man, a party proud of plagiarism and showmanship but with no ideas on how to lead this nation at all, a party fueled by hate and fear. This is so far removed from Reagan and Lincoln as to be unrecognizable.
Actually, if one has been paying full attention the convention, one has seen many more speakers in full attack mode against HRC, while there has been very little enthusiastic promoting and lauding of Trump. Trump’s initial appearance on the stage (to introduce the plagiarist he happens to be married to) got the most subdued reception of a nominee that I have seen at a nominating convention since 1964.
Most tracking (including my own) done of convention speech themes/topics is showing that about 30% of them are about Trump’s positive attributes and qualifications, while 70% are salvos against HRC. That is a reversal of the percentage one normally sees at such a convention. And that 30% includes remarks made by Trump’s wife, daughter and son — which, BTW, equates to Trump offering personal letters of reference in a job search, and not professional letters of reference from those who he has worked for or with).
D.g., when its comes to employing double standards, you’re right there at the top of the list.
D.g., Hillary and especially Elizabeth Warren have spouted numerous insults and invective at candidate Trump. That’s not unexpected, of course, in a heated political campaign. BOTH sides do it. The double standard applies to liberals and Democrats who self-righteously howl when demonized by their political opponents and then pretend they don’t engage in similar tactics.
And you must have forgotten that scene at the Nevada state Democrat convention when Sanders supporters “pushed back” about how they were unfairly steamrolled by Hillary’s legions. That was certainly an example of “similar behavior.”
Like the end of the posting. Dodo bird is a perfect description.
Bob Orr is a former justice on both the North Carolina Court of Appeals and Supreme Court. He is an intelligent and ethical person. He attended the Republican convention to try to derail the selection of Trump as the Republican nominee. When this effort failed, there was no reason for him to remain at this reality show disguised as a political convention. I agree that Trump’s nomination represents a real and present danger to this country and the rest of the world. I intend to do all that I can to prevent Trump from becoming President of the U.S.
“Woodhouse said Orr “hasn’t been a good Republican for a long time.”
THAT^^^^^shows just what the GOP has become. A political party so internally divided and gripped by its extreme element that many members immediately have their loyalty and integrity questioned or badmouthed if they dare not fall in line.
I’m surprised Woodhouse didn’t label Orr a “RINO” in his quote, just to pile on.
It’s like waiting for a slow motion train wreck. The glaring defects are on display for all to see. We wait for some sort of implosion.
The campaign is run by amateurs and hooligans. Campaign Manager Paul Manafort is right out of central casting. He looks like the guy you meet the morning after you blow a few hundred grand at the tables. Still hungover, you meet him in his casino basement office. Guys without necks stand by the door as you arrange to make payments. Corey Lewandowski, the man Manafort replaced, was seen on camera smacking a journalist and charged with battery. Lewandowski looked like a skinhead and gave Trump credibility with the racists who support him.
There are no political, musical or entertainment stars at the Cleveland convention other than the angry child star who hasn’t worked in decades. Every time they play a song, the band calls up to complain about copyright infringement, and, of course, the Trumps steal speeches. The real author of the “Art of the Deal,” Tony Schwartz, has been remorseful about creating the Trump persona. He does not believe Trump has read a book in his entire adult life. If Schwartz had to do it again, he says he would call the book, “The Sociopath.” The lie that Trump wrote the book has become part of his grandiose self-view: that he is a best-selling author as well as the real estate mogul depicted in the pages.
Incredible how small Trump’s world is. He has his wife, ex-wives, his kids and very few friends. He knows no one of substance who will go to the podium to give him an enthusiastic endorsement. When has a presidential convention been so meager with its praise of the party’s nominee? Everything seems cheap or stolen. There is no parade of luminaries rushing to the podium to praise a great man’s life, only reluctant people who may or may not be on payroll offering faint praise. This is the empty life on display. No fellow military heroes because Trump was no hero. The coke-snorting party-goers from the now-defunct Club 54 are nowhere to be found. There are the thousands of litigants involved in suing Trump or being sued by Trump, but that is not the stuff of brass bands and balloon displays. There are the creditors in the 6 bankruptcy filings. They could fill the Cleveland Convention Center, but, again, not the stuff of celebrations.
How did the Republican Party end up with this tiny-fingered vulgarian as its only choice to lead the country? By now, everyone knows that he couldn’t find most countries on a map. His money comes from a series of scams and fraudulent schemes. He degrades and abuses women. He is not an eloquent speaker, and he isn’t well-read enough to know what passes for proper speech or debate. He is the orange-haired, alpha male in a party looking for a bully to beat up minorities and foreigners. He isn’t pretty, and he isn’t very smart. I’m not sure he is a Republican. Republicans are followers desperately seeking an authoritarian leader.
Hey, Jay. Great post. Would like to share it and use it. Can I simply attribute it to “Jay Ligon” and cite this specific politicsnc.com blog link?
Be my guest. Thank you.
No, thank YOU.
Jay, outstanding analysis. Leaves the rest of us with nothing to add, but to applaud, which I do.
Great post and well stated!!!
How the GOP got Trumped is indeed the key question. I do not see any GOP leaders asking that question though. And I don’t know about you – but I seem to be surrounded by people who feel Trump is the answer to America’s problems. He could easily be our next president. This November, we’ll see what the quotient for American rage and hatred is.
Let’s hope that the Hillary supporters’ calculated risk of nominating the weaker candidate (Hillary over Bernie) doesn’t backfire into a Trump presidency. I’m reasonably confident that Hillary will be president; still I would have preferred the stronger candidate (Bernie) to oppose Trump rather than risk a Trump presidency by choosing Hillary.
And all this time, I thought “responsible Republican” had become an anachronism. Walking out of the convention should be a point of pride after attending in the first place should cast one’s judgment into question. Kudos to Bob Orr (I think).