The Donald Trump National Convention in Cleveland .. wasn’t really much for storytelling. Its messages were muddled, its shared agenda boiled down to hating Hillary Clinton, many of its speakers didn’t want to talk about the candidate and one declined even to endorse him.
.. First, it was a showcase for the institutional failure of the Republican Party in the face of Trump’s assault.
.. Almost none of these figures made a positive case for Trumpism
.. Trump’s campaign actually seemed to hype — by apparently whipping boos against Cruz from the floor, and by having Trump show up in the hall as the speech wrapped, as though the two men might stage a W.W.E. confrontation.
.. the greatest danger of a Trump presidency might not be his transparently authoritarian tendencies, but rather the global chaos that a winging-it Great Man in the Oval Office could unleash.
..free of policy beyond the promise of quick fixes and delivered with a strongman’s permanent shout — while also pulsing with an ideological message whose power will outlive Trump’s wild campaign...That message was a long attack, not on liberalism per se, but on the bipartisan post-Cold War elite consensus on foreign policy, mass immigration, free trade.
Donald Trump’s Convention: Day 4
Screaming matches between delegates. Past nominees who refused to attend. Speakers who seem allergic to mentioning the nominee’s name – or policies. The runner-up refusing to endorse the winner.
Plagiarism. Lies about plagiarism. Talk of Lucifer from the stage. Humanizing stories about the nominee relegated to obscure time slots. Multiple speakers calling for the jailing of the opposing nominee. A prominent delegate calling for that nominee’s execution by firing squad.
GOP insiders expect convention mayhem
‘I say this with no joy whatsoever, but the far-left agitators in Cleveland will make the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago look like a fourth-grade slap fight,’ said an Ohio Republican.
Nearly half of GOP insiders in key battleground states — many of whom will be in attendance — believe there’s a good chance violence will break out around next week’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
.. many cited protest groups tied to liberal causes, like the Black Lives Matter movement. Nearly a half-dozen Republicans mentioned the Hungarian-born billionaire George Soros, who is a prolific donor to liberal causes. But few thought violence would ensue from an effort to fight Trump’s nomination on the convention floor.
.. “I am in Cleveland as I write this,” said a Colorado Republican. “Could there be some violence? Sure. But the protesters I’ve seen (and interacted with) are paid. They have been flown here by organizations looking to foment unrest. At the end of the day, most of them are college kids who won’t have an appetite for an actual confrontation with the considerable law enforcement presence here.”
How Trump’s adversaries lost it all in Cleveland
‘Pigs get fed, hogs get slaughtered,’ said one negotiator who tried to deal with the GOP insurgency.
.. In exchange for dropping some of his most divisive proposals – a ban on lobbyists serving on the RNC and a plan to weaken the power of the national GOP chairman – Cuccinelli would get concessions on a package of reforms to the 2020 presidential primary process, as well as on a change to the terms of RNC members.
.. the RNC pulled out of the talks when, according to three sources involved in the final negotiations, Cuccinelli conceded that he couldn’t guarantee the support of his faction – even for a more favorable version of the agreement.
.. He sought a proposal to provide closed-primary states with a 25 percent bonus in their delegate pool at the national convention. The RNC countered by proposing a 15 percent bonus to states’ at-large delegate pools.
.. former Congressman Doug Ose, one of Trump’s supporters on the committee, repeatedly invoked procedural motions that permanently ended debate on the most divisive subjects, catching Trump’s opponents off-guard and ensuring that the committee proceedings moved apace.
.. After a five-hour delayed start, they decided – with little warning – to continue meeting late into the night Thursday, while most of Trump’s opponents were preparing to recess and continue debate on Friday.
“Why give them a whole day to regroup, refresh,” said one RNC official. “Once you press the attack, you don’t let off.”
.. Now Cuccinelli is threatening to disrupt Monday’s convention proceedings by encouraging delegates to vote down the rules passed by the committee, when they come up for a final vote. That would throw the convention into chaos on the day delegates are expected to formally nominate Trump.