TRUMP'S ANSWER TO THE DNC: LOTS MORE OF ME
Joe Biden capped off a surprisingly effective virtual Democratic National Convention on Thursday night with what just may have been a career-defining speech: a paean to decency, to democracy, to hope in the face of pain. “It’s time for us, for we, the people, to come together,” Biden said, promising to be an “ally of the light.” “United we can and will overcome this season of darkness in America.” In another time, such a call might sound platitudinous. But for a nation mired in despair, consumed by crises, the promise of a better tomorrow was heartening, familiar and foreign at the same.
The unity and hope and decency of which he spoke were overarching themes of this week’s DNC. From progressives like Bernie Sanders to Republicans like John Kasich, from rising stars like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to party leaders like Barack Obama, speakers sought to remind a weary nation that, whatever policy disagreements that might exist under this big tent, all can agree that there’s a better way to live. The pandemic doesn’t have to be an unconquerable oppressor. The systemic injustice that has plagued our society since its inception doesn’t have to persist. The heaviness that has hung over the national mood even before the coronavirus crisis exploded, that prevailing sense of gloom and anxiety, can be lifted. “This chapter of American darkness,” as Biden put it Thursday, can be drawn to a close.
“We can choose a path of becoming angrier, less hopeful, more divided — a path of shadow and suspicion,” Biden said Thursday. “Or, we can choose a different path and together take this chance to heal, to reform, to unite—a path of hope and light.”
What a contrast that message is from that of Donald Trump, whose mean and joyless presidency has given way to a somehow even darker reelection campaign. From the Democrats this week, the narrative was all about coming together as a nation, the power of democracy. In Trump’s counterprogramming, there was only more division, fear, and ugliness: American cities are “terrible,” everyone’s out to get you, and Biden is trying to “destroy the American way of life.” All that stands in the way of this looming national annihilation, he says, is himself.
He’ll surely seek to further advance his “American carnage” narrative next week at the Republican National Convention, though it’s not quite clear what shape it’ll all take. That’s because, with just three days before it’s set to begin, the particulars are still being worked out by the president and his aides. Trump, a bona fide television addict, has taken the lead in the effort to produce a four-day GOP telethon that outshines that of the Democrats. But watching hours and hours of television does not necessarily qualify one to produce television, and the re-coronation party he’s planning for himself seems poised to descend into his typical chaos.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/08/trumps-answer-to-the-dnc-lots-more-of-me
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