The unfolding disaster that has been the 2016 Republican presidential primary is now complete. Donald Trump has officially been nominated for the presidency of the United States of America at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio. The only thing left is for him to lose the general election in humiliating fashion.

I like to refer to the convention as the Trumpublican National Trumpvention. He is, in many ways, not a traditional Republican. He strikes different policy positions (to the extent that he has positions) on issues like abortion, healthcare, and especially trade. He campaigns erratically and makes offensive statements no nominee - Republican or Democrat - has made before. His braggadocios style, the way he brands his name on everything and talks about himself incessantly, really does make the convention more about him than about the Republican Party.

But part of my reluctance to view Trump as a traditional Republican also stems from the fact that I don't want him to be a traditional Republican. I don't want to believe that this level of hate and incoherence could come out of a mainstream party in American politics and win its approval.

The sad fact, however, is that even with as many differences as there are between Trump and the old-line GOP, he has honed in on a few key selling points of the GOP and conservative movement. In one particular way, when it comes to appealing to fear and national security authority, Trump isn't anti-Republican, but he is rather an uber-Republican.

Those appeals to fear of vaguely-defined criminals, terrorists, and, most of all, outsiders, were on display in brutal fashion on the first and second days of the horror show. A lineup of washed-up actors and B-list ex-politicians riled up crowds who responded by chanting for Trump's opponent, Hillary Clinton, to be imprisoned.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who said last year that he doesn't think President Obama loves America, said, "We must not be afraid to define our enemy. It is Islamic extremist terrorism," as if anyone doesn't already know. Obama has presided over the bombing of ISIS targets, and Clinton has at times called for more.

Patricia Smith, a grieving mother, blamed Clinton for the tragic death of her son at an outpost in Benghazi, Libya. Scott Baio, an 80's actor who spoke at the convention for some reason, tweeted that Clinton was a "c*nt" just one week before his speech. Another actor, Antonio Sabato Jr, called Obama a Muslim in a post-speech interview and added, "I believe that he's on the other side -- the Middle East. He's with the bad guys."

As bad as that all sounds, it's not at all a departure from the language of Trump, who built his political career on questioning the birthplace of Obama and said last month that he thought Obama might have sympathies with terrorists.

This kind of vicious hate has not been expressed so straightforwardly at past GOP conventions, but the underlying ideas Trump brings to the table - that Democrats are unpatriotic and that foreigners are scary - have been a key part of the Republican appeal, especially since 9/11. George W. Bush warned that electing Democrats and leaving Iraq could result in American deaths. He did, to his credit, stress that this was not a war between Christian America and Islam, but not all Republicans followed his example.

Trump basically stole much of his campaign talking points and strategies from past successful Republican campaigns and turned the volume up to 11. "Make America Great Again" was a slogan used by Ronald Reagan, and Trump's other slogan, his claim that his supporters represent "The Silent Majority," was taken from Richard Nixon's 1968 campaign. Also cribbed from Nixon's 68 campaign is an emphasis on "law and order."

Republicans want someone to "get tough." They want a big strong daddy type to protect them from what they see as a "war on police," as African-American activists protest police brutality, and terrorist attacks in France. But if you ask some of the white supremacists who have been attracted to the Trump movement, the real problem they see is that immigration from foreign countries and the protests by African-Americans are both changing the demographics of America and chipping away at discrimination that has favored whites.

The truth is when Nixon won the presidency on a law-and-order platform, the murder rate was 6.9 per hundred thousand Americans, and there had been race riots across the country - not to mention whites attacking civil rights protesters as well - and assassinations. (The murder rate would rise to 9 during Nixon's term.) Now the murder rate, according to the 2014 numbers, is 4.5, and international terrorism only kills a handful of Americans each year. A spate of highly publicized and indeed terrible killings of police officers and terrorist shootings has raised fears but hasn't changed the underlying reality.

It's true that many Republicans aren't very happy about Trump having won the nomination, but they intend to vote for him anyway because they are so afraid of the Democrats. Hate for the other party animates each party more than a love of their own party. Rep. Paul Ryan accused the Democrats of stoking racial resentment - sounding blissfully unaware of what his own party's nominee has been saying - and Giuliani said, "There is no next election. This is our last chance."

The Republicans have nominated Trump. Leaders who once said they didn't support him have endorsed him and spoken in support of him. Trump is, sadly, the face of the Republican Party.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/MitchellBlatt.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)