Caring about politics isn’t always easy. Sometimes, it means subjecting oneself to watching things like the first night of the Republican National Convention (RNC). Here’s what happened.
The 2020 RNC opened with Congressman Jim Jordan’s three-minute address that introduced President Trump as pro-America and described Democratic American cities as being overtaken by crime, violence and mob rule. Congressman Jordan happens to be the man accused of ignoring the sexual abuse of multiple athletes and students by a former team doctor at Ohio State University. Jordan avidly supports gun ownership, exhibits blatant ignorance in referring to COVID-19 as a hoax, and also believes that Trump has been successful in growing the U.S. economy, lowering unemployment, and building the wall. Congressman Jordan’s erroneous beliefs put Republican priorities into perspective and encapsulate everything one needs to know about their party values.
Freedom in America has a completely different definition in the eyes of Republicans than it does for Democrats and Socialists. To the Republican National Party, freedom is individualistic and irrational. Prioritizing a pro-gun, pro-white, pro-self-America ignores the actual issues at hand: COVID-19, the growing wage gap, systemic racism, the effects of a market economy on America’s people, and the environment. To Jim Jordan, Democrats are banning church, work and school, while enabling protests, riots and looting, when in reality, American citizens are calling for change. Many radical Trump supporters are too terrified of losing their guns and privilege to take a second and consider—let alone comprehend—America’s need for reform.
Natalie Harp spoke next, bringing an abundance of mass generalizations with her. The five-minute speech highlighted Harp’s experience surviving cancer and how Trump assisted her in getting through it. Harp claimed that Democratic healthcare is simply “the right to marijuana” and opioids. Later, Harp said that Donald Trump’s Right to Try Act saved her life five years ago, though Trump has not even been in office for four years. Harp did what most speakers that night did: she lied through her teeth. It’s hard to take someone’s words seriously when they’re lined with fabrication and propaganda.
Herschel Walker, former NFL football player, vouched for Trump’s anti-racism and cited their 35-year friendship, which is about as valuable as claiming, “I have Black friends.”
Up next is Donald Trump Jr.’s speech, otherwise known as a speech that caused mass delusion among the audience. It’s important to note that this person has no political background or position, aside from being the son of Donald Trump. Trump Jr.’s watery-eyed, strangely-put 10-minute speech said so much without saying anything at all. There was something about a swamp and Biden being the Loch Ness monster within said swamp. It’s safe to say that the RNC speakers should probably be drug-tested before they take the stage; the Trump family would be disqualified in a heartbeat.
Instead of analyzing what everyone had to say, perhaps consider that, upon fact-checking, more lies were told during the first night of the RNC than in all 4 days of the Democratic National Convention. Claims such as Democrats wanting to get everyone hooked on drugs and abolish suburbs are massive generalizations that are blatantly untrue, and Republican speakers were spewing this national television.
This article isn’t saying what side of history to be on, to re-evaluate political values, or, to Americans, to vote for Biden. However, when Congressman Jim Jordan thanks President Trump for working hard “every day in Washington,” when, in reality, Trump has golfed 275 days of his 1313 days in office, it’s clear that Republicans have no idea what’s going on in America.
Watch the highlights from night 1 of the RNC: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/25/us/politics/rnc-convention.html