1. United We Mend Divided We Win
The Republican Party may have won the Presidency and Congress during the 2016 historical election but it still lacks the image of a cohesive party able to surprise again and win the 2018 primary elections. And unfortunately the party has had the same image even before they actually won in 2016.
On Friday August 5 2016 Donald Trump delivered a 68-minute speech in Green Bay Wisconsin.
The script was scripted in its first part and non-scripted in the second part. Its main point was supposed to be Trumps endorsement for the re-election of House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) in the Wisconsin GOP primary of Tuesday August 9. Trumps speeches last usually less than an hour and are not scripted.
2. Endorsement for Some Reluctant Endorsers
In the 12th minute of his scripted first half of the speech Trump fully" supported and endorsed Ryan and also the Arizona Senator John McCain and New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte (all three running for re-election in November and all three not so big supporters of Trump). The endorsement lasted a little more than a minute (see time segments 13:32 to 15:08 of the video-clip) which shows us that the speech was not really about them.
Since Ryan and McCain criticized Trump for his response against the Khan familys initial attack on Trumps policy on Muslims and Ayotte offered zero support" for Trump many think that even that minute was too long.
From the beginning the Speaker was not quite there yet" (in Ryans own words) to endorse Trump for the presidential nomination. Trump fired back three days before the one-minute endorsement telling The Washington Post that he was not quite there yet" on supporting Ryan letting the Speaker have a taste of his own medicine.
In fact Trump used the speech to outline several ideas that helped him close the gap of the polls showing that he was trailing Hillary Clinton by several points.
3. The Big Tent" Party
A first idea was the big tent" approach by quoting Ronald Reagan and also mentioning Bernie Sanders:
I understand and embrace the wisdom of Ronald Reagans Big Tent within the party. … He included Reagan democrats and independents and republicans a lot of people. … So I embrace the wisdom that my 80-percent friend is not my 20-percent enemy Ronald Reagan stated by Ronald Reagan. … We will be The Big Tent party. … We are going to have a lot of Bernie Sanders people coming in because of trade. … And as a unified party we will lead our country to unity as well" (see time segment from 10:42 to 12:42).
History of the United States elections has proven that political parties adopting The Big Tent approach have performed better at the polls than parties promoting narrow ideologies.
Trump used The Big Tent approach as a bridge for the portion of the speech where he was supposed to endorse his three reluctant colleagues for the sake of party unity and as a new opportunity to reaffirm our shared mission to make America great again."
4. Relations with Russia
A second idea was the prospect of getting along with Russia" (time segment from 16:05 to 16:52) in the context of building up our military" and getting others with us" in the fight against ISIS who is far bigger" and its all over the place."
This idea gave more ammunition for the likes of Michael Morell a former acting director of CIA who mentioned in a August 5 2016 New York Times interview that as a result of the exchange of compliments between Trump and Putin in the intelligence business we would say that Mr. Putin had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation" (time segment from 5:10 to 5:30 of the interview).
However even this Trumps stance on Russia has to be taken in the context of an evident contrast between the hawkish Putin versus the dovish Hillary Clinton vis--vis international terrorism as Trump was quick in pointing out: They the Russians talk so big and so brave and so tough. They are the tough ones. You know Hillary is real tough give me a break." He also emphasized that cooperation on the anti-terrorism front is not limited to Russia and should be pursued with others."
5. The Queen of Corruption
A third idea was that Hillary Clinton is the Queen of Corruption." This was a new nickname for crooked Hillary Clinton." In her newly anointed royal" capacity Hillarys policy on terrorism and massive immigration of Syrians will destroy the inner workings of our country" (time segment from 16:57 to 17:42).
The nickname reactivated the antipathy that many women voters used to have for Hillary and Trump used it successfully in his following speeches.
Trump went on in having a Hillary in-depth profiling. The combo profile included some of his own terms combined with descriptions of Bernie Sanders and Gary Byrne a former Secret Service officer and author of a book Crisis of Character about Hillarys conduct under his watch.
All these descriptions showed that Hillary is unstable lacks judgment temperament and character to lead the country is a weak person a criminal a dangerous liar unhinged unbalanced lacks the integrity and temperament to serve in the office has an unchangeable leadership style volcanic impulsive and is disdainful of the rules set for everyone else which makes her unqualified to become president. As a result in one way she is a monster" and in another way she is a weak person she is actually not strong enough to be president." In short she will be a disaster she will be so bad for your country" (time segment from 24:01 to 27:07).
And since shes got both" (being a monster and a weak creature at the same time) Trump masterfully depicts a pastel portrait of Hillary where the R. L. Stevensons hideous Jekyll and Hyde" double-personality character meets Oscar Wildes metamorphic Dorian Gray.
6. The Policies in Contrasts
Trump dedicated the second unscripted part of the speech to vigorously promoting his policies in order to maintain the full support of his base but also to capture a part of the independents. He stressed on his better negotiation skills with the Iranians (by exposing the White House $400 million given to Iran as ransom" for five detained Americans in January 2016 which president Obama denied); toughening standards on Muslim immigrants and refugees and extending border security; and the right to bear arms (time segment from 27:07 to 50:00).
In a condensed descriptive package he used a sharp contrast to outline his policy vision in parallel with the ones promoted by Hillary Rotten" Clinton (1:00:21) namely: substantially lowering taxes on business and on person; reducing many regulations; significantly expanding energy production so that we will start paying off our debt; offering an increased protection of the Second Amendment; appointing Supreme Court justices who are supporters and defenders of the Constitution; securing totally the borders; enforcing better the legal immigration; solidifying a non-intervention policy overseas; fulfilling the NATO financial obligations by all member states; getting reimbursed for our defense costs by other U.S. security beneficiary behemoth" countries like Japan South Korea and Saudi Arabia; protection of police and veterans; much better trade deals; and improving local education (time segment from 50:00 to 1:09:50).
7. The Speech Dividends
The purpose of the speech was meant to heal the wounds of the Republican Party but can be also considered a marriage of convenience" between Donald Trump and the Establishment Republicans for the common purpose to win the elections together."
The mere fact that a Republican presidential nominee endorsement for the Republican House Speaker represented news in the media shows just how deeply divided the party still is. Ryans statements that his support for Trump was not a blank check" made Trump reposition himself ever since.
Trump chose to announce his candidacy on June 16 2015 soon after his 69th birthday making this both a powerful national and personal event.
The 2016 presidential election gave us the real cost-benefit analysis of the internal movements of the Republican Party. These movements continue to exist today after the elections in spite of the fact that the Republicans have won the Presidency and both houses of the Congress.
NOTE - A version of the article was published previously in MEDIUM.
Tiberiu Dianu has published several books and a host of articles in law politics and post-communist societies. He currently lives and works in Washington DC and can be followed on MEDIUM.
*****
1. United We Mend Divided We Win
The Republican Party may have won the Presidency and Congress during the 2016 historical election but it still lacks the image of a cohesive party able to surprise again and win the 2018 primary elections. And unfortunately the party has had the same image even before they actually won in 2016.
On Friday August 5 2016 Donald Trump delivered a 68-minute speech in Green Bay Wisconsin.
The script was scripted in its first part and non-scripted in the second part. Its main point was supposed to be Trumps endorsement for the re-election of House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) in the Wisconsin GOP primary of Tuesday August 9. Trumps speeches last usually less than an hour and are not scripted.
2. Endorsement for Some Reluctant Endorsers
In the 12th minute of his scripted first half of the speech Trump fully" supported and endorsed Ryan and also the Arizona Senator John McCain and New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte (all three running for re-election in November and all three not so big supporters of Trump). The endorsement lasted a little more than a minute (see time segments 13:32 to 15:08 of the video-clip) which shows us that the speech was not really about them.
Since Ryan and McCain criticized Trump for his response against the Khan familys initial attack on Trumps policy on Muslims and Ayotte offered zero support" for Trump many think that even that minute was too long.
From the beginning the Speaker was not quite there yet" (in Ryans own words) to endorse Trump for the presidential nomination. Trump fired back three days before the one-minute endorsement telling The Washington Post that he was not quite there yet" on supporting Ryan letting the Speaker have a taste of his own medicine.
In fact Trump used the speech to outline several ideas that helped him close the gap of the polls showing that he was trailing Hillary Clinton by several points.
3. The Big Tent" Party
A first idea was the big tent" approach by quoting Ronald Reagan and also mentioning Bernie Sanders:
I understand and embrace the wisdom of Ronald Reagans Big Tent within the party. … He included Reagan democrats and independents and republicans a lot of people. … So I embrace the wisdom that my 80-percent friend is not my 20-percent enemy Ronald Reagan stated by Ronald Reagan. … We will be The Big Tent party. … We are going to have a lot of Bernie Sanders people coming in because of trade. … And as a unified party we will lead our country to unity as well" (see time segment from 10:42 to 12:42).
History of the United States elections has proven that political parties adopting The Big Tent approach have performed better at the polls than parties promoting narrow ideologies.
Trump used The Big Tent approach as a bridge for the portion of the speech where he was supposed to endorse his three reluctant colleagues for the sake of party unity and as a new opportunity to reaffirm our shared mission to make America great again."
4. Relations with Russia
A second idea was the prospect of getting along with Russia" (time segment from 16:05 to 16:52) in the context of building up our military" and getting others with us" in the fight against ISIS who is far bigger" and its all over the place."
This idea gave more ammunition for the likes of Michael Morell a former acting director of CIA who mentioned in a August 5 2016 New York Times interview that as a result of the exchange of compliments between Trump and Putin in the intelligence business we would say that Mr. Putin had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation" (time segment from 5:10 to 5:30 of the interview).
However even this Trumps stance on Russia has to be taken in the context of an evident contrast between the hawkish Putin versus the dovish Hillary Clinton vis--vis international terrorism as Trump was quick in pointing out: They the Russians talk so big and so brave and so tough. They are the tough ones. You know Hillary is real tough give me a break." He also emphasized that cooperation on the anti-terrorism front is not limited to Russia and should be pursued with others."
5. The Queen of Corruption
A third idea was that Hillary Clinton is the Queen of Corruption." This was a new nickname for crooked Hillary Clinton." In her newly anointed royal" capacity Hillarys policy on terrorism and massive immigration of Syrians will destroy the inner workings of our country" (time segment from 16:57 to 17:42).
The nickname reactivated the antipathy that many women voters used to have for Hillary and Trump used it successfully in his following speeches.
Trump went on in having a Hillary in-depth profiling. The combo profile included some of his own terms combined with descriptions of Bernie Sanders and Gary Byrne a former Secret Service officer and author of a book Crisis of Character about Hillarys conduct under his watch.
All these descriptions showed that Hillary is unstable lacks judgment temperament and character to lead the country is a weak person a criminal a dangerous liar unhinged unbalanced lacks the integrity and temperament to serve in the office has an unchangeable leadership style volcanic impulsive and is disdainful of the rules set for everyone else which makes her unqualified to become president. As a result in one way she is a monster" and in another way she is a weak person she is actually not strong enough to be president." In short she will be a disaster she will be so bad for your country" (time segment from 24:01 to 27:07).
And since shes got both" (being a monster and a weak creature at the same time) Trump masterfully depicts a pastel portrait of Hillary where the R. L. Stevensons hideous Jekyll and Hyde" double-personality character meets Oscar Wildes metamorphic Dorian Gray.
6. The Policies in Contrasts
Trump dedicated the second unscripted part of the speech to vigorously promoting his policies in order to maintain the full support of his base but also to capture a part of the independents. He stressed on his better negotiation skills with the Iranians (by exposing the White House $400 million given to Iran as ransom" for five detained Americans in January 2016 which president Obama denied); toughening standards on Muslim immigrants and refugees and extending border security; and the right to bear arms (time segment from 27:07 to 50:00).
In a condensed descriptive package he used a sharp contrast to outline his policy vision in parallel with the ones promoted by Hillary Rotten" Clinton (1:00:21) namely: substantially lowering taxes on business and on person; reducing many regulations; significantly expanding energy production so that we will start paying off our debt; offering an increased protection of the Second Amendment; appointing Supreme Court justices who are supporters and defenders of the Constitution; securing totally the borders; enforcing better the legal immigration; solidifying a non-intervention policy overseas; fulfilling the NATO financial obligations by all member states; getting reimbursed for our defense costs by other U.S. security beneficiary behemoth" countries like Japan South Korea and Saudi Arabia; protection of police and veterans; much better trade deals; and improving local education (time segment from 50:00 to 1:09:50).
7. The Speech Dividends
The purpose of the speech was meant to heal the wounds of the Republican Party but can be also considered a marriage of convenience" between Donald Trump and the Establishment Republicans for the common purpose to win the elections together."
The mere fact that a Republican presidential nominee endorsement for the Republican House Speaker represented news in the media shows just how deeply divided the party still is. Ryans statements that his support for Trump was not a blank check" made Trump reposition himself ever since.
Trump chose to announce his candidacy on June 16 2015 soon after his 69th birthday making this both a powerful national and personal event.
The 2016 presidential election gave us the real cost-benefit analysis of the internal movements of the Republican Party. These movements continue to exist today after the elections in spite of the fact that the Republicans have won the Presidency and both houses of the Congress.
NOTE - A version of the article was published previously in MEDIUM.
Tiberiu Dianu has published several books and a host of articles in law politics and post-communist societies. He currently lives and works in Washington DC and can be followed on MEDIUM.
*****