The Republican National Convention kicks off Monday in Milwaukee at one of the most tumultuous moments in modern American history.
The four-day event is a kind of compensation. The city of beer and sausages was supposed to host the convention four years ago, but the in-person meeting was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This time, the event is overshadowed by the attempted assassination of former President Trump, who, undeterred, arrived on Sunday to formally claim the Republican Party nomination.
Columnists Mark Z. Barabak and Anita Chabria are also on hand this week. In this article, they review the whirlwind events of the past 48 hours and reflect on what lies ahead.
Barrabac: Anita, whatever your political views or feelings about Trump, we can all agree that the assassination attempt was terrifying and terrible.
My question from a political standpoint is: both Trump and President Biden called for unity and, at least implicitly, urged a step back from the incendiary rhetoric of the White House campaign. How long can and should that last? After all, political conventions are all about supporting your candidate and tearing down the other.
Chabria: Hi Mark. First of all, I cannot stress enough how unacceptable political violence is. I said it when a hammer-wielding disgruntled man attacked Paul Pelosi and I will say it now: no one in America, regardless of party, should condone what happened in Pennsylvania.
But it puts us in the most difficult position as this crucial election approaches. We need to be able to tell the truth, even the hardest truths.
Despite this horrific incident, it doesn't change the fact that Trump was found guilty in a civil suit of sexually assaulting E. Jean Carroll. It doesn't change the fact that Trump is a convicted felon. It doesn't change the fact that he called immigrants “animals” who are poisoning the lifeblood of our country.
And most importantly, it does not change the political agenda that he and his party have set to fundamentally transform American society into one dominated by white and Christian nationalism.
For me, the challenge is to be honest with those truths while also acknowledging the fear and exhaustion we all feel as our democracy moves closer to chaos.
However, I think there will be a lot of talk about unity at this convention, because it is the best political move. Trump has goodwill at the moment and a more moderate message will only reinforce it and possibly attract undecided voters.
What are you looking forward to this week?
Barrabac: All kinds of conflicting impulses.
Trump is a natural boxer. His first instinct — and second and third — is to attack, and then attack some more.
On Monday, after a judge dismissed his indictment for treating classified documents as if they were Mar-a-Lago trinkets, Trump took to his social media site Truth to issue one of his incendiary, all-caps tirades.
Not very unifying.
But he's also pretty shrewd, knowing that a publication that appeals to his political base won't have nearly the impact or reach of the convention programming, and especially his speech Thursday night accepting the Republican Party nomination.
Notice how unusually quiet Trump remained as Democrats engaged in a dispute over whether to remove Biden from the top of their ticket. (Current Magic 8-Ball forecast: uncertain.)
You may remember that battle edict often attributed to Napoleon. The one that says, “Never interfere with an enemy while he is in the process of destroying himself.”
After being the victim of a horrific attack, Trump has become a much more sympathetic figure, which will likely translate into a slight rise in the polls. He remains in the top political position and will remain there as long as he continues on that path.
How long can he maintain this unusual posture? Your guess is as good as mine.
In the meantime, do you think Democrats will persist in their existential panic? How do you think Trump’s near-death experience has affected their calculations? How should it?
Chabria: These days, any talk of Biden resigning is reduced to backroom mutterings. I don’t see how Democrats can go ahead with that kind of agitation now: If there was concern before that Kamala Harris couldn’t beat Trump, this notion that she’s some kind of defiant hero would be almost impossible to overcome.
Biden offers stability and is a known candidate. I assume the American people will want reassurance and clarity after this, just as they did in 2020.
I think a lot of the tone for what happens next will be set at this convention. There are warring elements in the Republican Party, or so it seems, despite Trump's new focus on unity.
Marjorie Taylor Greene has been very busy on social media. She posted the following after the shooting: This smells like something much more sinister and bigger. There's just too much that doesn't make sense. I don't care what anyone says about what I say, because everyone knows we're all thinking it. Okay, call me a conspiracy theorist. I don't give a damn. The demented left has been fantasizing out loud about killing Trump for years.
In Milwaukee, I'll be looking to see which of these personalities, the MTG or the new Trump, will be the one to take the grassroots' turn. What are you looking for, Mark?
Barrabac: At this moment my luggage is lost.
Beyond that, the biggest moments are broadcast on prime-time television. The days of covering conventions from start to finish are long gone, so most viewers will get their impressions from the highlights offered by the major networks and cable newscasts.
Among them, the most important, of course, will be Trump's acceptance speech on Thursday night. It will be interesting to see what else the Trump campaign has prepared and choreographed when all those eyes are on the Fiserv Forum.
Chabria: Indeed. We hope you find your bags and get to Milwaukee: there is history at stake.
