MILWAUKEE — “Positive” was the watchword at day one of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee yesterday. It was how attendees described the mood at the event, in line with Donald Trump’s own directive to stress unity and tone down incendiary rhetoric; it was their response to the former president’s close dodging of an assassination attempt this past weekend; and it was how they felt about this coming election, one in which Trump has taken the lead in battleground states in multiple polls and the respected Cook Political Report predicts six states moving toward the Republicans.
Only two days after a bullet nearly ended their candidate’s life, Republicans had practically, like the candidate himself, come face-to-face with death and come out the other side defiant. One attendee had burst into tears when she heard the news. One said she hadn’t been surprised. Another had been getting a haircut.
Many described a sense of relief. Trump’s death would have not only been the end of a beloved political figure, it seemed, but of an irreplaceable political force, no matter how deep they imagined their bench.
Many others described the political equivalent of a shot of adrenaline.
“We’re all jacked up,” said one. “We’re more determined than ever.”
The candidate’s near-death experience had, for attendees, made clear the election’s existential stakes, as it hit home how quickly and easily their political project could have collapsed. Like their political opponents, these Republicans talked about November as a must-win election that will decide the country’s future.
These pitched emotions spiraled into the night’s climax, when a bandaged-up Trump emerged, on camera, from a stadium corridor into the convention hall to a rapturous, extended ovation. Nearby fire-service workers rushed to the gate to witness the scene, before one lamented, “Now I’ve got to get back to work.”
But the big news of the day was the…
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Auteur: Branko Marcetic
