Milwaukee, Wis. — Former President Donald Trump only named his campaign opponent a single time during his Thursday-night nomination acceptance speech. In fact, President Joe Biden barely appeared at all in any of the dozen-plus speeches given on the final night of the Republican National Convention.
The decision makes sense on the surface. Trump might not even be running against Biden in November. In the hours before Trump spoke, rumors swirled about the president’s imminent withdrawal as the Biden and Obama camps shot anonymous quotes and “confirmed” plans back and forth through reporters.
It’s easy for a party in opposition to fall into this sort of rut, but a serious failure for the party in power to do so.
But the decision reveals something deeper, too. Can you imagine Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris or Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) giving an hour-plus speech with hardly a mention of Donald Trump? Or even a six-minute talk? In case anyone missed it, Biden canceled his Monday address commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act out of respect for the deadly assassination attempt on Trump. If he couldn’t use the occasion to bash Donald Trump, it wasn’t even worth the event. Some commemoration.
Even aside from being unable to keep Trump’s name out of his mouth, Joe Biden would struggle to articulate a platform or a plan for the next four years that wasn’t largely focused on reacting against the opposition. It’s easy for a party in opposition to fall into this sort of rut, but a serious failure for the party in power to do so. Today, they have little to offer besides attacks.
Compare that to the Republican Party. I watched the 2012 and 2016 Republican conventions tucked into the shadows of the nosebleeds with Tucker Carlson and other Daily Caller staff. You’d hear occasional applause and a few laughs, but there was no chance he would have accepted an offer to speak on the main stage. And the change wasn’t in Tucker, who in the years since has somehow become even less willing to do things he doesn’t want to do.
The change is in the Republican Party, and it is apparent in the elevation of one of the very few senators who actually believes (and legislates) the populist-conservative agenda. The Grand Old Party has become the party of ideas. And that’s a good thing.
That doesn’t mean it will stick. Gov. Ronald Reagan forced a conservative takeover of the party in 1980. The day his vice president succeeded him in office was nicknamed “the night of long knives” for the number of conservative staff dismissed from their jobs. For the next three dozen years, the party would cling to power, counting on conservative votes and using Reagan’s name in every speech — but following a very different policy.
The selection of Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) is a strong guard against this but no sure thing. The coming battle is a battle of ideas. The Republican Party of Trump and Vance is winning right now. But it will be a hard fight to come.
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