Trump, Not the Left, Embodies Unity Message and Looks to Build Strong Middle-Class Coalition
Just days after surviving a near-deadly assassination attempt, former President Donald Trump kicked off the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee Monday night by selecting a vice president who was once a vocal critic of his in 2016 and extending an invitation to a union chief to speak at the convention.
The devastating events of last Saturday are still reverberating through the nation, as Americans grapple with the chilling reality that less than an inch of space prevented former President Trump from death or grave injury over the weekend. Thankfully, Trump emerged from the horrific shooting unscathed except for a grazed ear and kicked off the Republican National Convention less than 48 hours after surviving the attack.
While prominent Democrats and their allies in the mainstream media have used Saturday’s assassination attempt to do everything from attack the Second Amendment to blame Trump himself for the attempt on his life, Trump appears to be focused on unifying Americans regardless of identity politics, something the left is failing miserably to do.
In a grave example of misinformation, President Joe Biden appeared to double down on at least partially blaming Trump for Saturday’s horrific shooting in an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt. Biden appeared to blame Trump for incendiary rhetoric, bringing up an utterly out of context statement Trump made about a “bloodbath” for the auto-industry if he lost the election. Trump did in fact use the word “bloodbath” at a March rally to describe the situation if he loses in November, but Trump was speaking about the U.S. auto industry becoming a “bloodbath” if he loses, nothing else. Biden however, apparently had either not been briefed and corrected on the bloodbath statement or did not care that it was out of context because he told Lester Holt that Trump, “talks about bloodbath if he loses”.
While the left is busy blaming Trump for finding himself in the crosshairs of an assassin, Trump appears to be forging ahead, focused on building a strong coalition of working-class voters this November and embodying a unity message the left is not.
First, Trump announced Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate from a shortlist that included Florida Senator Marco Rubio and others. Vance, a 39-year-old self-made man from a modest background and the author of “Hillbilly Elegy” was highly critical of Trump eight years ago during the 2016 election. However, Vance now says Trump ended up being a great president and he believes his judgement was partially clouded by the mainstream media’s attacks on Trump back in 2016.
In a Fox News interview after being announced, Vance responded to Sean Hannity’s probing questions about negative statements he made about Trump back in 2016. “I don’t hide from that, I was certainly skeptical of Donald Trump in 2016”, Vance told Hannity. “But president Trump was a great president, and he changed my mind. I think he changed the minds of a lot of Americans, because again he delivered that peace and prosperity.” While left-wing pundits like to claim Trump relentlessly criticizes or punishes those who disagree with him, Trump bypassed other vice-presidential picks in favor of a man whose opinion of the former president changed significantly over the past eight years. That’s not the move of someone with a fragile ego, in fact it is quite the opposite.
Then there was Monday’s closing speech at the Republican National Convention, which came from an unlikely source in the form of Teamsters president Sean O’Brien. O’Brien seized on the opportunity to rail against big business and declared that the Teamsters are, “here to say we are not beholden to anyone or any party”.
In his address to the RNC, the first to come from a Teamsters president in the organization’s history, O’Brien declared, “we will create an agenda and work with a bipartisan coalition, ready to accomplish something real for the American worker. And I don’t care about getting criticized.”
While not endorsing Trump, O’Brien congratulated Trump for being willing to listen to other points of view. “President Trump is a candidate who is not afraid of hearing from new, loud and often critical voices”, O’Brien said. “And I think we all can agree, whether people like him or they don’t like him, in light of what happened to him on Saturday, he has proven to be one tough S.O.B.”
For years now, a series of worrying polls have put Democrats on notice that Trump is making significant inroads with groups Democrats have long depended upon, including independents working-class whites, minorities and young people. Days after surviving a vile attack on his life, Trump is embodying unity in a way that goes far beyond words. Through his actions – nominating a vice president who was once highly critical of him, inviting the Teamsters to speak at the RNC, and consistently reaching out to groups Democrats believe belong to them alone – Trump is standing up for a unified middle-class, regardless of labels.
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‘Fight!’ Poll shows 74 percent say Trump acted with bravery and defiance after assassination attempt
That was former President Donald Trump’s immediate statement to his supporters at the tragic Butler, Pa. campaign rally on July 13 that claimed the life of Corey Comperatore as he shielded his family and injured Trump and two others, letting everyone know that he and America were going to be okay following the assassination attempt.
And it did not go unnoticed. 74 percent of registered voters said Trump acted with bravery and defiance, including 94 percent of Republicans, 56 percent of Democrats and 75 percent of independents. 68 percent say he has urged unity and calm, including 88 percent of Republicans, 49 percent of Democrats and 70 percent of independents.
As for causative factors 64 percent agreed that “[T]he core message of Biden campaign and the Democratic party that Trump is a threat to democracy and freedom and a dictator has gone too far,” including 80 percent of Republicans, 52 percent of Democrats and 62 percent of independents.
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Navarro released from prison, to make return to Republican National Convention tonight
Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in response to former White House advisor Peter Navarro being released from federal prison:
"The political prosecution and imprisonment of Peter Navarro for having the audacity to claim executive privilege in response to a Congressional subpoena has come to an end. It is astonishing that the Biden administration would choose to prosecute a political opponent with all of the inherent risks to our nation that it entails in order to put someone in jail for four months. This same Justice Department, which prosecuted both Navarro and former Trump White House advisor Steve Bannon, for failing to testify to Congress, over their executive privilege claims, at the same time, is led by an Attorney General claiming executive privilege in defiance of a Congressional subpoena and found in contempt of Congress. Naturally, Biden's DOJ is refusing to prosecute itself for violating the very same law, exemplifying the current two-tiered justice system. Thankfully, Peter Navarro survived his prison sentence and will be making a triumphant return as a political martyr to the public stage at the Republican National Convention tonight."
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Trump and I Have Proved Conservative Policies Work, Virginia’s Governor Says
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin said both he and former President Donald Trump have shown that “commonsense conservative leadership works.”
Youngkin, a onetime businessman elected in 2021, said Monday night at the Republican National Convention that under President Joe Biden’s administration, Americans are facing 7.5% mortgage rates, while their raises can’t keep up with 30% increases in grocery prices and a 40% jump in the prices at the gas pump.
“Tonight, America—the land of opportunity—just doesn’t feel like that any more,” Youngkin said. “But eight years ago, there was an outsider, a businessman who stepped out of his career to rebuild a great nation, with the strongest economy, the mightiest military, energy independence, unlimited opportunity, lifting up every American. That outsider businessman was Donald J. Trump, and he will do it again.”
Youngkin said that the 2024 election “could not be more simple” and cast it as a contest of strength versus weakness and common sense versus chaos.
He also promoted his own record in Virginia, where he was the first Republican governor elected in 12 years.
“President Trump proved that commonsense conservative leadership works. It works for America,” Youngkin said. “We are proving it in Virginia, too, with $5 billion in tax relief, backing the blue, slashing red tape, declaring loudly that ‘yes, parents matter,’ and creating lots and lots of jobs. We were just named America’s top state to do business.”
https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/07/15/youngkin-says-he-trump-proved-conservative-policies-work/
***************************************************Trump looks to appeal to Reagan Democrats and independents with Vance pick
Vance
Former President Donald Trump wants to engineer a landslide in 2024. In 1972, 1980, 1984 and 1988, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush won monumental 49-state, 44-state, 49-state and 40-state landslides in their respective re-election and election bids.
Eventually earning the moniker, Reagan Democrats, the appeal was to working class Americans who were underrepresented by elites in both political parties. It was critical to Trump’s narrow win in 2016, picking up the Rust Belt states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, and in 1992, it was a great deal of the reason why Bush lost with Ross Perot in the general election and Patrick Buchanan in the primary eating a great deal of those voters who were not being adequately represented by the Republican administration.
In 2020, those voters did not fully turn out for Trump, who although he improved on his 2016 showing, could not overcome the economy temporarily jettisoning 25 million jobs during Covid lockdowns, and Trump went on to lose Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, and also losing Georgia and Arizona in President Joe Biden’s Electoral College win.
To restore and broaden the Trump coalition, he is going back to his 2016 playbook in selecting his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) and with a selection of convention speakers who were once adversarial to Trump, whether model Amber Rose or Teamsters boss Sean O’Brien (who didn’t endorse but whose appearance also green lights members to vote for Trump), but also in his determination to campaign in New York, New Jersey, Virginia and other blue states that have not supported a Republican candidate for president in a long time.
Vance agrees with Trump’s positions on trade, illegal immigration and foreign policy, supporting tariffs on Chinese goods, closing the U.S. southern border and opposing U.S. intervention in Ukraine. He also comes from humble origins in a working-class family, and whose personal story of self-determination and serving his country in the Marines and now the Senate, plus his youth — he’s only 39-years-old — makes him an able-bodied heir of the Trump legacy.
As for the convention, instead of putting on nothing but supporters, Trump has opted for at least a few speakers who looked at Trump and discovered he wasn’t who or what his opponents and media said. Vance, who was once highly critical of Trump, also fits this mold.
Trump is making a play for blue states. If the broader strategy works, it will do so by winning the so-called Reagan Democrats who Reagan’s successors took for granted, and could be a landslide and also prove pivotal to helping Republicans get elected in Congress. Trump will need larger majorities to get anything done.
It’s a higher risk strategy — some Republicans and conservatives were offended by the Rose and O’Brien appearances at the convention, for example — but also one that can produce a higher reward when voters get to the ballot box.
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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://jonjayray.com/covidwatch.html (COVID WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE-TIED)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
http://jonjayray.com/short/short.html (Subject index to my blog posts)
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