The werewolf has arrived. Dirty Harry takes on the world. Savonarola for the 21st Century. These are a few of the ideas in my head after watching Trump’s speech last night.
There was absolutely nothing uplifting about the speech. Reagan’s “shining city on a hill” was in ashes. Even his efforts to reach out to groups that are usually anathema to Republicans were fueled by anger and fear of The Other.
I have watched film of Mussolini strutting and ranting and wondered why the Italian people didn’t just laugh and walk away. Now I know the answer; angry, forceful shouting can make for compelling theater.
Understand that if things are truly as bad as he said, Trump was making the case to be our dictator, not our President. The question now is, when people get up this morning and walk into a world in which the unemployment rate is less than 5 percent, the market is at record highs, violent crime has diminished, and illegal immigrants are not stalking us in our streets, will they believe their eyes or what Trump told them last night?
We’ll find out in November.