For all the mocking of Donald Trump's Fidel Castro–like exhortations at the Republican National Convention (RNC) last night (and he did go on way too long), his endless monologue threw down a gauntlet to Joe Biden and the Democrats in a deep and profound way that will difficult to top, whether or not Scranton Joe gets the boot before or after Chicago. Suddenly, vanquishing the memories of the 1968 Democratic National Convention (DNC) being disrupted by violent far-left protesters is a secondary concern for the Dems assembling in the Windy City in August.
It's impossible not to compare last night's RNC finale ultimo to the presidential pageantry in Mike Judge's Idiocracy, and laugh all you want. Trump 2.0 doesn't give a fuck and neither do the people around him. Mock the endless acceptance speech all you want—at times he seemed like late-life Bette Davis accepting a Golden Globe and settling scores with Joan Crawford from 50 years back—but he and the Republicans had a great night. And even when he was just making shit up (illegal immigrants have somehow stolen 107 percent of all jobs!) and every time he invoked pre-COVID, pre-Biden America, you could sense people all over the country nodding along, at least a little bit.
