CNN, of all people, summarized Day Three of the Republican Convention perfectly: “Ted Cruz stole the show, and then Donald Trump stole it right back.”
Of course, it’s beyond CNN to give Trump kudos for the spectacular turnaround; it’s not called the Clinton News Network for nothing. On a splash page running the words “Defiant Cruz” over the media darling du jour, features below proclaim, “How Cruz Stole Trump’s Show,” “Opinion: Trump’s Dreadful Night,” and “Senator To Trump: “I Won’t Back People Who Attack My Family,” along with featured stories on Trump not defending allies and the hundredth repetition of Trump being hurt by “plagiarism flap.”
Talking heads will milk the Cruz incident ad nauseam, so I will merely dwell on two mysteries involving the incident.
The large mystery is why Cruz did it at all. Cruz took a pledge earlier to support the Republican nominee whoever it might be. So, when Trump invited Cruz to speak, it was universally assumed that, while Cruz might not exactly adore Trump, he (Cruz) was a team player and certainly would not do anything that might help put Hillary Clinton in the White House. A reluctant endorsement would surely be announced, and an ostensibly unified Republican party would take to the battlefield.
How could Cruz do anything but? If he failed to support Trump and Trump won, Cruz would be in Outer Siberia for the next four to eight years. If he failed to support Trump and Trump lost, Cruz would be blamed for the loss. Even if Cruz wanted Trump to lose, he likely do more damage and network-building inside the campaign as an ally. There was no down side to supporting Trump, however reluctantly, and much to risk by not doing so. “Little Marco” proved himself big by going just this route. Yet Cruz went for it regardless, despite an entire convention floor of Republicans, even the delegation from his own state of Texas, booing and cursing him.
Clearly Cruz saw himself at something of a Reagan/Ford moment, when the challenger can’t take the title from the champ yet, but does want to position himself as the Greater White Hope. The difference being that Reagan did the smart thing: he bided his time, and till then supported and campaigned for Ford.
What in the world possessed Cruz to cast aside this successful strategy and instead gore Trump before the entire party and the world? It’s like a rejected suitor being invited to a wedding and hearing the minister ask, “If there are any among you who have an objection…” and bursting out, “Yes! The groom’s a pig! And the bride’s an idiot too! I should be up there! Me, me, me!”
Was it sheer small-minded mean-spirited pettiness on the part of Cruz? That, plus the naked egomaniacal frisson of dominating the media again for a few minutes again after months in the shadow? Perhaps it is.
In any case, Cruz droned vapidly on and on, as chants of “We Want Trump” increasingly swept through the arena. And, as the interminable string of cliches, began to drown under the weight of the catcalls, Cruz finally came out with his 2016 recommendation: “Vote… your conscience,” he blared, and droned on still as the crowd erupted in execration.
Well, that was enough. Like Michael banishing Satan to the infernal depths, no less than Trump himself then appeared. All cameras swiveled to the Republican nominee. Cruz, no longer in the limelight, flapped off to his vampyr aerie, even as his wife Heidi was being driven out by Republicans chanting (in yet another of the surrealist inversions typical of this weird election season) exorcist howls of “Goldmann Sachs! Goldman Sachs!”
Heidi’s husband, the man of principle, has since e-blasted a new series of emails to his list asking for more money to carry on the fight. “What fight?” you reasonably ask? Don’t. Reason has nothing to do with it.
But I spoke of two mysteries. Here’s the second:
Reports vary, but apparently Trump knew either two days, six hours, or two hours beforehand that Cruz had no intention to endorse.
Why in the world would Trump, aiming to unify the Party, bring in someone with no intention of doing anything but maintaining, even heightening, division?
I am increasingly beginning to suspect that Donald Trump has an ability to read these situations with spectacular depth. He knows full well that Cruz has been doing all he can to build an organization to take the Republican candidacy in 2020. Cruz’ allegiance now will not likely add many votes to the Trump coffer. What Cruz voter will vote Hillary? But removing Cruz from possible future contention is wise long-term strategy. Solution: give Cruz enough rope to hang himself! And what could seal his fate better than disgracing himself in front of all the TV and media and being booed off-stage by the entire Republican National Convention?
Running this option implies massive contempt for Cruz’ judgment, but Cruz richly fulfilled its promise. He is now in the political wilderness, God be thanked. One wonders whether he will have the sense to eat crow at some future point, or simply press further to the extreme, purely to maintain media attention? I expect the latter.
The drama of the convention then took yet another shift as the next speaker appeared. This, in yet another touch of genius, was Eric Trump. Eric’s speech was not the speech of an obvious up-and-coming pol like Donald Junior, but rather the heartfelt tribute of a loving son. In the wake of Lyin’ Ted’s backstabbing betrayal, it was almost poetically heightened as the camera eye panned over the faces of the Trumps, each one pulling for Eric and for dear old Dad. Trump himself grew visibly misty, and if there has ever been a moment when Donald Trump and the American electorate were at one, it was this moment, as the electorate saw this beleaguered father’s evident love and affection for his son, standing up for him in front of the world. It was the moment when the floor genuinely bonded with its nominee.
And — maraschino cherry on the icing — then came Pence. I confess I am no great Pence fan, but yet again I found myself impressed after the fact by Trump’s deftness of move. Pence is the anti-Trump, self-effacing where Trump is brash, quiet where Trump is loud, dry where Trump is gross, humble where Trump is arrogant, reticent where Trump appalls. He is the perfect foil, the sweetener that takes the edge of the tartness of The Donald. Moreover — like the Trump brood — he reassures. Can Trump really be the gibbering Nazi madman the Democrats say if he selects such a gentle mild-mannered soul as this as his wingman? The Supreme Court objection to Trump crashed with Pence’s first smile, with his introduction to his tear-eyed elderly mother. A perfect choice to soothe ruffled Conservative feathers, Pence even stepped up his game and delivered a genuinely sane and energetic speech. Fortunate the nation whose high offices Trump fills with figures like this. Or so at least was the impression Pence made.
So. Day 3 — a plus or minus for Trump? A plus for the country, certainly. Trump’s ambiguity is such that even his worst critic may reasonably hope to be surprised. Cruz Conservatism, on the other hand, aims to weld the dominionist religious right, Goldman Sachs, and neoconservative military imperialism into iron whole. It is not the promise of Trump, an evolution of conservatism (or mutation, if you are a critic), but its fossilization. Whatever else can be said of Trump, his wresting of the nomination from the Establishment forces both right and left to reconsider their ideas, their assumptions, the entire political landscape. Cruz and Clinton in their respective ways are the embodiments of conservatism in the worst sense, that of preserving, anchoring, an unpopular and dysfunctional status quo.
Trump has shattered that sclerosis, but definitively? It’s hard to say. The Republican establishment is already talking about the virtues of installing nomination-by-superdelegate in the wake of a Trump loss. Au revoir, democracy as we know it.
But is a loss closer as a result of Day 3, or is victory? I am tempted to call it a draw.
Certainly Eric Trump and Pence will do much to drain concern about Trump away from the undecided. The impact from Cruz remains to be seen. And from his strange-bedfellow enablers, the liberal media: Cruz’ mean-spiritedness is such that he will no doubt do all he can to bash and gore Trump further, and justify himself, every chance he gets; and the mainstream, ever thirsting for anti-Trump commentary, will see to it that Cruz’ vitriol is spread to the four winds. It is quite obvious by now that no one believes or cares what the talking heads themselves say, but Cruz has his own weird integrity, and his own (much diminished, now) following. Like an endlessly nagging spouse, it may well take a toll.
But overall, Trump has banished Cruz to the infernal realms, the impact of Trump’s children is growing ever stronger and more positive, and Pence is looking good. Hard to call all that a minus.
So: there is only one day left now for the much-anticipated rioting in the streets, the Republican Establishment coup d’etat, the wistfully suggested assassination attempt, and feverish media dreams of the candidate’s string of crazy gaffes finally ascending to the all-obliterating heights of muttering the “N” word on national TV. Triumph at hand, will Trump screw it all up for the sheer hell of it tomorrow, and laugh?
We’ll see tomorrow.