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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA Carnival of Disinformation
Republicans warmly welcomed voters into their post-truth convention.https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/08/trumps-rnc-was-loaded-disinformation/615838/
Americans who tuned in to this weeks Republican National Convention were treated to a slickly produced, four-day dispatch from an alternate realityone in which the president has defeated the pandemic, healed Americas racial wounds, and ushered in a booming economy. In this carnival of propaganda, Donald Trump was presented not just as a great president, but as a quasi-messianic figure who was single-handedly preventing the nations slide into anarchy. Every presidential-nominating convention is, to a certain extent, an exercise in hype and whitewashing. But Trumps 2020 convention went furtherrewriting the history of his first term with such brazenness that it seemed designed to disorient. The setting of the conventions final night reinforced the surreality: the made-for-TV stage on the White Houses South Lawn; the cheering, unmasked audience of more than 1,000 standing shoulder to shoulder; the speakers blaring Lee Greenwoods God Bless the U.S.A. loud enough to drown out protesters at the gate. This election will decide whether we will defend the American way of life, or whether we allow a radical movement to completely dismantle it, the president declared in his speech formally accepting the Republican nomination. That wont happen. By one count, the address contained at least 20 false or misleading claims.
Many of the Republican strategists I spoke with this week flatly acknowledged that their party was presenting a version of recent events that veered toward fan fiction. But given the bitter mood of the country and the dire state of the race, they said, the campaigns desperation was understandable. In some ways, the speeches are reminiscent of the speeches one hears at a memorial service, where everyone stretches the truth to say nice things, A. J. Delgado, who worked for Trumps 2016 campaign, told me. And were all in the audience muttering, Well, thats not true, but I get itwhat else can you say? The rat-a-tat of distortions and conspiracy theories began with Trumps address to delegates on Monday, when he accused Democrats of trying to rig the election with universal mail-in voting, which he called the greatest scam in the history of politics. (It is not.) Later, Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana claimed that Joe Biden had embraced the insane mission to defund the police. (He has not.) Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida warned that Democrats would disarm you, empty the prisons, lock you in your home, and invite MS-13 to live next door. (They will not.) And Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee said Democrats wanted to keep you locked in your house until you become dependent on the government for everything. (They do not.)
When the coronaviruswhich has so far killed more than 180,000 Americanscame up during the convention, it was in service of Trumpian revisionism. From the very beginning, Democrats, the media, and the World Health Organization got the coronavirus wrong, the narrator said in a video that aired Monday night. But one leader took decisive action to save lives: President Donald Trump. That this narrative was untethered from realityTrumps early refusal to take the virus seriously is well documenteddidnt stop his lib-owning fans from exchanging high fives on social media. That video is going to make all the right heads explode, tweeted the conservative talk-radio host Erick Erickson. The myth that Trump has already beaten the virus pervaded the convention. As my colleague Russell Berman has noted, the pandemic was repeatedly referred to in the past tense. It was awful, Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow said in his speech on Tuesday. Bryan Lanza, a former Trump adviser, defended this warped account as simply a glass-half-full version of the presidents record. When I challenged him on that, he countered, What do you view as defeating the coronavirus? Because I know this administration is measuring by the death count. I pointed out that more than 1,000 Americans are dying every day from the virus. Every death is a tragedy, Lanza replied. But remember where we were in March, when people were estimating 35 million deaths? Three hundred thousand is a fraction of that.
Much of the Republican convention seemed to be organized around erasing the national memory of Trumps bigotry. He presided over a naturalization ceremony. He surprised an ex-felon with a presidential pardon. A slate of Black speakers was invited to say nice things about the president, defend him against accusations of racism, and tout his role in passing a criminal-justice-reform bill. Of course, in between these feel-good stunts and testimonials were bleak warnings about the Marxist revolutionary forces that are wreaking havoc in American citiesand could be coming for you next. The most potent of these segments featured the McCloskeys, an affluent Missouri couple who went viral after pointing guns at Black Lives Matter protesters outside their house in June. Make no mistake, Patricia McCloskey told viewers, no matter where you live, your family will not be safe in the radical Democrats America. Protesters, she said, are not satisfied with spreading chaos and violence into our communities. They want to abolish the suburbs altogether. Police brutalitythe issue at the heart of this summers unrestreceived only glancing mentions during the convention.
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