Lock her up!
by Tom Sullivan
Hillary Clinton was the focus last night at the RNC convention in Cleveland when cultural resentment wasn’t in the spotlight. In spite of the fact that Melania Trump’s speech introducing her husband was supposed to be the headline event, speakers had Clinton in their sights all night.
Attacks on Clinton went beyond the “Hillary for Prison 2016” tee shirts worn in the streets by followers of Alex Jones. Pat Smith, mother of one of the U.S. Foreign Service officers killed in Benghazi, told the crowd Clinton “ought to be wearing stripes.” Mocking Clinton’s pantsuits, Colorado Senate nominee Darryl Glenn in his speech suggested Clinton “deserves a bright orange jumpsuit.” By the time retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn delivered his fiery, but rambling “Wake up, America!” message about politicians failing to win wars, the crowd had begun shouting, “Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up!” The general joined in.
“BURN THE WITCH!” would not have seemed out of place.
Several speakers — most prominently former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani — insisted on loudly repeating “radical Islamic terrorism” as if it were some kind of Harry Potterish incantation learned in a Defence Against the Dark Arts class at Hogwarts. (A spell, they implied, the feckless Muggle occupying the White House refuses to deploy.) The recitation strangely echoed #BlackLivesMatter protests after Sandra Bland’s death in police custody: #SayHerName. You can bet that was accidental.
What might not have been accidental were passages in Melania Trump’s speech (probably the best of the night) her writers appeared to have lifted from Michelle Obama’s speech at the 2008 Democratic convention. New York Public Radio’s Mike Hearn (among others) thought that was a bit obvious:
So that's pretty blatant, right? pic.twitter.com/EPnHME7afV— Mike Hearn (@mikehearn) July 19, 2016
It was, as several others noted, a pretty dark night, one about fears and threats and enemies. Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst’s speech was all about ISIS being in your town and on your street, coming to kill you in your beds with their long, curved knives. Not exactly “Morning in America.” An LBJ campaign video criticizing Barry Goldwater captures the unease more mainstream Republicans might be feeling about now (h/t Nancy LeTourneau):
Months more where last night came from.