For many reasons, “hopeful” and “inclusive” aren’t messages typically associated with the Republican Party, yet the four nights of the Republican National Convention (RNC) last week were filled with a hopeful, diverse vision for the future of America and ALL Americans that simply cannot be denied.
It’s not “playing identity politics” to point out that seeing women, African-Americans, immigrants, and others joining together to share the vision of the country they love is something special, and speaks to something that the left seems to have lost: hope.
While the left uses a nefarious and destructive version of identity politics to slice and dice Americans into increasingly smaller victim groups, those behind the RNC wisely realized the need to include the broadest possible coalition of Americans while ensuring that they pulled these visions together to tell a story that wasn’t about Black America, Latino America, or Immigrant America, but just America.
When the paralyzed Congressional candidate Madison Cawthorn stood up in support of his country, he was doing the exact opposite of the victimhood politics of the left. He was saying that no matter what, he will ALWAYS stand for the country — a none-too-subtle message to the spoiled multimillionaire athletes currently dominating far too much of our political discourse.
When Kim Klacik called herself “unbought and unbossed,” a nod to Shirley Chisolm, the first Black woman elected to Congress and the first to run for president on a major party’s ticket, she was telling viewers that, yes, this Black woman loves America, too.
When former Ambassador to Germany and Acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell laid a blowtorch to the DC globalists seeking to thwart President Trump’s “America First” agenda, he didn’t have to mention that he’s gay in his speech. It doesn’t matter. His foreign policy credentials are why he was there.
This is the America that Republicans are looking to create. One that is inclusive, yet not engulfed in victim politics. Diverse in ways that go so far beyond skin color, sexual orientation, or anything else. It’s a diverse view of the way Republicans see America, and what they think our path forward is.
It’s no wonder why the left is so upset. Their leaders have abandoned all pretense of trying to give them hope. They offer just an endless buffet of misery at how awful all of their lives are in “Trump’s America.” The left in this country is a LONG way from “when they go low, we go high.” They’re going even lower into the gutter, and the mob violence that engulfed the streets of DC after the RNC’s brilliant, well-produced, and classy display of hope, optimism, and patriotism is who they are now.
The shoddily produced DNC, with its Zoom calls of people who profess to hate America and its canned, inert speeches delivered to empty rooms, proved these are people that don’t have hope.
These are people that lash out at patriotism and patriots because their leaders lack the moral courage to stand up for the country they allegedly swore to protect. These are people that see their lives as nothing more than failure and misery because that’s the message their leaders send them in an attempt to regain power.
This RNC will be looked on as a pivotal turning point for the party, a vision of America for all Americans, and a stunning preview of where the party will be headed in the future.
There will never be another President like Donald Trump, but by highlighting the fresh voices of the party like Kim Klacik, Madison Cawthorn, and Vernon Jones, and bookending their stories with stories of average patriotic Americans — not Hollywood celebrities — the RNC showed their vision of the future of the party. It’s shining bright. And blinding Democrats with rage.
Rob Smith is an Iraq War Veteran, Political Commentator, and Contributor with Turning Point USA. Follow him on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @robsmithonline