When the Left looks back at the inflection point of this race, it could be the slow speech issued by the Slovenian supermodel written off as a bimbo, a gold digger, a trophy wife, and a moron by Democrats and the media.
First lady Melania Trump’s keynote address at the Republican National Convention could be the moment when it became obvious that despite Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s best attempts to position the Democrats as the return to normalcy party, their woke warriors and incompetent mayors and governors handed President Trump his single best reelection odds amid a global pandemic and double-digit unemployment.
We do not know much about the first lady’s passions and loves. As the Left likes to joke, it can’t even be sure that she loves her husband. But we do know this: She loves her son Barron, and she deeply, deeply loves this country and its people. And in a moment of mass delusion, with the Left pretending rioters aren’t burning the nation’s cities to the ground and the Right pretending a global pandemic killing thousands of people each day has passed, the first lady spoke to the reality that blue and red America is experiencing but refusing to acknowledge. And perhaps the craziest thing about her revelation of a speech was its simplicity — the fact that it really meandered through memos of empathy about the various crises plaguing the nation.
First, Trump relayed her own immigration story, one that has been wildly dissected and mocked by our supremely woke media but one that she does not usually open up about.
“Growing up as a young child in Slovenia, which was under communist rule at the time, I always heard about an amazing place called America — a land that stood for freedom and opportunity,” Trump said. “As I grew older, it became my goal to move to the United States and follow my dream of working in the fashion industry. My parents worked very hard to ensure our family could not only leave and prosper in America but also contribute to a nation that allows for people to arrive with a dream and make it reality.”
And with that framing — the notion of an American promise, not a perfect American guarantee — the stage was set for her to do what her husband is functionally incapable of: express sympathy for everything that’s wrong at the moment and provide hope that competent governance and a unified community can change it.
She said, “We must remember that today, we are all one community comprised of many races, religions, and ethnicities. Our diverse and storied history is what makes our country strong, and yet, we still have so much to learn from one another. With that in mind, I’d like to call on the citizens of this country to take a moment, pause, and look at things from all perspectives. I urge people to come together in a civil manner so we can work and live up to our standard American ideals. I also ask people to stop the violence and looting being done in the name of justice and never make assumptions based on the color of a person’s skin. Instead of tearing things down, let’s reflect on our mistakes. Be proud of our evolution, and look to our way forward. Every day, let us remember that we are one nation under God, and we need to cherish one another.”
Unlike other Republicans, her rhetoric referred to the coronavirus as an extant problem, refusing to use the past tense to talk about “those who are ill or suffering.” And unlike the Democrats, Trump directly addressed the social ills exacerbated by the lockdowns, making a specific plea to parents to take suicide and depression, drug addiction — and specifically the opioid crisis, which went unacknowledged at the Democratic National Convention — and social media, with all of its related problems, seriously.
Sure, Melania made passing mention of her husband’s accomplishments and commitments throughout the speech. But in truth, she didn’t have to. Unlike every other politician over the last week and a half, Melania wasn’t talking about herself or her enemies. She was making the appeal that, unlike a potential Biden administration, on some level and for all of its foibles, the Trump administration still sees reality for what it is.
A lackluster Democratic convention evidently gave Trump a tiny boost in the polls, including the tightening of some crucial swing-state polls. But if Trump’s numbers with women budge at all, he has his wife to thank.
