Pictures From a Convention
It’s been many years since I read Randall Jarrell’s comic 1954 novel Pictures from an Institution, but I do recall being amazed and amused by its razor-sharp wit. Perhaps I’ll read it again later this summer when I need a break from the Trump-Clinton campaign. Actually, I still can’t quite believe I’m writing that phrase–“the Trump-Clinton campaign.” Because while I’m sure the Republican convention and campaign will have their comic moments, I must say my overwhelming feeling, when I entered the Quicken Loans Arena early Sunday morning for ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos (you can watch the roundtable here), was one of depression. It is depressing that we face a choice between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. It is particularly depressing that, at this time in the nation’s history, the Republican Party is going to do considerable damage to itself and the country by nominating Donald Trump.
I won’t go on about this in this newsletter, since for more on the GOP and Trump, you can read this week’s editorial here, and listen here to my first weekly Kristol Clear Podcast. (Subscribe for free here.) This podcast will go out on Podcast One every Friday, supplementing the regular podcasts we bring you pretty much daily at weeklystandard.com. I also invite you to listen to a new conversation with Jonah Goldberg filmed just this past week and available on Conversations with Bill Kristol, in which Jonah and I discuss Trump’s candidacy and its meaning for conservatism and the Republican Party, among other things. Jonah’s a very bright and engaging thinker, and I think you’ll find his insights interesting and provocative.
So that’s more than enough on Trump. And there’s more to this week in Cleveland than Trump, though he does cast a kind of pall on everything else. Still, even if this year’s GOP convention is, lamentably, Trump’s, political conventions are a grand old American tradition which are always fun to attend. We at The Weekly Standard are looking forward to this one, and we’ll of course bring you reporting and analysis every day at weeklystandard.com.
What to look for? History suggests the key moment will be Trump’s acceptance speech Thursday night. Most often, the rest of the conventions quickly become a blur in people’s memories, but the acceptance speech can make a difference. That’s true especially in the case of Trump, who has the advantage of being the candidate of change in a “change election,” but has the problem that he’s now regarded by too many Americans as too risky a version of change. A reassuring and statesmanlike speech by Trump could help him a lot (even if some of us would remain unconvinced). So if you’re going to watch anything this week, watch his speech Thursday night–it could help put him in the lead in the race (à la George H. W. Bush in 1988), or it could fail to do so, in which case it would be hard to catch up later (à la Mitt Romney in 2012).
Meanwhile, here’s my report on what’s happened so far, with the official convention still yet to convene.
We’ve all made it to Cleveland and environs. I’m at a hotel with a room reserved by ABC, and Steve Hayes is with Fox, but most of my colleagues are staying in a nice house in a neighboring suburb brilliantly reserved by our Catherine Lowe through Airbnb, after the RNC tried to assign us anti-Trump renegades rooms in a Quality Inn somewhere in downtown Toledo. Daniel Halper, who deserted us just a month ago to become D.C. bureau chief for the New York Post, is paying an appropriate price: He’s in a Motel Six some forty miles away from Cleveland. But at least the Post splurged and got them the right to walk across the highway to enjoy the continental breakfast at the nearby Holiday Inn Express!
Rather than fly, I decided for various reasons to drive out Saturday, and it was an uneventful drive through the quite lovely countryside of western Maryland and Pennsylvania. My two young colleagues, Alice Lloyd and Jenna Lifhits, had a more exciting journey yesterday, encountering a deer on the highway in western Maryland. Here’s a picture of Alice’s car, a bit the worse for wear ; but it’s better off than the deer, which is no longer with us; Alice and Jenna were fine, and were rescued by a third colleague, Chris Deaton, who detoured to pick them up and brought them safe and sound (if a bit late) to Cleveland. When they showed up at a kickoff BBQ to which we were kindly treated to by the parents of another colleague, Jim Swift, who live in the area, Jenna and Alice were of course greeted as heroes. They gracefully handled all the demands for accounts of the dramatic event–though once it was clear they were fine and that all was well, they faced some tough questioning (from others at the party, not from me!) as to why all that good deer meat was left behind on the side of the road. . .
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Speaking of carnivorous eating, Mike Warren, Steve Hayes, and I grabbed a bite Sunday afternoon at a busy deli near my hotel in the Cleveland suburbs. According to material provided at the front of the store, Corky & Lenny’s is “where people meet to eat” and, indeed, “is a beloved Cleveland tradition with over 55 years of serving delicious American and Eastern European cuisine along with our signature deli fare.” I’m not sure if the website conveys the size of the portions, but in any case I can report the chopped liver was good as well as plentiful. And the good news is that we didn’t have much time to worry about how much we had just consumed, as we had to hurry off to the afore-mentioned BBQ at the Swifts. Also, while I’m no beer aficionado in the league of, say, Steve Hayes or John McCormack, I thought the local Great Lakes Brewing Company‘s Dortmunder Gold beer was excellent. Or was I biased because of my love for Donald Westlake’s comic mystery capers, starring John Dortmunder?
I tend to think of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa as the homes of “Midwestern nice.” But from the hotel front desk, to the convention arena, to the deli, to random passers-by in the street, everyone here in Cleveland seems awfully nice. “Welcome to Cleveland” is their refrain, “hope you have a great convention!” Maybe they’re cheerful because Cleveland just won its first world championship in over half a century; though when I suggest that to them, for some reason they scowl a bit.
When I say Cleveland, I mean greater Cleveland. Beachwood, the suburban locale of my hotel, is bursting with civic pride, and has produced a local goody bag that’s enlivening our stay here. Or are we actually located in the Village of Woodmere, whose mayor has a letter in our welcome packet and whose town council passed a resolution welcoming everyone associated with the Republican National Convention, a copy of which was also in our welcome packet (“WHEREAS, Woodmere Village plans to roll out the ‘Red Carpet’ to those familiar with our community as well as first-time visitors,” etc.)
So I conclude my first 36 hours here with the heartening thought that though we may have to endure a Trumpian convention this week, Tocquevillian America is also alive and well, and will outlast our current political troubles. Of course Tocqueville also laid out the dangers to modern democracy with unparalleled clarity and depth, so invoking a Tocquevillian America isn’t simply reassuring either. Things aren’t fated to come out all right; if they do, it will be because we make them so.
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Onward!
Bill Kristol
