If you liked “Hamlet” without the prince, you may well have loved the convention in Cleveland, which was short of suspense, eloquence, elegance and, oddly enough, the Republican Party, which seemed to be nowhere in sight.
The hall itself seemed to be missing a number of people, as the cameras showed empty seats everywhere. And outside the hall, it seemed short of takers, as the acceptance speech of nominee Trump drew 31.5 million viewers. That’s just 7 million more than the first Republican debate, which was held a year earlier, and a great many fewer than the 38.9 million drawn eight years before by John McCain, whom Trump called a loser, and who — as he had the bad luck to get himself captured — had not been a hero at all.
That aside, the party was missing its past, its future and much of its present; having only a few of the 32 governors, 54 senators, and 245 representatives show up to be in the room. Of the past, the last two presidents and the last two nominees after them all absented themselves, the sole stand-out being 93-year-old Robert Dole, who ran (and lost) twenty years ago. As for the future, most of the large and star-studded casts of more recent elections could not bring themselves to appear. Joni Ernst, Tom Cotton, and Scott Walker were among the few speakers. Cory Gardner came, but left early. Marco Rubio phoned it in for about 90 seconds, pleading the press of his race for the Senate, in which he runs on a pledge to oppose the next president.
Either not speaking or not there at all were Nikki Haley, Tim Scott, Brian Sandoval, Susana Martinez, Kelly Ayotte, Mia Love, and Jeff Flake, who said that his lawn needed mowing. John Kasich, the host governor (of the most important swing state in the country), didn’t show up, leading the candidate to threaten to end his career. The candidate also threatened to end the career of Ted Cruz, who showed up in order to withhold his endorsement, due to insults the nominee had flung at his family. Just another normal political day in the post-GOP era, but what could you expect of the son of a man who would try to kill Kennedy, as Trump and his minions might say?
Present but seemingly under duress were Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, “not losers so much as they have become hostages,” as Dan Balz has put it, trapped by their roles as party leaders in their houses of Congress, knowing their members span the whole range of feelings, and being justly unwilling to put the futures of any at risk.
Their solution seems to have been to treat this as if this were your usual midterm election, with no contest for president, and no nominee to mention, much less to defend. Mentions of Trump were few, far between, and “far from expansive,” Balz says, centered mainly on the claim that if in the White House Trump would sign bills passed by a Republican Congress. In place of the normal Republican speakers were Trump family members who advanced what most thought a Democratic agenda. On the other hand, as Chuck Todd has said, many Republican backers of Trump are “what I like to call SINOs, Supporters in Name Only.” Rubio, Ryan, et al, say that they’re voting for Trump, and they may do so. But what they may do in the booth when alone with their ballots will be known just to themselves, and to God.
Noemie Emery, a Washington Examiner columnist, is a contributing editor to The Weekly Standard and author of “Great Expectations: The Troubled Lives of Political Families.”
