Republicans’ powerful message: ‘the US is not racist’, by Greg Sheridan.
Overall, the Republican convention was a more coherent and adult experience because it consisted almost entirely of speeches. It was, though it’s a controversial thing to say, much more rational and less emotional than the Democratic convention. …
The two most important and effective speakers were Nikki Haley, daughter of Indian immigrants who became governor of South Carolina, then Trump’s ambassador to the UN; and African American senator Tim Scott, also from South Carolina. They had a lot to say about Trump, but they also had a lot to say about their nation.
“America is not a racist country,” Haley declared, “that is a lie.” …
So Haley, Scott and the Republicans generally tell the American story this way. The US is a nation founded on liberty which, like other nations, had grave injustices in its past. It has got rid of those injustices. Scott is thrilled at how far America has come and how the voters of South Carolina, the majority of them white, did not judge him on the colour of his skin but on the content of his character.
Democrats, at their convention, interpreted the same data in exactly the opposite way. Lives like that of Scott’s grandfather, in their view, show that America was always inherently, irredeemably, essentially racist and is still defined by its structural racism. To which one might reply: how many other big nations have elected a head of state from a racial minority, not to mention governors, senators, congressmen, mayors and judges? …
The Republicans had a clear-enough policy pitch: before the coronavirus, Trump’s economic policies were overwhelmingly effective and he would be the best person to lead the US economy back to recovery; he took important early actions on coronavirus; he improved trade deals; and Joe Biden and the most left-wing Democratic Party in history would change America fundamentally and for the worse.
Democrats: Trump bad!
Republicans: America great!
The media is furious at those who love America.
