What Went Down On Night 1 Of The RNC

A lot of what went on tonight was playing hide the football. Scott gave an effective speech, but wasn’t talking very much about Trump. People praised what the economy looked like during Trump’s first three years, but not really talking about what happened to it under COVID-19. That’s probably the best the Republicans can do under the circumstances, though, and the production values were better than I expected.

Republicans merged their traditional ideological themes and attacks on Democrats with Trump’s rhetoric and priorities, highlighting diverse speakers who could be better messengers for swing voters and reluctant Republican voters than Trump. But it is more difficult to run a fear-based campaign for a second term without answering criticisms of the incumbent’s record.

Much of the first night seemed to take a classic law-and-order approach, painting a scary picture if the other side governs and a rosy one if they don’t. While most of the lineup was about reaffirming support for Trump, I found Scott’s speech to be a small window into what the Republican Party could become if it ran campaigns that tried to win over Black voters and other voters of color.