What Went Down On Night 1 Of The RNC

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.

We saw a much different approach to an audience-less convention tonight. Most notably, we saw multiple presenters from a single location, while last week featured speakers from Zoom-ing in from across the U.S. As a television experience, it certainly flowed better, but as a viewer, it felt fairly one-note and quite safe. We saw the Democrats adjust to their new format throughout the week, and I’m curious what small changes will be put in place the rest of this week.