What Went Down On Night 3 Of The RNC

I haven’t carefully tracked the demographics of the speakers the last three nights. But my perception is that there has been a higher number of Black speakers, compared to Latino or Asian speakers, and that the Black voices have been pretty heavily featured. And the “you ain’t Black” (if you support Trump) quote from Biden has been repeated by virtually all of the Black speakers. It is verging on “clinging to guns and religion” (Obama) and “deplorables” (Clinton) as a gaffe that the Democratic nominee must deeply regret because of how often the Republicans have invoked it. In terms of the number of Black speakers, I wonder if — consciously or unconsciously — the convention organizers think that Black people are the most powerful messengers for the “Trump is not racist” message.

Pretty bold choice to give a former Acting Director of National Intelligence, with his foreign-policy-centric speech, several minutes of prime time given that Americans rarely vote on foreign policy.

There’s a real cognitive dissonance here. If you were an alien getting only this broadcast beamed to your spaceship, you would never guess that America is currently dealing with a deadly viral pandemic, mass protests in response to police shootings, a 17-year-old allegedly opening fire on protestors and multiple natural disasters, including wildfires and an impending hurricane.