Night 3 of the RNC Convention 2020

RNC Night 3 was Vice President Pence’s fiery acceptance speech.  Topics particularly emphasized by speakers were law and black outreach.

The ostensible theme of the night was about “heroes.” It was, I thought, very forced and ineffective.  That said, the speakers were so strong this evening that they easilly transcended the thematic box.

The convention opened with a superb prayer offered by Rabbi Aryeh Spero, who spoke eloquently of the “divine gift” of “God-given rights.” The Rabbi seemlessly combined Judaeo-Christian religious philosophy, Lockian natural rights theory, and politics in a fashion that I am accustomed to reading in Revolutionary-era sermons. It was a wonderful throwback that one rarely sees in the modern era, ever since LBJ enshrined in law a threat of tax penalties to all clerics who become openly political.

Law and Order

One of the early subjects that many of the speakers returned to was that of law and order. National Association of Police Organizations President Michael McHale raised this issue with clarity, including lauding the President for his support of the police.

This is certainly a winning issue Trump, and it may well be the one he rides to victory in November as America’s cities burn at the hands of BLM and Antifa, tolerated if not aided by progressive politicians. Could there be anything more cynical today than CNN talking heads calling for an end to the violence because it was helping Trump in the polls. Or could there be anything more cynical than Joe Biden, after being wholly silent on the issue during the DNC Convention, coming out today with both a condemnation of the police in the shooting of Jacob Blake and a toothless call to “end the violence.”

Wow, have you ever seen such brave leadership? One, throwing the police involved in the Blake incident under the bus based on what we know at this point is horrid. Two, somehow, I doubt if a verbal slap on the wrists from Joe is going to stop the Jacobins the progressives have unleashed on this nation. That’s like Robespierre calling for an end to police state terrorism while being transported to the guillotine.  The Jacobins reign of terror will have to run its bloody course and Joe is not going to be able to convince any but the most naive of progressive zealots that he on the right side of this issue before November 3.

And by the way, from the way back machine, this is making the rounds right now.

No one’s going to mistake Joe Biden on this issue for Ronald Reagan.

Abortion

The Rabbi who gave the opening prayer was not the only votary to take the stage during the night.  Sister Dierdre Byrne, a woman who finished a 29 year career as an Army Sugeon before retiring and taking religious vows, spoke on the issue of abortion.  Sister Byrne spoke about Trump’s commitment to unborn babies and she had one of the best lines of the evening –, “I’m not just pro-life, I’m pro eternal life, and I want all of us to end up in Heaven someday”

Outreach

Numerous speakers, including Kellyanne Conway, Gov. Kristi Noem,  Kayleigh McEnany, Lara Trump, and Sen. Joni Ernst, spoke about President Trump and how he and his administration have treated and benefitted women.  They stated their case, though I think any women on the fence are much more likely to be moved to the Republican side over concern over the law and order issue.

And President Trump continued his outreach to blacks to come to the Republican side with three very powerful speakers. The first, and perhaps the most impressive speaker of the night, given his intensity and sincerity, was former NFL star and self-proclaimed life-long Democrat, Jack Brewer:

Brewer was followed by another former NFL great, Burgess Owens, a man now running for office in Utah.

Lastly was civil rights activist Clarence Henderson. It was rather breathtaking to see him on the stage. Henderson’s credibility is beyond reproach. He was part of one of the seminal events of the civil rights era when, in 1960, he was one of a handful of blacks to take part in the “sit in” at Woolworth’s lunch counter in North Carolina.  And he came to the RNC tonight with a message for black Americans.  President Trump “has done more for black Americans in four years than Joe Biden has done in 50.”


I have been calling for Republicans to make the case for black voters to consider conservative values and the Republican party for well over a decade.  Trump is the first to do it.  Whether it has any effect in an era where so many progressives define themselves by their skin color rather than their character remains to be seen, but I could not applaud Presiden Trump with more fevor and sincerity for making the effort.

Foreign Policy

LTG Keith Kellogg (Ret.), the Vice President’s National Security Advisor, spoke at length about the President’s foreign policy and its successes. It is a good speech that covered much the same ground as Sec. of State Pompeo’s speech yesterday

The Vice President, Michael Pence

Vice President Pence officially accepted the nomination as Vice President in the upcoming election, giving a barn-burner of a speech that lauded the successes of Trump’s administration while at the same time, making many effective criticisms of Joe Biden.  As he stated, Biden is a ‘Trojan horse for a radical left’  Virtually every point raised by others during their speeches during the evening was touched upon by Pence, and he particularly emphasized the theme of law and order.