Cleveland diary: Iran is far, Baton Rouge is here

1.

Talking to delegates and observers in Cleveland, as the GOP convention is picking up steam, one thing is clear: as much as Donald Trump and his whacky candidacy are Hillary Clinton’s greatest assets this election – Hillary Clinton and her battered resume are Donald Trump’s greatest assets this election. Look at this quote as an example: “I think the prevailing mood this year is that Hillary has to be stopped or you’re not going to put the toothpaste back in the tube.” It is better versed than most similar utterances, but similar in content. The closer Election Day makes a Clinton presidency a tangible reality, the more of those displeased Cruz delegates and Kasich delegates will come around to support Trump.

2.

The short revolt yesterday did not succeed for two obvious reasons: most of the delegates have already come to accept Trump as the candidate – and his rivals have no one exciting enough to present as an alternative.

To replace a candidate at the last minute one needs a dark horse. Someone such as 1852 James Polk – who took the Democratic Party and the country by surprise (and was, according to most historians, a very good president, maybe even great). A few miles from downtown Cleveland, where the convention is under way, the house of another dark horse, the less successful James Garfield, murdered shortly after his surprise rise to power, is waiting for visitors.

Garfield was shot and severely wounded on a hot day in July of 1881. The motivation of his assassin, an unstable personality, were personal. He was angry with the president. The motivation of the man who shot another, more well-known dark horse – Abraham Lincoln – are easier to explain. Dark horses make history. Shots make history. In Cleveland, no dark horses with the ability to challenge Trump emerged yesterday, but the sound of shotguns was heard loud and clear.     

3.

Other than Clinton, America’s police officers are currently Trump’s best asset – officers, as Mayor Rudy Giuliani said, with “a target on their back.”

Trump is presenting himself as the shield for these officers. When the New York Times says his inspiration is Richard Nixon, this sounds sinister, because of Nixon’s later endeavors. But Nixon of 1968, before Watergate, when he still had a calming presence considering the other option – a chaotic Democratic Party – was not a bad candidate. In fact, he could make Hillary Clinton’s claim of experience plus Donald Trump’s promise of law and order.

The Nixon campaign was divisive. It was also effective. Trump’s is divisive. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be as effective. That is, because with all due respect, Trump is hardly as canny, as well-informed, and as practiced as Nixon was in 1968. Nor is the Democratic Party in disarray as it was back in 1968.

The police could be Trump’s savior. The more the Democratic Party seems tortured over crafting the right message on the violence perpetrated by angry African-Americans against police officers – the more Trump has an opening for pressing the case that progressive political correctness is the root cause of the problem.

In fact, the issue of crafting the right message on violence against policemen is not much different from the one of crafting the right message on terrorism against Americans. When it comes to terrorism, Trump and his GOP allies argue that the Democrats, for some reason, find it hard to say the words “Islamic terrorism” even though everyone knows that it is, indeed, Islamic terrorism. Trump is going to argue that the Democrats have the same problem with calling the violence what it is – for fear of hurting people’s feelings. What is working to his advantage is that while the issue of terrorism seems more distant – at least for now – and is currently convincing only those who are already convinced (Republican voters), the issue of violence against the police is closer to home and to heart.

4.

Violence against police officers was the talk of the town. Terror in France, revolution in Turkey, not as much. I expect some speakers to mention the new revelations concerning Iran’s nuclear agreement today and tomorrow – truly, are you surprised by these revelations? – as an example of a Democratic foreign policy of appeasement run amok. But from what I see here, Iran does not excite the delegates as much as the police. Iran is far away. The new revelations concern Iran’s situation ten years from now – far into the future. And these are complicated issues to explain. Delegates – and perhaps their candidate too – are not such experts on centrifuges and nuclear enrichment capabilities.

But Baton Rouge is here and now. And it is simple to explain. Bad people shooting good people because of bad policies. 

5.

Reader Rachel Slomovic remarked (via Facebook) that my translation, or better say interpretation of the Hebrew Ha’Olam Ke’Merkacha as “The World Has Gone Mad” was not accurate. She wrote that Ha’Olam Ke’Merkacha “does not mean the world is crazy, it means the world is boiling” (if you do not know what I am talking about, shame on you for not reading my post from yesterday).

Merkacha is not an easy word to translate. It appears in the book of Job. In most of these translations, Merkacha is a pot, a jar or a kettle of ointment: “It makes the depths churn like a boiling caldron and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment”. In this one: “He makes the deep seethe like a pot; he makes the sea like a seething mixture”.

That is why I did not try to translate the literal meaning of the headline on which I wrote, but rather decided to say: “the editor ended up writing the Hebrew equivalent of the headline: The World Has Gone Mad”. Since we don’t really know what the editor meant – because, as I wrote, the whole story is an urban legend, that interpretation of his intention is indeed open for some debate. On to you, Philologos.