Republicans Should Have Called Out the Democracy Deficit

The Republican convention was, for the most part, well-staged and effective at conveying what it aimed to convey, even if much of that involved selling out what the party stands for in hopes of being rewarded for moderation (ask the British Tories how well that goes). Donald Trump’s 92-minute speech last night was the exception once Trump started rambling, but even that speech will likely be remembered mostly for the first ten to 15 minutes, when he gave a riveting account of the assassination attempt and concluded by kissing the fireman’s uniform of Corey Comperatore.

There was, however, one notable missed opportunity. It could have come from Trump (who went out of his way not to say much about Joe Biden or whoever the Democrats will nominate), but would probably have played more strongly coming from Nikki Haley or Ron DeSantis. Republicans could have called out Democrats for the deficit of democracy in their party. The biggest political story in America over the past three weeks (aside from the attempted assassination of Trump) — the donkey in the room — has been an effort by the elite of the Democratic Party to pressure Joe Biden into quitting the race so a new nominee can be selected without the input of the party’s voters. Rank-and-file Democrats have opinions both for and against this; what they don’t have is any voice in the process. When they clamor for Joe to go, he can safely ignore them; those who still have his back are ignored by the donors and bigwigs pushing for a new nominee. If Biden goes, voters won’t have a say in whether he’s replaced by Kamala Harris.

All of this, as I’ve noted before, is how the Democratic establishment wanted it, and played out in stark contrast to the Republican primary, where Haley and DeSantis took their best shots and then came around to accept the verdict of the party’s voters that they preferred to stick with Trump. The Democrats are in this fix now because they short-circuited that process when polling was warning them that their voters wanted it, and when their own eyes should have told them that Biden might well prove completely inadequate to the challenge of another national campaign.

Trump’s ego and the message of party unity likely played a part in Haley making only glancing reference to the primary, and DeSantis none. But it would have been an electric moment to draw the contrast and say “You know, I ran for president this year. Our party had a real primary. We gave you real choices, and you chose to stick with Donald Trump, and I’m here because I accepted the result of that choice. The Democrats took that choice away from their voters, and now they’re still trying to decide on their own who their nominee should even be.” Given how hard Democrats have tried to run on “democracy on the ballot,” that would have been a strong message to send.