The Democratic Nominating Committee from August 17-20, 2020 presented one of the most diverse, racially and ideologically, line up of speakers ever seen at a nominating convention.  Many of the speeches resonated with fearful and disappointed voters.  Many inspired me to do more to put Biden in the White House.  President Obama, Michele Obama, Joe Biden, John Kasich, Bernie Sanders, Kristin Urquiza, whose father died from COVID-19 to start.  Before the convention I’d said many times that I did not care who was running as the democratic nominee or his VP,  I was voting straight Blue regardless.  After the convention, my vote on November 3 became more than a vote against Trump-Pence.  It became a vote for Biden-Harris.

Next up was up was the Republican National Convention, August 24-27,2020.   The line up of RNC speakers should be looked at not just in turns of who is speaking but who is not speaking. Only one Republican facing a difficult re-election fight, no seasoned politicians but everybody but the children in Trump’s family.   At a convention already rife with Hatch Act violations, alt-right conspi-RACISTS and revisionism, Melania Trump took the stage.  

Her speech was hyped to high heaven as the most important speech of her life so expectations were running high.  And then she spoke  (read the full text of her speech here and analysis here and here) and high expectations gave way to appeals to temper our expectations and a slew of main stream media tempered reviews.

In typical Trump fashion, she pointed down and told us it was up.  She could not even manufacture a creditable record of public service since becoming FLOTUS and no one anywhere has conjured before the inauguration.  But this isn’t the subject of my post.  My purpose here is to call out the reception her speech received from some people and some media (Trump supporters and Fox aside).

This is the kind of thing that must be called out or else we are complicit in its deleterious effect.  What has Melania done before or since becoming FLOTUS?  A nude model whom some consider had the good fortune to attract the attention of a misogynistic hedonist, signed an NDA and married him.  Oh, and remodeled the Rose Garden.  Why must we temper our expectations of her?  Why is the bar set so low for her but so high for Michele O.  If anything, this should be reversed given the obstacles a woman of color must overcome to accomplish anything.  Simple really.  She’s a white woman and inherently virtuous, believable, etc.  Large swaths of the American people and MSM bought her ‘I tied myself to a deplorable person, am asking you to vote for said deplorable person, but I am a good person’ shtick without even kicking the tires.  This dual standard is so ingrained that many people who apply it do not recognize it as such and are more likely to give up their first born than resist it.  It is both the fuel and the fodder of institutional racism.  So, by all means, let’s temper our expectations, label her an enigma and talk about what she wore instead of calling her what she is:  A shallow racist, married to an even more shallow racist, determined to stay in power by any means necessary.    

At the end of the day, there’s a reason why millions voted for Donald Trump as President of the United States and why millions still support Donald Trump.   And it has nothing to do with a disenchanted working class (as if only whites work), disaffected farmers, a struggling middle class, the 2d amendment, the cross or the flag.  Because if Donald Trump is the solution, we know what they consider the