President Trump Speaking at 2018 CPAC: Part 1, to the True Believers

Donald Trump speaking at 2018 CPAC

President Donald Trump spoke yesterday at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). He tossed away any prepared script that he might have had, calling it "boring," and delivered an hour-plus, rambling speech that the crowd received with enthusiastic cheers and applause. The rambling may have bothered some neutral observers, but the crowd was fine with it: for Mr. Trump hit his usual talking points, established credibility with the audience, and criticized his enemies. That is what the audience wanted. His speech was utterly polarizing. He expressed no wish to compromise. He offered no appeals to unify the nation. He attacked.

A polarizing speech does not gain consensus. It does, however, strengthen support among the true believers. True believers never want compromise; they want victory. When liberals dismiss true believers as a fringe, they commit a terrible error: Mr. Trump's election proves beyond refutation that the true believers are many, that they are motivated, and that they are powerful.

So, in no particular order, here are some polarizing moments:

1. The crowd started to chant, "Lock Her Up," referring to Hillary Clinton's email scandal. With the Mueller investigation producing indictments one after the other, this chant sounds more and more like an attempt to distract public attention from the White House's growing legal problems. The point of locking Clinton up was that she was irresponsible and careless with highly classified material (which she was - my apologies to her Democratic supporters). It turns out, however,  that many of Trump's staff can't get permanent security clearances, which Trump did not mention in the speech. If you live in a glass house, maybe throwing stones is a way to deter criticism. Attack is the best defense?

2. Mr. Trump listed plenty of conservative talking points: he praised the tax cuts, said that "We've ended the war on American energy," touted the withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord, mentioned the end of the defense spending sequester, recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and so forth. These are accomplishments that the CPAC audience valued, and their cheers showed that they were happy to hear Mr. Trump review them.

3. He talked at length about ways to stop school shootings like the recent tragedy in Parkland, Florida, without restricting the Second Amendment. He advocated mental health care to deter school shootings and advocated arming  teachers. There is a sharp liberal-conservative divide on this question.

4. Mr. Trump repeatedly attacked Democrats:

• "We have to fight Nancy Pelosi. They want to give your money away . . . They want to end your tax cuts. They want to do things that you wouldn't even believe, including taking your Second Amendment rights away. They will do that." The audience booed at this.
• "And I can't get the Democrats - and nobody has been able to for years - to approve common-sense measures that, when we catch these animal-killers, we can lock them up and throw away the keys." The audience applauded. 
• "The Democrats are being totally unresponsive. They don't want to do anything about DACA, I'm telling you." 

5. As he had during his campaign, he quoted Oscar Brown, Jr.'s song "The Snake," which was about a woman who sheltered a criminal, but turned it into an attack on immigrants. In Mr. Trump's vision, immigrants became snakes. This was polarizing. Mr. Trump re-interpreted this song into "our kind of people" versus "immigrants." Only a step from white nationalism?

In this speech, Mr. Trump sought to motivate people who already agreed with him. Since Mr. Trump got many of his facts wrong, as I will write about soon, his speech was unlikely to persuade neutral observers.

Question for thought: a candidate can gain election with polarizing speeches. Mr. Trump has proved that. But can you lead a Western democracy with a polarizing style? That remains to be seen.