In his Substack titled, “The Convention Spoke and Told Us: The GOP is Dead,” Kinzinger explained various examples of how the RNC demonstrated that Trump has succeeded in turning the GOP into a “cult of personality.”
From that Substack article:
It was called the Republican National Convention, but in fact, it had nothing to do with the GOP most of us once knew. Gone were the party’s serious policy debates and platform planks. In their place was a celebration of Donald Trump, who has succeeded in converting one of the country’s two major parties into a cult of personality. When it ended, the delegates sent a ticket into the presidential election with no true Republicans on it.
. . . Because it is now the Trump Party, the crowd in Milwaukee lapped up Navarro’s message of fear which, after all, is the gateway to rage. Few noticed that, contrary to tradition, past Republican leaders – former President Bush, past nominee Mitt Romney, and former Vice President Dan Quayle – were all absent.
. . . I won’t hide the fact that I grieve the old GOP and fear the cult of Trump. I am equally concerned, though, by Democrats who are shrinking from the fight, concluding that Trump’s election is inevitable. I would say that given a remnant of traditional Republicans remains, and independents must be turned off by a Trump who wants to be emperor. It’s time to gather our courage and energy. The fight against him is not lost.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The RNC kicked off earlier this week in Milwaukee where former President Donald Trump formally accepted the GOP’s nomination for the 2024 election delivering an over 90 minute speech.
In his Substack, Kinzinger noted how Trump picking Senator JD Vance of Ohio as his running mate and having former White House adviser Peter Navarro speak at the convention only exacerbated the “death of the old GOP.”
With the choice of Vance, Trump indicated that he has no concern about appeasing the old-style GOPers, who would have been reassured if he had chosen a Marco Rubio or a Tim Scott as a running mate," Kinzinger wrote.
However, years before launching his political career, Vance was a staunch Trump critic, frequently condemning the former president during his first term in office and voting for independent candidate Evan McMullin in the 2016 election.
Meanwhile, Kinzinger added: "Further evidence that the convention was dominated by extremists came when Trump’s former White House advisor Peter Navarro raced to appear at the podium just hours after his release from federal prison.
Unified behind President Donald J. Trump and his vision to Make America Great Again, the GOP is going to keep doing something Kinzinger will never experience on his own: winning," committee spokesperson Kush Desai said.
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