4 Thursday, July 21, 2016 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com OPINION LARA MOEHLMAN EDITOR IN CHIEF JEREMY KAPLAN EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR BRADLEY WHIPPLE MANAGING EDITOR 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. Jolly to the grave JEREMY KAPLAN | OP-ED MADELINE NOWICKI Make America work again? CLEVELAND — After a Monday filled with delegate dissidents and spousal plagiarism, the Tuesday slogan of “Make America Work Again” seemed prescient. The Republican National Convention needed to get back on track — it, too, needed to work. The theme of the night was supposed to be economic issues, highlighting the Republican platform for job safety and growth. With high-profile speakers such as Mitch McConnell and Chris Christie, the night held promise for at least the acknowledgment of concrete policy changes. Immediately, it became clear that this would not be the case. McConnell truly did not use his position as Senate majority leader to advocate for changes to entitlement programs or typically conservative goals. He used his position from behind the podium instead to rail against Hillary Clinton, highlighting mainly her flip-flopping and her private e-mail server scandal. He didn’t describe his goals, the party’s goals or Trump’s goals for actually beating Clinton. Rather, he just seemed to care a heck of a lot that she didn’t win. Chris Christie launched what he called a “prosecution” of Clinton. Listing off Clinton’s record, fact- checked by the New York Times, he incited a gleefully raucous electricity into the air, spurning chants, dances and squeals from Trump-drunk supporters fueled by hatred, fear, lack of education and the July heat. Attendees sitting near me in the stands stood up and danced, clenching their fists in the air and tossing their heads back as if they finally were understood. Chris Christie, the governor of a state with the third highest per-capita income in the nation, didn’t discuss policies for economic mobility. The governor of a state with the second-highest concentration of millionaires in the nation didn’t mention his plans for making more of the country into millionaires, much less his plans to reduce regulations for businesses and millionaires alike. He didn’t outline anything concrete. Christie basked in his own spectacle, failing to shed light on the policies of the man under whose shadow he will permanently reside. Trump’s daughter, Tiffany, focused on her father’s leadership qualities as a businessman, rather than any actual substance of how he could translate them into a quality economy. Donald Trump Jr. talked about how his dad ensured he knew how to lay drywall and carry a hammer and be a real salt- of-the-earth construction worker. He said this while dressed in a shirt with a literal blue collar and failed to provide insight into how his father would share the great secrets of construction with the rest of America. General manager of Trump Winery, Kerry Woolard, mentioned Trump’s ability to work under pressure, without delving into any specifics on Trump’s or any other plan to ease the pressure of the working class in America. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia talked at length about how Clinton dislikes the mining industry and how this will ruin the economy of Capito’s state but failed to point out what Trump would specifically do differently. Making America work again could have been a catchy twist on Trump’s slogan-filled dilettante of a campaign, if not for two key flaws. First, America was put back to work already. President Obama did exactly that, which is why the country now experiences only a 5.5 percent unemployment rate as opposed to nearly double that during the Great Recession. America is at work and is continuing to do so with job growth continuing steadily as it has over the past several years of Obama’s administration. Second, the Republicans failed to coalesce around any real strategy for putting Americans to work. Apart from blue-collar pandering from millionaires, platitudes about leadership qualities and demonizing of the opposition, the Republicans failed to coalesce around any economic issue at all. The only strand of unity that ran consistent throughout the night was a distaste for Secretary Clinton. I’m not sure how disliking an opponent is a legitimate party platform, much less one that will put America to work. If increasing American jobs was as simple as increasing hatred for public figures, unemployment would have been extinct long ago. —Madeline Nowicki can be reached at nowickim@umich.edu. There are a lot of reasons to be terrified of Donald Trump and the movement his campaign created. He has called for the flat-out ban of an entire religious group from the country, has said he would punch protesters at his rallies and his vocabulary seems to lack the words for an apology. But on display in Cleveland at the Republican National Convention this week was a new terror: the seemingly-gleeful attitude that the now-mainstream Republican Party has taken to their new nominee, and the lack of awareness that the GOP has departed from standard rational discourse. Presidential conventions are supposed to be unifying moments for their parties. After a long-fought battle, the party can finally come together and agree to support one candidate for the presidential election. In the standard game of politics, the logic follows that the party should support the will of the general populace of the party. But 2016 has thrown that standard rule book out the window. Wednesday, Trump advisor Al Baldasaro suggested that opponent Hillary Clinton should be executed by firing squad (Trump’s spokesman said Trump disagreed, but thanked Baldasaro for his support). Yet Trump’s seeming ignorance of the standard ways of being a candidate is what’s gaining him more attraction. The party that endlessly touted being the party of Lincoln now seems bent on ripping establishment practices to shreds in favor of loud-mouthed rhetoric. This departure from norms has been riling up convention attendees speech after speech, as speakers adopted Trump’s rhetoric and lack of affection for facts in attempting to prosecute Clinton on stage and suggesting that she associates with Lucifer. Many republicans skipped the convention altogether. Republican primary candidates including Marco Rubio and John Kasich, former presidents George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush, Gov. Rick Snyder and scores of other Republican leaders all did not attend the convention either under protest or with a variety of other excuses. Taking their place as primetime representatives of the GOP, however, was an arena filled with supporters more than willing to scream their support for all that Trump stands for. While I may not share many beliefs with the Republican Party, this development still brings me great disappointment. Part of America’s greatness has involved the ability for two parties to engage in serious debates over the issues. That America is not being made great again in GOP’s decision to follow Trump over the ledge in verbally supporting racist remarks, dubious conspiracy theories and violent events. While the Republican Party may appear to be jolly in support for their nominee this week, this week demonstrates that the GOP is no longer the institution it once was. —Jeremy Kaplan is the Summer Editorial Page Editor. Roland Davidson, Caitlin Heenan, Elena Hubbell, Jeremy Kaplan, Madeline Nowicki, Kevin Sweitzer, Brooke White. EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS INTERESTED IN CAMPUS ISSUES? Every Tuesday at 7 pm, the Daily’s opinion staff meets to discuss both University and national affairs and write editorials. E-mail opinioneditors@michigandaily.com to join in the conversation.