The Missing Word at Both Conventions
Now that the two “virtual conventions” have concluded, it’s worth considering the one important word entirely ignored by both Republicans and Democrats. That word is “Impeachment”: neither side used the I-word, or wanted to review the history of a misguided, altogether unnecessary and punishing process that consumed more than four months of President Trump’s first term.
The Democrats obviously sought to avoid looking back on an embarrassing and entirely predictable disaster for their party’s Congressional leadership. And Republicans ignored the topic because they wanted a convention with an upbeat spin, while recognizing that recollections of the President’s impeachment trial amount to an undeniable downer for just about everybody.
In the best single line of the GOP convention, Ivanka Trump proclaimed: “Washington didn’t change Donald Trump. Donald Trump changed Washington.” Republicans believe that many changes in the national capital are for the better, but the whole sad story of impeachment represents Washington at its worst.