“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”
– Irish philosopher George Berkeley
The same question could be asked of Saturday’s train wreck state Republican convention, the worst exercise in political messaging since 1990 state Democratic convention delegates turned the event into a bleepshow by refusing to cross a right-wing Springfield police union picket line.
And they wonder why the parties are less popular with most voters than dog-doo on your brand new Allbirds.
This year is reminiscent of 1990 in other ways. Back then, as now, uncontested Democratic control of the political system had not bolstered a sagging economy or eased the affordability crisis. In 1990 primary voters in both parties rejected establishment candidates in favor of relative outsiders, and then voted in all sorts of obscure Republicans in November. It’s not inconceivable they might do so again.
Opportunity is knocking, but it seems the Mass. GOP is too stoned on its own stash of Trumpism to answer the door.
Make that the “T” word, the politically-toxic name that party bigwigs hoped would not be front and center for fear of poisoning any prospects for November success. One problem: you can airbrush a mustache off a photo, but if the subject does in fact have hair on their upper lip, it’ll show when voters take a close enough look.
And unsightly “T” hair was all over this convention’s rhetoric.
Take the victory speech of Mike Minogue, the central-casting businessman who won the convention’s endorsement. No “T” word in his remarks, although you can bet the Democrats will remind the electorate ad nauseam of his status as a MAGA mega donor.
There’s plenty of room for criticism of Healey. But the sketchy Trump political formula of credibility-free demonizing of the opposition was on display instead. Minogue had three questions for the delegates: “Are you ready for the audit?” (Healey also supports it.) “Are you ready to get criminal illegal immigrants off our streets?” (Who isn’t? It’s the incarceration of non-criminal high school volleyball players and Tufts graduate students that has the “T” word’s polling on immigration plummeting.) “Are you ready to retire Maura Healey?”
No, according to every polling trial heat of the electorate, a notable feat given the tough times we’re living through. And Minogue may find it difficult to persuade them otherwise with his improbable claim that - as the “T” word put it in his 2016 nomination acceptance speech - “I alone can fix it.”
Said Minogue: “I will do the audit of the legislature.” (Not if the SJC says it’s unconstitutional.) “I will cut taxes and spending by eliminating waste and fraud.” (Pro tip: the Legislature gets a say, and they aren’t going to say yes.) “I will invest in energy that is safe, clean and lowers your monthly cost with natural gas pipelines and nuclear energy.” (Ever hear of the acronym “NIMBY?” Look it up.)
Healey “still hasn't solved the illegal immigration crisis,” said Minogue, as if a solution was within her reach.
This may delight the handful of MAGA hats and online trolls (and, to once again paraphrase Trump, some good people) who hung around long enough to endorse Minogue. What GOP veterans describe as his unprecedented spending on booze, chow and other freebies for delegates may have helped as well.
But the convention would up underscoring the very thing party leaders wanted to elide - that, as Democratic Party Chair Steve Kerrigan gleefully noted afterwards, its candidates “echoed Trump’s rhetoric, promised to enforce the harmful policies that hurt families across the Commonwealth and were in lock step with the MAGA agenda.”
Best case scenario for the Mass. GOP: no one noticed.
