“Shields and Brooks on Trump’s RNC message, the politics of protests”, PBS NewsHour

Judy Woodruff, Mark Shields and David Brooks, August 28, 2020

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• Judy Woodruff:

  With the Democratic and Republican National Conventions both behind us, it is the perfect time for the analysis of Shields and Brooks.

  That is syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks.

  I haven’t seen enough of the two of you this week. I’m so glad you’re back with us on this Friday night. So much to talk about.

  But, Mark, I’m going to start with you.

  The Republicans had their chance the last four nights. How well did they make their case?

• Mark Shields:

  Well, Judy, we will find out in the numbers, when they do come out probably next week.

  But I would say, to listen to the Republican speakers, which I was privileged to do, especially the nominee, was to conclude that the country had been brought back from the economic precipice, from the darkest of times by the unrivaled leadership of President Trump, and then to be told, in spite of that, the country is in chaos, we’re surrounded by lawlessness, and all the rest of it.

  And so we — what we had to do was to change and elect an outsider, Donald Trump.

  So, it was — I have never anybody run as both the incumbent and the insurgent at the same time. But it’s obvious that Donald Trump is a lot more comfortable running as the insurgent of 2016 than he is the incumbent of 2020.

• Judy Woodruff:

  David, how did you size up how the Republicans did?

• David Brooks:

  You know, when you start a big enterprise, you try to have a strategy.

  You figure out what year, it is, what the big issues are and what you’re going to do about it. And you give the Biden team credit, because they started in 2019 and said, the number one issue is Donald Trump. The country is exhausted, wants a uniter. And they stuck with that strategy through thick and thin.

  I really don’t know what the Republican strategy is right now. They have no coherent critique of Biden. They have no coherent critique of or sense of what the priority is right now. And they have no general argument to make.

  I think that was revealed in the Trump speech, that he was just all over the map, because there’s no core idea at the center of the thing. They may be on the course of gravitating toward law and order as their central argument. But I wouldn’t say they have got there yet. They’re just kind of scattershot.

• Judy Woodruff:

  And, Mark, does that — so where does that leave this contest right now? Given what the Republicans said over four nights, where are we now?

• Mark Shields:

  Judy, we went in with a 10-point lead for Joe Biden. In all likelihood, that lead will be narrowed when we come out of the Republican Convention.

  And the — what we’re looking at now is a long, brutish, really scorched-earth campaign from the White House. Make no mistake about it. That’s what we’re looking forward to.

  The debates will be influential, if not determinate, but we heard Joe Biden accused of being feckless and unaccomplished in 45 years, and yet the most terrifying threat to the American republic, if elected, as a socialist, a closet socialist despot.

  And so that’s just a whiff of what we’re looking at, and whether we’re looking forward to it or not is another question.

• Judy Woodruff:

  David, the Republicans did spend a lot of time going after Joe Biden.

  Does that help them? I mean, they have clearly tried to not only draw distinctions. They have painted him in some pretty dark places.

• David Brooks:

  Yes, I’d say it went both ways over the last two weeks.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Yes.

• David Brooks:

  The perversity of this year is that I would say the Democrats had the better convention, a more creative convention. Biden gave a much better speech. Obamas gave good speeches.

  But I would say, if you measure the mood both in the Democratic and Republican camps, Democrats are a little more anxious and Republicans are a little more confident.

  And so I think that has something to do with the conventions. It has something to do with what’s happened outside of the conventions, Kenosha, and this sense of rising crime and violence.

  And I do think — the Democrats, I think, have come to understand, they somehow got on the wrong side of order. And they got somehow attached, even though Biden is not actually attached to it, to the idea of defunding the police.

  And they need to somehow make some gesture to show they understand the insecurity of the American people. The country has been through an anxious time, with the pandemic, economic turmoil. There’s just this great sense of fear, of fear and a sense of unsafety, physical unsafety, from the pandemic and everything else.

  And somehow they have to address that. Now, a lot of law and order talk is code word for racism. There’s no question about that. But I think a lot of it is not.

  And I think Democrats would be making a mistake if they just said, oh, you’re all just a bunch of cryptoracists. I think people have legitimate concerns about expressing their opinion safely, about living safely.

  And so I think Biden really would do well by himself to somehow address this issue and say, no, we’re for policing, we want to reform policing, but we will keep you safe.

  This is just an elemental issue of politics stretching back 3,000 or 4,000 years.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Mark, have the Democrats have gotten off on the wrong foot when it comes to this law and order or order argument, as David describes it?

• Mark Shields:

  Yes, they have, Judy.

  I mean, I think that Portland remains a festering boil for Democrats, that what went on in Seattle and has been reported by The Times and other news organizations is really just unacceptable in a civilized society, in a law-abiding society. And Democrats cannot be appear to be indifferent.

  It’s Donald Trump’s opening. I mean, Donald Trump’s going to run on law and order. He has no doubt — no question about that.

  It was interesting that there was so heavily populated with African American speakers in his behalf at the convention, which I think was, more than anything, a political gesture and initiative to reach out to suburban, particularly women voters who have been turned off by the Republicans.

  So, it’s — race is a — race remains the constant in American politics. But I think David makes a good point.

• Judy Woodruff:

  David, it’s interesting you say that, because we went into these conventions thinking the pandemic was the overwhelming issue, thing out there that these candidates were going to have to grapple with, that the president was going to have to answer for.

  It sounds like you’re saying, in the last few weeks, that that’s been displaced?

• David Brooks:

  Yes, I wouldn’t say displaced.

  I think, out in the real world, the pandemic is still the number one issue. And if you ask people, that’s number one. I think crime and rising disorder, I think it’s number four or five on the list, bigger — higher than immigration, higher than a lot of things.

  So, I still think the pandemic is the issue. But it’ll — I will be very curious to see. The Times, my newspaper, had sent out two reporters to Wisconsin after Kenosha. And they interviewed a series of people who were leaning toward Biden, and had second thoughts because of a sense of rising insecurity.

  And whether that’s anecdote or data, we will find out in a few days. So, I still think it’s in the mix.

  But political correctness was a big issue for Republicans and for Trump in 2016. And the sense that you can’t speak freely, the sense that — you look at pictures of Rand Paul, for example, Senator Rand Paul leaving the White House, and getting brutally verbally assaulted, these pictures are not good.

  Most people are not on Twitter, and they’re not seeing them. But, for those on Twitter, those who are seeing them, those in the Facebook conservative sphere, it’s become the dominant story, at least in that world.

• Judy Woodruff:

  At the same time, Mark, you have this very powerful social movement right now for racial justice, just today, thousands of Americans on the National Mall.

  I was listening to some of it, parents, siblings of Blacks, Black Americans who’ve been killed by police asking for justice, asking when. I mean, the plea from Doc Rivers this week, the coach of the Clippers, saying, I love my country. Why doesn’t my country love me back?

  The Democrats are hearing that. Don’t — I mean, what’s going to happen to that while all this is going on, the fear factor, if you will?

• Mark Shields:

  Well, Judy, I mean, the Democrats have to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time.

  I mean, their record — and the Democrats have a proud record, I mean, whether you’re talking about Harry Truman desegregating the American military, a noble act in the middle of a presidential campaign, or Lyndon Johnson passing the landmark Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 65, the Democrats really have a sterling record, and defending those laws as well.

  And Donald Trump and the Republicans really can’t compete with it. So, those credentials are established. But they have to also establish the fact that we are — we’re here to protect the safety of ordinary citizens from mobs.

  I mean, that’s what has happened in a number of places, whether it’s destroying small businesses or putting — or threatening people at the same time.

  You mention about the coronavirus. I think it’s important to remember this, that while the Republicans were convening at the White House, the people’s house, as Ronald Reagan called it — when somebody said, your White House, he said, no, no, this is the people’s White House. I’m a temporary occupant

  But during the time of that convention, more Americans died, the coronavirus pandemic, than died at 9/11 or died at Pearl Harbor. I mean, that is — that is central to this campaign. It will define this campaign.

• Judy Woodruff:

  David, how do you see the Democrats handling this, what they’re hearing from their constituents, many of them saying, what are you going to do about racial justice, at the same time the Republicans are yelling, are saying to them, hey, we’re afraid?

• David Brooks:

  Yes, I mean, I am really struck by the importance of boundary-setting.

  I mean, what happened here in D.C., the march today, was wonderful. What’s happened in the NBA is wonderful. I talked about baseball last night on the show. Some of this stuff is wonderful.

  I think people are really proud and hopeful that progress — amidst all the pain, that progress is being made, education is being made, that people are mobilizing.

  But you have got to draw a boundary between that and a lot of the violence. And, frankly, a lot of the violence I see in Washington, it’s young white people who are doing a lot of that stuff. And — but so you draw that boundary.

  And that should be a boundary that Kamala Harris and Joe Biden can draw. Trump has not drawn any boundaries. He can’t draw a boundary between the Republican Party and QAnon, which should be the easiest boundary to draw.

  And so your movement doesn’t stay healthy unless you draw a boundary separating what’s good and peaceful and democratic and civil from what’s not, from what’s illiberal, violent and, frankly, self-destructive to your whole movement.

  And so I think that boundary line can be drawn. It’s been drawn by most politicians in most times. And I think — I hope, in the days ahead, the Democrats will draw that line.

• Judy Woodruff:

  We will see. The campaign begins in earnest right now, after these conventions.

  David Brooks, Mark Shields, thank you. And thank you for being with us for these last two weeks.

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