Analysts say Donald Trump sold fear, not facts, in acceptance speech

ADAM CAIRNS, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCHBalloons fall at the conclusion of theRepublican National Convention inside Quicken Loans Arena on Thursday night. Adam Cairns/Dispatch
When Richard Nixon unveiled his “law and order” theme at the 1968 Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, the nation that year had witnessed the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, several race riots that destroyed portions of major cities and growing rancorous protests over the Vietnam War.

Donald Trump said in his acceptance speech Thursday in Cleveland that America is sorely in need of another “law and order” president in 2016.

“I have a message to every last person threatening the peace on our streets and the safety of our police: When I take the oath of office next year, I will restore law and order in our country,” Trump said to loud applause in Quicken Loans Arena.

But critics were quick to point out that despite the recent high-profile shootings involving police officers, crime across the U.S. is at its lowest rate in decades, per the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics.
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Donald Trump takes the stage on the final night of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Adam Cairns/Dispatch

“Some of the fears that were expressed throughout the week (of the GOP convention) just don’t jibe with the facts,” President Barack Obama said during a news conference Friday. “America is much less violent than it was 20, 30 years ago.”

Obama also said, “The one thing that I think is important to recognize ... this idea that America is somehow on the verge of collapse, this vision of violence and chaos everywhere, doesn't really jibe with the experience of most people.”

A Nixon biographer says Trump got the history wrong, too.

Even though Nixon cited “unprecedented lawlessness” and “unprecedented racial violence” to justify his law-and-order message, “there was a generosity in Nixon’s speech that was absent” from Trump’s, said John A. Farrell.

A former Washington correspondent for the Boston Globe, Farrell’s book “Richard Nixon — The Life” is set to be published in May.

“I would not use the word dark to describe Nixon’s address,” Farrell said. “In fact, he was the candidate of middle-class reason in 1968. George Wallace was the Donald Trump of 1968,” referring to the third-party presidential campaign of the former Alabama governor.

Nixon devoted much of his speech toward reconciling the deep divisions over the Vietnam War and inner-city riots that were tearing the United States asunder in 1968. At one point, he declared “let us build bridges … bridges to human dignity across that gulf that separates black America from white America,” adding “none of the old hatreds mean anything when we look down into the faces of our children.”

But Charlie Black, who has been involved with Republican politics for more than 50 years, said few today associate a “law and order” theme with Nixon — and that given the country’s current state, a renewed emphasis is justified.

“The law-and-order theme fits the concerns of the public right now,” said Black, chairman of Prime Policy Group, a public-affairs firm in Washington.

Trump told the convention-goers, “My plan will begin with safety at home — which means safe neighborhoods, secure borders and protection from terrorism. There can be no prosperity without law and order.”

He said “the first task for our new administration will be to liberate our citizens from the crime and terrorism and lawlessness that threatens their communities.”

The dark tone was registered in other ways. An analysis by Denver McNeney, a doctoral student at Montreal's McGill University, found that Trump's speech was the most negative in tone of any convention acceptance speech since 1972. He measured the tone of each speech by analyzing its content using software that compares a text to a dictionary of about 4,500 words and phrases that have been categorized as either positive or negative.

John Green, director of the Ray C. Bliss School of Applied Politics at the University of Akron, had cited a need for Trump to deliver a persuasive speech and to rebuild a fractured party during the four-day convention.

“My sense is that the results were mixed, but on balance favorable to Trump,” Green said.

“On a positive note, there were a lot of strong personal testimonials for Trump, especially from his children. He gave an effective acceptance speech with an affirmative agenda on what it means to him to ‘make America great again.’”

But on the negative side, Green said, “He was not successful in uniting the GOP within the hall or across the country. His links to the party and elected officials remain weak. Much of the vitriol from the delegates was poor TV and sounded extreme, reinforcing the GOP's image problem with many voters.”