Editor's Note: Roberto Izurieta is Director of Latin American Projects at George Washington University. He has worked in political campaigns in several Latin American countries and Spain, and was an advisor to Presidents Alejandro Toledo of Peru, Vicente Fox of Mexico, and Álvaro Colom of Guatemala. Izurieta is also a contributor to CNN en Español. The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author. See more opinions at cnne.com/opinion
(CNN Spanish) - Pressed by the force of facts and circumstances, Donald Trump agreed at the last minute to hold a virtual convention, except for his speech and that of his daughter Ivanka. They could not resist the temptation to hold an event with more than 1,500 people, when the rule in Washington, from which the White House is exempt, is not to hold meetings of more than 50 people.
The virtual convention had done well, because if he has been successful in something, it is as a producer of programs like El Aprendiz, where he showed that he is good at being a celebrity on a "reality show." But the Republican Convention was far from being that reality show, as we saw very little of it. As it seems recurrent, Trump and the Trumpistas had no problem twisting the truth. I want to list only the most obvious ones:
- The Republican Convention tried to make believe that the government of Donald Trump reactivated the economy. In reality, the last economic crisis occurred at the end of the George W. Bush administration and was reactivated in the two administrations of Barack Obama. During Trump's term, this recovery only continued until his mishandling of covid-19 arrived.
- The virtual Convention tried to rewrite history, saying that Donald Trump acted quickly and in a timely manner in the face of the threat of the pandemic by banning flights from China (in January), when the truth is that the covid-19 already forced the largest citizen lockdown in February. At the time, Donald Trump still publicly maintained that the virus would pass in the summer heat.
- Trump says we had extra respirators and covid-19 tests. Perhaps they were left over simply because they were late.
- Trump politicized the tests to detect coronavirus and even asked that they do less so that "their" figures do not look bad. It seems that like many television celebrities, you care more about your image than reality.
-He also politicized the use of masks, legitimizing and emboldening thousands who still do not use them and defy the instructions of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, making it more difficult to fight the virus.
-Trump and his allies legitimize and embolden those who justify the use of weapons to, supposedly, defend their property when they see protesters (who are usually black) passing by the door of their house, presenting them as heroes and making them give a speech about the defense of private property on the first day of the Convention.
That was, not only a shame, but a serious and even dangerous event, because that kind of message legitimizes extremist attitudes and actions like the one that happened a day later in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where a 17-year-old teenager came out with a gun to, he said, defending some businesses, although he was arrested, accused of the intentional murder of two protesters.
We all agree that there is law and order. What we do not agree on and is deeply wrong is that each one tries to apply the law on their own, imposing their order with firearms.
Nor am I shy about saying that I do not believe, and it is my opinion, that no one is in favor of abortion for sport. I certainly am not. The problem is who must make the deep (and painful) decision to do it or not. Shouldn't it be the women having an unwanted pregnancy and their families? They must make that difficult decision accompanied by their families and the moral guide they choose (priest, personal or professional counselor), but not the State, which should not make that decision for them. I believe in the right for women to decide about their bodies, since the consequences of that decision are borne by themselves, not by the State. That is called free will. And it is already enough ordeal for every woman to go through that for a government to come to decide in an absolutist way about her life and her body.
We all agree that this (and all nations) are "land of heroes." I believe in that today more than ever, because we are in a war against a pandemic, and those who are at the forefront of this battle are health workers, in which I include cleaning workers (men and women who are generally immigrants Hispanics) and those who help us keep our diet healthy and varied, working at the checkout counter in supermarkets or food processing factories. They are among the most exposed, as are garbage collectors and all those unable to work remotely, who are generally the poorest and ethnic minorities. Due to the lack of opportunities, they are the ones who are most exposed and, disproportionately, the ones who put the dead and sick of this war against the pandemic. They are the heroes of this war. We must celebrate them and not ignore them as the Republicans did this week.
Finally, I am not shy about saying that I want the economy to open up. We all agree on that too. Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, was the one who said it best at the worst moment of the pandemic: no one but me wants the economy to open, but not at the cost of lives, disease and more suffering. The only thing that produces opening it earlier is that the second wave of the pandemic comes sooner and with greater force (as we have seen in the states that believed that the fight was over). Failed reopening, which does not follow the advice of public health experts, always ends up being more expensive.
Despite all this I am optimistic. I wrote it since March in a series of articles for CNN: we will find more and more, and in record time, treatments to combat this pandemic. I am also one of those who believe that the vaccine will arrive at the end of this year and the economy will recover strongly.
But what we saw this week was a show. It was the reality show of a Donald Trump disconnected from reality. What we saw this week was the same thing that we have seen from the beginning: Trump appealing to his electoral base and no one else. It is no surprise. He had an electoral campaign appealing to that electoral base and he won. He also governed by appealing to that base, but lost the intermediate election, in 2018. Even so, he continued to appeal to that base in this week of political convention and virtual reality. Let's see if this time they give you the numbers to win. That depends on all of us, those of us who, having the right to vote, also have a civic duty to go out and vote and tell our leaders what our reality is.
Republican National Convention