Sivolell: Trump must bring GOP together
The Trump campaign has its work cut out for it the rest of this week in Cleveland.
To have a chance to win in November, Donald Trump has to depart the convention with a GOP that is substantially more united than the party he first encountered here Monday.
The process for addressing the rules challenge for the convention was handled by the Republican National Committee and the campaign with a too-heavy hand. Despite weeks of notice that some delegates would seek to become "unbound," the response on the floor lacked transparency and at times appeared confused.
First impressions matter, and this apparent lack of respect for a portion of the delegates left a bad taste for many.
As a delegate pledged to U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, I entered the Quicken Loans Arena with much skepticism, but - as with all things related to politics and policy - trying to keep an open mind to perhaps learn something new that would materially change my impression of my party's nominee.
This is challenging since neither the GOP nor the nation can afford political discourse at its highest levels that proposes keeping people from our shores based solely on their religious faith, makes fun of people with disabilities, or ridicules media members based on their gender.
The Trump campaign has been hammering on two primary messages at the convention. The first is to demonstrate to skeptical Republicans and independents that the candidate is a far different person in reality than he may come across - or is actively portrayed - by the mainstream media. This is a difficult undertaking given that Trump at times has publicly doubled down on many of his most controversial statements. And it still remains far from being achieved.
The convention's second, and thus far more persuasive theme, has been to expose the dramatic weaknesses of Hillary Clinton. The Trump campaign evidently will not hold back in using the wealth of material and personal testimony available to make its point.
The Clinton attacks are a critical strategy to unify the GOP - not so much behind its candidate, but against a common enemy. The challenge for Trump, of course, is whether an anti-Clinton message will drive turnout, or whether many voters will opt for the path to be taken by our own Gov. Charlie Baker and simply not vote for any presidential candidate in November.
There is more to play out at the convention and its ultimate success could turn on Trump's performance tomorrow night. In the meantime, however, the GOP and the Trump campaign have a lot of work to do on the shores of Lake Erie.
John Sivolella is a member of the Massachusetts delegation to the Republican National Convention. "As You Were Saying" is a regular Herald feature. We invite readers to submit guest columns of no more than 600 words. Email to oped@bostonherald.com . Columns are subject to editing and become Herald property.
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