RNC: In the Belly of the Beast

Protesters try to put a damper on the celebration of all things Trump.

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I would have liked to have dropped in for the Louisiana Delegation Breakfast, or the North Carolina Delegation Breakfast, or the New Hampshire Delegation Welcome and Organizing Meeting. But these and other events on the calendar for the morning of the first day of the Republican National Convention on Monday were closed to the press.

So I instead headed over to the all-day, open-to-the-press event titled “Heritage Policy Fest: Fighting for America’s Future,” at the Bradley Symphony Center on Wisconsin Avenue, about a mile from the Fiserv Forum where the convention is being held. Already the temperature was in the upper 70s. (It rained heavily last night but did not seem to get any cooler or less humid.)  

There were concrete and steel barriers everywhere and cops galore. I encountered several pedestrians who were being told, to their evident frustration, that they needed to get to where they were trying to go by circuitous routes. “Goddamn Republican bullshit,” said one.

When I got to the Heritage Foundation event, I was turned away. It was already booked full, I was told, and no new registrants were being accepted. The good news is that, even without access to the Heritage Policy Fest, the group’s policy intentions are already a matter of public record, in its 922-page report known as “Project 2025”—a systemic guide for vastly increasing presidential power and lurching the nation dramatically to the right. 

From there, I went to the protest rally at Red Arrow Park, a few blocks from the convention, where about 1,000 people gathered for a rally and march. The event was organized by the Coalition to March on the 2024 RNC, sponsored by more than one hundred member groups. There were stacks of signs for the taking, bearing such messages as “Fight the Racist and Reactionary Republican Agenda,” “Defend and Expand Immigrant Rights,” “We Can No Longer Afford the Rich” and, my favorite, “Horrible City Welcome RNC Fascists.” There were also homemade signs, including a large banner that declared, as in a set-up for a joke: “A Racist, Rapist, Seditious Fraudster & Felon Walks into His Convention.”

I spoke with Emily Chu, a member of the student chapter of Twin Cities for a Democratic Society, about why she had made the journey to Milwaukee to take part in this event. 

“This protest is to make our opinion known that we do not agree with the Republican agenda,” Chu told me. “They have made it very clear that they are intent on restricting the rights of many populations in this country—restricting the rights of women, restricting the rights of LGBTQ+ people, restricting the rights of immigrants. And, in particular, Palestine is a very pressing issue this year. I know a lot of people are focused on the Democratic National Convention because of Biden’s current policies regarding Palestine, but we know that things won’t get any better under Trump.”

Despite this acknowledgment, Chu stated flatly that she would not be voting for Biden in November, saying it was a “crazy thing to ask” people who support Palestinians to back Biden when he is “funding the genocide” against them. “Sometimes you have to recognize that change has to come not from within the system, but from outside it. Sometimes you can’t vote your way out of a system that is fundamentally broken.” 

Speakers at the protest made similar points. “Our government is committing genocide in Palestine and reinforcing deadly militarism and fascism around the world,” said Kobi Guillory, a Chicago-based member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. “We live in the belly of the beast, the headquarters of the imperialist system. It is our responsibility to destroy this system so that people here and internationally can live their lives in peace, justice, and equality.”

Guillory concluded his remarks: “The power of the people is stronger than the people in power. It’s the power of the people that makes history and changes the world, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do. All power to the people!”

On the periphery of the protest were several individuals who set out to provoke the protesters with signs disparaging Black Lives Matter and the prophet Muhammad. Turns out these nitwits were motivated by the Lord Jesus Christ. They shouted things like “God’s wrath is going to destroy you!” and “You better start voting for Jesus.”

And here, I didn’t even know he was on the ballot. 

For a while, some rally attendees pressed in close and made noise to drown out the provocateurs but this did not work and they eventually just walked away and left them alone to spout their hateful nonsense mostly to themselves. 

While the Coalition to March on the 2024 RNC was denied permission to march through a security zone as planned, it did so anyway, under a tacit agreement with the authorities in Milwaukee. The marchers ended up outside the main entrance for media reps, where pockets must be emptied and bags screened. There, they chanted “fight back!” and “free Palestine” and, crudely, “fuck Donald Trump.”

Meanwhile, a short distance away, a speaker from the Turning Point Action stage erected just outside the Fiserv Forum, was demonizing the protesters. Biden, he said, had called on the nation to “cool it down” in the aftermath of Trump’s shooting, and yet the protest went on as planned. “They’re not listening to Biden,” crowed the speaker, Jack Posobiec, a right-wing extremist. He added, chillingly: “Unity will come from victory.” (In 2017, Posobeic rushed on stage to disrupt a Shakespeare in the Park production of Julius Caesar that depicted the title character as a Trump-like figure.)

For all its talk of freedom, what the right really wants is conformity and control. Rather than accommodating those with other views, it seeks to shut them up and shut them down.

Using my press credentials, I made my way back to the Fiserv Forum, where I watched the various states and territories cast their delegate votes for Trump and his newly announced dreadful running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, each drawing raucous applause. The one exception I heard was when Senator Mitch McConnell appeared to cast Kentucky’s forty-six delegate votes for Trump, as well roundly booed. 

Poor Mitch. This is a man who has done more than anyone, with the possible exception of Texas Senator Ted Cruz, to debase himself to Trump. And yet it apparently still was not enough to forgive McConnell for rebuking Trump for instigating an attack on the Capitol.

As Trump might say, sad.

Taking an elevator down to the ground floor exits to soak up more of the now-87-degree heat, I heard an unmistakable voice: Newt Gingrich. Indulging a tendency to look for the positive, I approached the former Speaker of the House to ask about his advocacy for prison reform, a rare exception to his otherwise dismal records. He told me he was still involved in this issue and still optimistic, seeing how Trump was “very supportive” of efforts to reduce prison populations.

Yeah, I thought, especially for the people behind bars for doing his bidding by attacking the  Capitol. But Gingrich bolted away before I got the chance to ask.

One more indelible memory from Monday’s festivities was the speech by Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who saluted Trump as “the founding father of the American-First Movement.” She said that the Democrats “promised unity and they gave us division”—this from one of the most divisive politicians in a party that thrives on pulling people apart. “They promised normalcy and gave us Transgender Visibility Day on Easter Sunday.”

With a nod to the theme of the day, “Make America Wealthy Once Again,” Greene promised that Trump “will make America successful again,” adding, “And with God as my witness, He will finally give us the leader we deserve.”

She might be right about that.