By BRIAN PORTER | Rocky Mountain Voice
Actions speak louder than words and on the second evening of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisc., a few of former President Donald J. Trump’s rivals acted through their words.
Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy, who offered Mr. Trump the greatest challenge in the primary season, joined with his toughest competition from the 2016 primary, Sen. Ted Cruz, as an expression of the party coalescing around Trump.
“Never before has an election mattered so much,” Cruz said.
Mr. Trump is the Republican Party’s nominee for President. On Monday, he announced Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate on the Republican ticket.
Ron DeSantis, the governor of Trump’s home state of Florida, set a tone.
“Joe Biden has failed this nation,” he said. “We need a commander-in-chief who can lead 24 hours a day, seven days a week. America cannot afford four more years of a Weekend at Bernie’s presidency.”
There’s one person up to the task, DeSantis said: Donald J. Trump.
The reference to “Weekend at Bernie’s” was to a late 1980s movie in which “Bernie” was dead, but his body was kept around to convince otherwise, doing such activities as driving a golf cart and operating a boat.
Cruz discussed the porous southern border in his home state of Texas, including a surge of illegal aliens and drugs.
“We are facing an invasion,” he said. “[There are] 11.5 million people who have crossed the border illegally under Joe Biden.”
He noted crimes committed by illegal aliens and an increase in human trafficking.
“This is illegal and it is wrong,” Cruz said. “It is happening every damn day.”
Ramaswamy was the first of the group to address the convention.
“Donald Trump is the President who will actually unite this country,” he said, in a speech which referenced quotations from President Abraham Lincoln, President Ronald Reagan and Voltaire. “We are still on our way to that shining city on a hill.”
Haley, the last to suspend her campaign this spring, called it a critical moment for America.
“We have a choice to make. If we have four more years of Biden or a single day of Harris, our nation will be more badly off,” she said. “For the sake of our nation, we have to go with Donald Trump.”
She ran a campaign which eventually migrated into those opposed to a second Trump term. She encouraged those supporters to join her in supporting Mr. Trump.
“There are some Americans who don’t agree with Donald Trump 100% of the time,” she said. “I happen to know some of them.”
A national and North American debating champion in his youth, Cruz demonstrated his oratory ability with comments critical of the Biden-Harris Administration in a series he says happens “every damn day”. He noted the late Laken Riley, who Biden referred to as USC and ex-Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley during his State of the Union address.
“They wanted votes from illegals more than they wanted to protect our children,” Cruz said. “We can fix it. When Donald J. Trump is president, we will fix it. We know this because he’s done it before. Its real simple, he’s done it before and he’ll do it again.”
Ramaswamy predicted a second Trump presidency would center upon law and order, a secure border, strong economy and national pride.
“The people we elected to run the government should be the ones running the government, not the unelected bureaucrats in the Deep State,” he said.
Ramaswamy finished his comments eluding to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“We believe in merit,” he said, returning to a prior theme in his speech of hard work and patriotism. “You get ahead in this country not on the color of your skin, but on the content of your character.”
It’s a value that can only be restored by Mr. Trump, he said.