By BRIAN PORTER | Rocky Mountain Voice
Until former President Donald J. Trump arrived in the arena Monday, the most applause on the opening night at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisc., was reserved for one of his primary opponents, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina.
Scott has been described by Mr. Trump as a better campaigner for the former president than for himself. That certainly seemed to be the case Monday.
“If you didn’t believe in miracles before Saturday, you better be believing now,” said Scott, who in moments of a short address to delegates seemed more like a minister and less like a politician. “Our God still saves, still delivers and still sets free. On Saturday, the devil came to Pennsylvania holding a rifle, but the lion got back up on his feet and he roared.”
That lion is Mr. Trump, Scott said, who he declared in November will be elected the 47th president of the United States of America.
Scott was one of four U.S. senators, four U.S. representatives and two governors to speak on the opening night of the convention to delegates and other attendees.
“Joe Biden is asleep at the wheel and we’re headed over the cliff,” Scott said. “America, we deserve better. We deserve so much better.”
In an upbringing which could be compared to vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance’s, Scott was the product of a single mom who raised him in poverty, he told the audience.
“We had plastic spoons, not silver spoons,” Scott said. “Thank God for mama.”
The reference harkened back to another political time, when soon-to-be Texas Gov. Ann Richards at the 1988 Democratic National Convention accused George H.W. Bush of not being of the people as he sought the Republican nomination for President. She said, “…he was born with a silver foot in his mouth.”
Now the one with the silver spoon is not the Republican Party but Democrats, many speakers inferred as they called the new GOP a party of all people. And, many have said Joe Biden is the most gaff-prone President to hold the office, perhaps earning that silver foot.
One of Scott’s other ardent supporters was unable to make the speech. Former U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, who led Scott’s Super PAC for President, was delayed Monday at Denver International Airport. The two might not seem to have much in common. Scott is a black man raised in the South, Gardner from rural Yuma, Colo., from a family which sold tractors to farmers. They met in the U.S. Senate.
“America is not a racist country,” Scott said. “If you are looking for racism today, you find it in cities run by Democrats … It is Republican policies that restore hope.”
He predicted a second Presidential term for Donald Trump would result in a secure border, better economy and restoration of America.
“This November, we are not deciding simply the fate for the next four years, we are charting a course for the next 40 years,” Scott said.
Scott touched on the makeup of the present Republican Party as he closed his address to the Republican National Convention.
“We’re not just the Grand Ol’ Party of the past,” he said. “We are the Great Opportunity Party of America’s future. There’s only one person who can make that vision a reality: Donald J. Trump.”