… Compared with the 2016 GOP convention, which rippled with unresolved tension and resistance to Trump’s rise, the conspicuous absence of dissent at this year’s event underscores how the President has stamped the party with his trademark as surely as if it were one of his downtown skyscrapers. …
In the process, Trump has imposed a distinctive bet on the GOP. He’s increased its reliance on the people and places least touched by — and most resistant to — the seismic demographic, cultural and economic changes remaking America, while accelerating the party’s retreat in the places, and among the people, that most welcome those changes. Evidence is growing that in November, the GOP could be pushed back further into its strongholds and lose more ground in diverse, growing metropolitan America, even if Trump finds a way to overcome his persistent deficits in national polls to Democratic nominee Joe Biden. CONT.
Ronald Brownstein, CNN