Last evening turned out to be a pretty good time doing our Live Blog of what's traditionally a convention's slow-motion first night.

After kind of slow start, there were so many terrific speakers with great stories that it became an entertaining and informative evening, instead of another Ed-made-me-do-it-again chore (seriously - it's like the salt mines here) (You can tell, right?).

I did not know that venture capitalist and tech guru David Sacks was a self-made immigrant bazillionaire (And, man, is the Left pissed at him for bolting the plantation.).

It’s not a Republican party gathering without a designated California-basher. On night one of the GOP convention in Milwaukee, it was venture capitalist David Sacks taking center stage to roast his home state.

“In my hometown of San Francisco, Democrat rule has turned the streets of our beautiful city into a cesspool of open encampments and open drug use,” he said.

Sacks’ appearance at the RNC underpins a powerful narrative in the Trump world: one where wealthy actors in California’s liberal bastions are so frustrated by Democrats in government that they’re willing to break away from the pack and back a rebellion.

But he wasn't the most compelling story, and it would be hard to pick one out of all the people who spoke - from regular folks to US senators to Lt Govs now running for their state's big chair, like Mark Robinson of North Carolina.

What a compelling speaker, as we all knew from that first viral video of him lighting up the Greensboro City Council in 2018 over a proposed gun ordinance. If you've never seen it, it is a tour de force of American red meat.

He's rocketed into prominence since then.

In his short speech, he called Trump "The Braveheart of our time."

Growing up poor in Greensboro, I’ve faced hardship, from losing jobs due to NAFTA to experiencing the struggles many North Carolinians are facing today. Now, I stand before you as North Carolina’s first black Lieutenant Governor.

As Governor, I’ll champion the struggles of… pic.twitter.com/zh2pNodwUt

— Mark Robinson (@markrobinsonNC) July 16, 2024

Texas Representative Wesley Hunt was up next, and wow. Not only was he also born dirt-poor, but wound up as a West Point graduate and eventually an Army Apache pilot, with both his brother and sister West Point graduates, too! 

As I said last night, oh, well done, Mr. and Mrs. Hunt.

Another congressional mate and former Apache pilot followed Hunt - Rep John James from Michigan. His dad's story was so compelling, and he described what the family sacrificed so their children would be in a place that offered the best chance for their future.

Talking his Dad's story and it's a great one. My parents raised me never telling me this is a racist country

I could do anything I set my mind too.

My family story is the American Dream story.

But my biggest concern is will children today be able to look back & share that same story?

It’s our duty to protect the American Dream for future generations.

We must elect @realDonaldTrump & @JDVance1!

The best is yet to come. pic.twitter.com/VC0pkC5PcC

— John James (@JohnJamesMI) July 16, 2024

To a one, all the speakers had the same message about our country and the Republican party - this is not a racist country, and this is not a racist party. This is the land of freedom and opportunity for everyone, whatever your hue and the Republican Party has been the party that believes that and puts it into practice.

Listening to their inspiring, all-American lives and transcribing them for the live blog, I was reminded of one of those weird factoids that bang around inside your brain for most of your life until you finally get to share it. I did share it briefly last night, but I wanted to again because these stories, including Amber Rose's testimony about how her father challenged her to prove the Republicans were the racists they were accused of being, made me think of Teddy Roosevelt. And, specifically, the Republican Party.

Many of you know the story of Teddy Roosevelt inviting his friend and advisor, Booker T. Washington, to the White House for dinner.

In 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt invited African-American educator Booker T. Washington, who had become close to the president, to dine with his family at the White House. Several other presidents had invited African-Americans to meetings at the White House, but never to a meal. And in 1901, segregation was law.

News of the dinner between a former slave and the president of the United States became a national sensation. The subject of inflammatory articles and cartoons, it shifted the national conversation around race at the time.

There was enough vitriol and viciousness, with Southern states exploding in racist rage and even the Northern press acting squeamishly, that no African-American was invited to a White House dinner for another thirty years.

But Teddy Roosevelt, whose statute on the steps of the Museum of Natural History was removed out of shame over his racial attitudes, was very much a man ahead of his racially segregated time.

It's a great little story itself.

140 years ago, the 1884 Republican National Convention was held in Chicago. A shoo-in from Maine named James G. Blaine was acknowledged to be the party's nominee by virtue of having lost the nomination twice previously but gaining in popularity each time. It was, everyone figured, his turn.

The only other challenger at the convention was an unpopular President of the United States by virtue of an assassination. Vice President Chester A. Arthur, who had never even had his own state's endorsement, had become president after James Garfield's untimely murder.

The Republican National Convention opening in Chicago June 3, 1884, has with much propriety been termed historic, because of its distinguished character and political consequences. 

By the grace and favor of Republicans of the eleventh congressional district of Iowa, it was my privilege to be a delegate to this memorable party council. Its survivors are few in number and probably none are less than eighty-five years of age. Every man mentioned herein as having more than a voting part in proceedings has doubtless gone the way of earth, the temporary chairman, John R. Lynch, having passed away only a few months ago at the age of ninety-two years.

Teddy Roosevelt, slight as he was at the time, stood on a chair in order to be seen and heard as he made an impressive speech to second the nomination of John Lynch, a Mississippi congressman for temporary chairman.

The Blaine forces controlled the committee to choose the convention's temporary chairman, and their choice was going to be a fellow from Arkansas. They had announced the choice "perfunctorily" when the Arthur side rebutted, throwing the convention into an uproar.

...In the Massachusetts delegation promptly arose a young congressman, to become better known to his countrymen— by name Henry Cabot Lodge. At thirty-four, bewhiskered and brown, with shoulders slightly sloping he was not especially imposing in appearance, but to an extent he bore the stamp of intellect and interesting personality as he moved to substitute the name of John R. Lynch of Mississippi for that of Powell Clayton as temporary chairman.

After rounds of raucous speeches and voting, the anti-Blaine forces held the day with a forty-vote majority. John Lynch of Mississippi was elected temporary chairman of the Republican National Convention.

"Yeah...so?" right?

It was 1884 and Republicans had just elected to put a black man in charge of their convention.

...John R. Lynch was a man of color, said to have been born a slave. He was now thirty-six years of age, had been in congress two or three terms making a commendable record. His creditable speech of acceptance sustained the rumor that he did not desire the responsibility nor the distinction conferred, and it was generally understood he was drafted as available to the ends of strategy. He was a man of character and his service as temporary chairman was duly dignified and generally acceptable.

Congressman Lynch also gave the convention's keynote address. A black man.

...In 1884, Lynch became the first African American to chair a political party's National Convention. Future president Theodore Roosevelt made a moving speech nominating Lynch as Temporary Chairman of the 1884 Republican National Convention in Chicago, Illinois. Lynch served as a member of the Republican National Committee for Mississippi from 1884 to 1889.^[9]

It is a Grand Old Party when you have a chance to go digging.

And nights like last night reaffirm that legacy.