Three months before the current elections, Republican voices are rising to warn against overconfidence and the belief that their party, with Donald Trump at the helm, has already secured victory in the upcoming November elections.
The first to do so was Donald Trump Jr., the influential eldest son of the former president and now candidate. And he is right. There are still three long months until the election, and although the now-official Republican candidate maintains the lead he has held all year, it is so far by only one or two points.
The momentum from Saturday's attack and the current Milwaukee convention will still face the test of the Paris Olympics at the end of July and the Democratic convention in Chicago in the second half of August.
In any case, the Republicans seem optimistic, and at their convention, they say they are convinced that their country is in crisis, that the responsibility for the problem lies with the Democrats, and Biden in particular, and that Trump is the best candidate to get them out of the hole.
In their favor is that the United States is a country politically divided almost in half, and the current overall advantage points can transform into a massive victory in the Electoral College, the peculiar form of indirect state-by-state presidential election that characterizes that country.
They are also helped by the evident doubts around President Joe Biden's age and fragility. However, some of the Republicans' proposals are highly controversial in themselves.
But things are not that simple.
To begin with, despite Saturday's attack and the conviction that he was saved by the "hand of God," Trump does not seem to have received the boost many expected. His lead in the general polls increased, but instead, it strengthened his image among his followers and maintains his superiority in the "swing" states, where he lost four years ago by small margins.
Who knows if also in his favor, as the "law and order" party, 80 percent of participants in an online poll after Saturday's attack think the country is "out of control."
The rhetoric of the current election campaign does not help. And indeed, despite the messages of unity and calm issued by both Biden and Trump on Sunday, it continues as heated as before Saturday's attack.
Republicans complain that Biden and the Democrats' accusations against Trump and their claims that he will destroy American democracy are incitements to hatred. Meanwhile, the Democrats point to statements by Trump and his followers about "corrupt Joe," the nickname the former president gave the current one, and the "left-wing extremism" of the Democrats, which they say will destroy the country.
Republican speakers cited both the demands for rights by sexual minorities and the claims of racial discrimination, rejecting accusations that their party tries to promote differences. Instead, they present themselves as egalitarians and in favor of equal opportunities for all.
But at the same time, they described apocalyptic scenarios due to the arrival of undocumented immigrants, accompanied by drug cartels, while the police's actions are limited and obstructed.
Republican promises include a country where the economy is good, borders are "secure," and without the "chaos" created by Biden; without inflation and with low taxes.
But the reality is that before the attack, most Americans had their reservations about a too-old Biden and a Trump they considered unworthy of the position.
For now, no one knows how much that perspective can change if any of the current candidates can change it.
BY JOSÉ CARREÑO FIGUERAS
COLLABORATOR
JOSE.CARRENO@ELHERALDODEMEXICO.COM
@CARRENOJOSE1