Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Thoughts on the Republican Convention

Tonight's speakers at the RNC--thank you DonkeyHotey on Flickr

It's day three of the Republican National Convention in Tampa.  I'm watching it on TV and channel surfing. I'm having trouble staying awake.  Except for a moment when the Ron Paul supporters woke up early on, all the delegates seem to be having the same problem.

The whole thing feels like " The Stepford Wives do Disneyland"  It is heavily scripted and the plotline is very simplistic.  It consists of Obama bashing and the obsessive repetition of  spun " facts" over and over again.  It's the old Karl Rove routine of " if you tell a lie long enough and often enough, people will accept it as truth"

 The leitmotif of the evening seems to be high dudgeon at President Obama for declaring that Americans did not build their own businesses.  Of course that is NOT what Obama said, but truth seems to be the first casualty of political conventions as well as of war. Obama observed that small business owners did not build the roads and bridges or light the streets or provide water.  He was referring to the necessary role of government in building and repairing infrastructure.

The major event of the evening will be Paul Ryan's acceptance speech which should at least wake up the crowd.  I won't last that long.  I am already totally numbed by the  platitudes of an Ohio businessman and an Iraq war vet. I've had it.  I'm going to bed.





1 comment:

Doug B said...

These things are pep rallies and little more. I'm an early-to-bedder so unable to watch live. That's well: nothing to see there.