Report from the GOP Spectacle

The spectacle that is the Republican National Convention has finally ended. Emblematic of the radical turn the party has taken in recent years, it seemed full of lies, empty rhetoric and tautology -- with promises without any specific policies to get us there. Among the highlights (or lowlights, depending on your perspective):

1. Conservatives can rarely be mistaken as the party of "comedians." Their jokes tend to be too straight, stuffy or ideological. But the performance by Clint Eastwood has to be one of the saddest by a star I have ever seen: You Tube. He is clearly losing his mind but it is truly disheartening to see one of the few guys still dealing with the working class in American film compelled to put such a pathetic show on (with racial undertones throughout).

2. Two delegates jumped the shark and allowed the veiled racism at the heart of the convention to spillover as they started throwing peanuts at a Black camerawoman before saying, "This is how we feed animals." (Politic365). This was not as surprising as one might think, given the fact that it was hard to find anyone in the Tampa Convention Center who wasn't white (and, with a few exceptions, old). This might be the best news coming out of this convention -- a time will come when a younger generation takes over this party, and Gen Y is certainly more tolerant than Gen X, the Baby Boomers or the "greatest generation." 

3. Paul Ryan seemed to have little problem lying to millions of people on national television, which is a good advertisement for his ability to be an effective Republican politician on the national stage, I suppose, but bodes poorly for the rest of us. His story about his friend who works at a Wisconsin auto plant that is now closed was certainly an effective narrative to encapsulate Obama's biggest weakness. The only problem? If was a complete lie: Politics365. The plant closed before Obama took office. Among the other falsehoods proffered by Ryan: a. Ryan blamed Obama for the U.S. government credit rating downgrade, when the credit agency clearly blamed the Republican Congress. b. Obama has created more debt that any President in history: he has increased debt, but from about $11 to $15 trillion dollars (thus more was done by his predecessor, by far). c. Obama did nothing on Bowles-Simpson: actually Ryan helped sabotage an agreement that the commission was closing in on. d. Claimed Obama funneled $716 billion out of Medicare, which is a complete fabrication and e. Ryan than closed by saying "“The truest measure of any society is how it treats those who cannot defend or care for themselves.” But his plan is one of the harshest ever proposed and would essentially make the poor, sick and elderly suffer substantially more than they do today. 

These three examples are three among many that symbolize a party willing to place the future of the country on a plank and march it right off the edge. Their rhetoric always sounds good -- personal responsibility, family values, blind patriotism, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, entrepreneurial spirit, etc. -- but so rarely materializes in a better quality of life of the average citizen. In recent decades their turn to simply supporting the interests of the rich should have cost them both the Presidency and the Congress, but for their ability to bamboozle middle America. One wonders if Ryan and Romney really have the charisma to continue pulling the wool over the eyes of the average American. After this performance, I remain cautiously optimistic that they will fail.