First Impressions of the Nomination

Oh. Dear. Ghod.

I have watched political conventions my entire life,  been a delegate to a national convention,  state conventions, county conventions, have put planks in state and county platforms, attended Boys State,  been registered in both parties and as an independent, and seen politics at all the levels to where the rubber meets the road, and this was/is BEYOND pathetic.

I am embarrassed for our country. This was the most incompetent, ugliest nomination I’ve ever seen, in a hall with an astonishing number of empty seats. If they can’t even run their convention, how do they expect to run the country? Even if you hate Republicans, you have to feel abject pity for them, to be associated with this third-rate clown show. I am speechless. Good lord.

Citizens need to see this. We don’t listen to Limbaugh or Hannutty or Savage. But, in the final analysis, we NEED to see what’s happened to the party of Eisenhower, Teddy Roosevelt, US Grant and Abraham Lincoln. This is what passes for a major party in our country?

Chaos On The GOP Convention Floor
Zeke Miller
BuzzFeed

Shouting match erupts between Ron Paul and Mitt Romney supporters as the convention unceremoniously votes on Rules, Credentials.  —  TAMPA — A shouting match erupted on the floor of the Republican National Convention on Tuesday afternoon …

This is the mealy-mouthed and mean dumbassery that apes Jefferson and Madison, Adams and Franklin? No: we need to see this, to understand just how corrupt, ignorant and stupid half of the country has become. If we don’t observe the disease, how can we hope to cure it? That said, it’s almost painful to watch. If you remember “The King’s Speech,” you will recall how you felt the incredible frustration and misery of all in attendance when he gave his stammering speech at the Empire (now Commonwealth) games? This is JUST LIKE THAT. Dear sweet mother of god. Homeschooling needs to be outlawed immediately, if this is what it produces.

He may have been a crook, but
at least he could run a convention.

And, as regards the Ron Paul fiasco: how can anyone with a political brain inflict this kind of unforced error, this accidental opening of a carotid artery so blithely? Mitt is the opposite of what Dubya claimed: He’s a divider, not a uniter.

Let me put it this way, friends: When Mitch McConnell started the “Ryan” bullshit nomination by acclamation, and the Steve King from Wisconsin got up to talk, I started vacuuming. I NEVER VACUUM. But, I got so involved in noticing the lint on the floor that vacuuming was PREFERABLE to watching these incompetents blather about how voting was not needed, and let’s get the hell out of here. My rug is VERY clean.

I cannot believe — even with the little hurricane flummoxing their agenda — that anyone halfway competent could put together a clusterfuck like this.

Oh, and moving all the delegations from the Territory of Boondockia to the front, in case they had some “dark” faces. Whitest crowd you’ll ever see outside a Mormon family reunion.

The audience fairly phosphoresced.

Bland beige people not particularly gifted with the divine spark of articulate speech, they just sort of bobbed up and down in their chairs in some kind of beige simulacrum of dancing to some kind of beige simulacrum of music. As they fumbled to tally up the roll call vote (which wasn’t announced, even though all other candidates only received a hair over 200 delegates, and Romney easily topped 2000 when 1144 was all that was needed for the nomination), the band started playing “Shout!” as you will remember it from “Animal House.” And it looked less like dancing than jello mindlessly rippling in a mild earthquake.

Remember 1996 at the United Center in Chicago? The Democratic National Convention where the delegates started doing the macarena? (Very well, too.)

This was the OPPOSITE of that. As was the entire sorry parliamentary spectacle the opposite of anything you might have learned from Robert’s Rules of Order.

If this was a Broadway opening, it would close tonight, before the reviews came out in the morning papers. If this were a theatrical release, all prints would be pulled from theaters. If this were a new fall TV show, we would suddenly be confronted with several hours of America’s Funniest Home Videos reruns while the producers desperately tried to come up with a replacement.

It was THAT bad. (And I’m not speaking as a partisan: I’m speaking as a patriot and someone who actually has participated in political conventions at all levels. AAAARGH!)

If you are a Republican, or a member of my family, nuclear and extended, please understand I take no joy in this. I am embarrassed for you, I am embarrassed for our country and for every good and decent Republican who has ever served his or her country. There is no schadenfreude here, because, unlike you, I do not believe that just because we belong to different parties, we are not all still Americans, and heirs to a long and noble tradition of progress and increasing liberty and equality.

I have no words for what I have witnessed, save that this looked like a backyard production of a Broadway play, based on what someone told the players about a play they’d never seen. It was a mockery of parliamentary procedure, democracy, debate and oratory.

And, on a purely hospitality industry level, the weekly meeting of the Kiwanis in the weakest chapter, in the smallest town in America is run better than this.

Oh. Dear. Ghod.

democracy in the party
that hates to have people vote

Courage.

UPDATE, from the New York Times “The Caucus” blog:

The House speaker, John A. Boehner, called for a vote on the rules on Tuesday afternoon after Mr. Romney’s advisers said they had reached a compromise with activists on Monday night.

When Mr. Boehner called for the “ayes,” the crowd roared in the affirmative. But when he called for the “nays,” an even louder “no” echoed through the convention hall, led by supporters of Mr. Paul.

Mr. Boehner ignored them, pressing ahead by saying the rules would be adopted “without objection,” even as the crowd continued to roar its disapproval. Mr. Boehner announced that the rules were approved and quickly moved on to the adoption of the party’s platform…

 

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