I began this post before the Sarah Palin veep pick became news, but it fits in, nicely. This is about what we can expect to see at the GOP convention next week.
What we can expect to see are cartoons.
Today’s Republicans are not serious about governing, as John McCain broadcast loudly with his Sarah Palin choice. The GOP convention will be intensely negative, and also intensely juvenile. I don’t know what this year’s version of the purple band aid will be (are the righties over the tire gauge thing yet?). But most of the energy of the convention will be poured into ridicule of the Dem ticket. At the same time, the convention will be vague if not dishonest about the extremely right-wing GOP platform.
The GOP wins presidential elections by turning the Dem into a cartoon (and suppressing votes). They did it to Al Gore; they did it to John Kerry. They tried to do it to Bill Clinton — well, in a sense, they succeeded, but unfortunately for them they turned him into Bugs Bunny and themselves into Elmer Fudd.
So far, John McCain has been running a Karl Rove-style campaign, meaning one that’s not serious about governing. Rove himself never got the governing thing. The fact that your candidate, once in office, at some point has to actually govern is a point that still eludes him.
As Kevin Drum said of Obama’s acceptance speech,
This is an iron fist in a velvet glove. Or is it a velvet fist in an iron glove? Whichever it is, he’s calling out McCain in plain language not just for running a nasty, Rovian campaign, but for running a fundamentally unserious campaign. By tackling this head on, Obama has put a serious dent in McCain’s ability to continue campaigning with dumb soundbites and too-cute-by-half innuendo. This isn’t a teenager’s campaign for junior high school student council, he was saying, it’s a campaign for president of the United States and you’re old enough to know that you should damn well treat it that way.
They won’t, though. Just watch.
There is a comment at The Fix by Lawrence Hawkins that I can’t link to directly, so I’m going to paste it all here. I hope Mr. Hawkins doesn’t mind.
Amazing. As I scan through the comments above I see the the same sad insults. “Socialism” cries one. “Jerimiah Wright” cries another. “He can’t/won’t change a thing.” And let’s not forget the the eloquent, “I HATE HIM.”
This all goes past the point of being sad. This is psychologically unhealthy for those that feel this way. Be honest with yourselves. You are afraid.
Honestly you need to confront your fears. Barack Obama is a guy with a rocky upbringing. Thank God he had people like his mom, and his grandparents in his life to set him straight. He worked hard in school, got a law degree, passed the bar, which in itself is an accomplishment, and went on to get married, to a woman, and started raising a family. No absentee dad, he. You want a man who shows the system works? Here he is. You want someone who was given lemons and made lemonade? Here he is. Do you want an example to show the world that America works? You’ve got him!
Jerimiah Wright is a jerk. But he’s not running for president.
Face your fear. Grow past it. Barack Obama, despite Rush et al, is not the Bogeyman. He is an American that wants the best for America.
If you’ve got a problem with his tax policy, let’s discuss it like adults. If you have a concerns about abortion and a women’s right to make choices, let’s talk. But this type of reasoned debate can only happen once you get past the fear that cripples your thought process. I guarantee you that once you’ve thought it all through, you’ll vote for Obama/Biden, because at the end of the day, it’s a vote for yourself.
If you’ve got a problem with his tax policy, let’s discuss it like adults. If you have a concerns about abortion and a women’s right to make choices, let’s talk. But this type of reasoned debate can only happen once you get past the fear that cripples your thought process. Spot on.
Sometimes people criticize me for not debating righties. They don’t see the several years I spent wasted attempting to debate righties. I had facts and logic; they had puerile taunting. I gave up; I have more entertaining ways to kill time.
It’s rare to find someone on the Right with whom one can have a serious conversation about a serious subject. The Left has its share of clowns, too, but IMO there is a bigger percentage of us who are not clowns and who are willing to listen to serious, fact-based argument when it is presented to us. Today’s “conservatives” seem congenitally unable to present serious, fact-based arguments, however.
So next week the GOP will get together, and they will put on a great show of hate and ridicule and derision, with occasional breaks for displays of the jingoistic nationalism they confuse for patriotism. What you won’t see them do is get serious.
Sarah Palin is God because she said, “I, God Bless America”
Sarah who? The most cynical choice by McCain. He must think that “Hillary voters” are not sophisticated enough to logically NOT see HRC in Palin.
P.S. Thank you for taking out the blog Tennesse Guerilla Women from your blog roll. That was not really a feminist site.
Great post, Maha. And you’re so right when you say:
“It’s rare to find someone on the Right with whom one can have a serious conversation about a serious subject. The Left has its share of clowns, too, but IMO there is a bigger percentage of us who are not clowns and who are willing to listen to serious, fact-based argument when it is presented to us. Today’s “conservatives†seem congenitally unable to present serious, fact-based arguments, however.”
I listened to Obama’s speech this morning (I tend to fall asleep around 10 p.m., so I dozed through most of it last night…). It was fantastic. He’s definitely got an iron fist in that velvet glove.
I SO hope that every reality-based voter will go out and vote Democrat to get that 50% + 1 that your country–and the world–so desperately need.
I’m rooting for you up here in Canada.
I think the GOP convention is going to be an amazing display of what happens when rats are painted into a corner: for those who can stomach it – delusion, depression, gnashing of teeth, anger, ridicule, exasperation – you name it. As you state, all the ugliness is going to come out. Republicans hate to lose, and the worst of them are not gracious about it. I think the savvier Republicans with any concern about their own future are going to stay a thousand miles away. Our own Governator (California) has been saying he needs to stay home to tend to our monumental budget crisis. I’d be making other plans too – I’m almost certain I need to wash my hair.
It will be a challenge for Obama-Biden to handle the ugliness wisely, both to deflect it, and to take advantage of it, where appropriate. It’ll be interesting to see what the ever-clueless media does with this – they feed on drama. What’s needed is some sort of rapid response team to somehow counter whatever spin they come up with. And big, heaping doses of ridicule. I’m guessing that some of the best television next week will be found on The Daily Show.
P.S. Thank you for taking out the blog Tennesse Guerilla Women from your blog roll. That was not really a feminist site.
Wow, that was quick. I didn’t think anyone would notice. Yeah, they’re gone. I didn’t realize they were that stupid.
I’m rooting for you up here in Canada.
We may need more than rooting. I’m thinkng something along the lines of naked fire puja demon banishing rituals.
Will Dan Quayle introduce Sarah Palin? Or will it be one of the grandchildren of Spiro Agnew? (Bonus point if anyone remembers who William E. Miller was).
You’re right. The Republicans are not serious about governing.
William Miller, Berry Goldwater’s running made. FYI his daughter Stephanie Miller is a Liberal Talk Show Host.
Marilyn beat me to it. (Barry Goldwater; “Berry” makes him sound cuter than he really was. Didn’t know that about his daughter.)
I have no interest in watching the flamethrowing exhibition next week. I’ll find something useful to do.
I mean running mate,
I don’t think I can stomach the Republican Convention. It will be slime,sleaze, and character assassination from beginning to end no doubt. I would like to add that the Palin selection by McCain is just insulting to women. Most women want to be rewarded because they earn it. This was not earned and that is very clear. It reminds me of the Geraldine Ferraro pick by Mondale. Desperate.
The Republicans cannot be serious because they must constantly maintain a wall in the mind of the public between the policies they advocate and the entirely predictable results of those policies. The public must not be allowed to make the connection. Since the inauguration of Ronald Reagan in 1981, conservatives have been able to convince the public that the combination of massive tax cuts for the wealthy, a bloated military budged, and the globalization of labor markets has not been responsible for the deterioration of their standard of living, the quality of their lives and the state of the environment. The Democrats have either collaborated or remained silent.
Whether the deception can be maintained much longer is conjectural, but reality may break through too late to save our republic, or even our earth.
A friendly correction for A Canadian Reader: No, not 50% + 1 ! Just talking on the phone this morning with my son, and laying on the Paternal Advice pretty heavily: get your young friends to really, like, vote! My demographic, the fogeys, is the one solidly behind McCain, and these guys vote (he knew that), so you guys have to outvote us and not mess around. The bottom line, my correction to Canadian: We have to win by so much that it can’t be stolen.
Which reminds me that Obama and company, having pulled off this week brilliantly, had better be planning equally well for poll-watching and anit-intimidation crews. For this the legions of youth probably aren’t the best — unless muscle is needed, as in counter-strong-arm, which is not unlikely. More like legions of activists and lawyers and mostly sober heads; hope there’s a good team putting that together.
I’ve got more important things to deal with right now. I’ll be spending too much time on the weather channel to worry about the GOP convention. It’ll probably look like a freak show anyway.
Just talking on the phone this morning with my son, and laying on the Paternal Advice pretty heavily: get your young friends to really, like, vote!
Last evening I emailed my nephew, a freshman at KU (sorry, maha; Kansas is where they live). I reminded him he needs to register to vote in Lawrence, and I suggested he might want to volunteer with the Obama supporters on campus. The kid has a passionate, idealistic heart… and some of his friends were looking at enlisting in the military, right out of high school. Still, at 18, they need to be reminded that the election is important.
Maha,
How could anyone not notice the deletion of TGW off your blog roll? I actually found it through your site as I read feminist blogs, but was surprised (or disgusted) with most of the same commenters there who seem to have nothing good to say about women who are not HRC. Furthermore, it has degenerated into a rabid hate site mixed with irrational rants(by some of the same commenters) about sexism, racism and homophobia.
There will be nothing to follow at the repub convention, by the way. But I will be back here daily to read your take on it as usual.
Thank you!
… with occasional breaks for displays of the jingoistic nationalism they confuse for patriotism.
This is such an important point. When I was watching the video where Palin accepts the nomination, I was struck, first by the banality and hollowness of her speech, but also by the reaction of the crowd (such as it was). At several points, she was interrupted by deafening cries of “USA! USA! USA! USA!” I swear, I was chilled to the bone. It was like Nazi Germany. Terrifying, really.
“Sometimes people criticize me for not debating righties. They don’t see the several years I spent wasted attempting to debate righties. I had facts and logic; they had puerile taunting. I gave up; I have more entertaining ways to kill time.”
This paragraph speaks to me. I gave up posting on conservative sites: I felt like I was constantly arguing with a 5 year old. Discussing politics with neocons is like mudwrestling with a pig: both of you are going to get dirty, but only one of you is going to enjoy it.
@13- mom’s favorite saying when I was growing up was “Old age and treachery beats youth and zeal every time.” You bring up a great point: we can’t just beat them, we have to beat them so resoundingly that they can’t get up again (I can’t believe I just made an analogy about beating the elderly until they can’t get up again. Good thing I’m not running for President).