The elephant in the Republican living room
Now that the two conventions are mercifully over, it is a time to reflect.
The Democrats display hope and anticipation. They have nothing to account for, because the party has not been in control of anything since 2000, when President Clinton left a huge surplus in a thriving economy. They fall back to F.D.R. and to J.F.K as political dramatists that carry messages of economic hope and reputational resurrection. William Jefferson Clinton was always there campaigning, aside his persevering spouse who carried a strong message about change. Her message was trumped by a wiry (and wily) upstart from
That political cloth is being weaved locally as I write, with donors and workers connecting voters with messages of hope and anticipation. It is an easy message for Americans to cling to, as home foreclosures; unemployment; outsourced industries and unpopular war costs mount daily; while savings, IRA’s and home values plummet. These truths may cause a Democratic landslide this November as hope overcomes fear among a huge number of voters.
On the other hand, the Republican Party, the party in charge for the last eight years, having just shut down its convention, assiduously avoided any expression of accountability for its eight years of collective actions in Congress and in the White House, during its convention. It introduced an entertaining VP pick who describes herself as a “Pit Bull with Lipstick” amid a confusing family which had party loyalists scratching their heads. Messages about abstinence, ethics, experience and abortion rolled across TV screens and Evangelical web sites. Several also-rans were invited to speak. One, a former Governor of an Eastern state exhorted the attendees to “weed out” the liberal
The new VP in her speech also stooped to spreading poison about the Democratic nominee as facts, and ascribing untruths as predispositions held by the Democratic candidate. Attacking Democrats was the convention plan, not reviewing the last eight years of Republican leadership. That was to be avoided. The convention audience loved it.
What was missing, except for eight minutes of a video presentation, was an accounting by President Bush and VP Cheney to the American people and to their Party, what they have done to our country over a two term administration. Our international reputation has fallen, our economic prospects and those of tens of millions of Americans have become frightening, costs of fuel and food have sapped economic strength from families, immigration laws have been ignored, and generals who have disagreed with the administration have been forced into retirement, while an occupation drags on.
The Elephant in the Republican living room is the silence of the Party in power to explain to every American, its accountability for the last eight years. How can it be that an outgoing president is not called in to his party’s national convention in person to provide face-to-face detailed highlights of his failures and his accomplishments? Both he and Dick Cheney were kept in hiding during the convention, lest Americans begin to realize that the party which has brought
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The average public school principal has a greater level of accountability than does the president and vice president of the
The shameful and arrogant silence of its leaders at the Republican convention to explain their actions over the last eight years amounts to institutional cowardice. Slogans replace explanations. Americans should shrug off the new American values of low wages, shrinking job opportunities, foreclosures, bankruptcy laws which favor corporations and corporate influence in lawmaking. Political cowardice, masked by deceptive political celebration, is repugnant to Americans. They want leadership, but what they get is fascism positioned as conservatism by a political party resolute in its determination to control the country. Red, White and Blue confetti punctuates the convention’s end amid confusion about solutions to
I believe we will see a systematic voter rejection of the Republican illusion that slogans and attacks on political opponents are substitutes for their own lack of Republican accountability to the people of our nation.
The GOP alone does not own the American flag and American values. These are the property of all Americans of all political philosophies. The GOP would have you think otherwise. Shame on the GOP for not owning up to its record over the last eight years.
Are you better off today than eight years ago?
November will tell.
A VP candidate with soap opera appeal
It’s obvious to any American not in a coma that the 2008 lead up to November presidential voting has gotten nasty. Why, if we are voting for a president, has the VP candidacy suddenly burst forth as significant in a vote for president? The answer comes out of history. Presidents sometimes die in office and it is important to have a competent, experienced backup person to step into the role immediately if necessary.
Obama chose an experienced senator, Joe Biden, who is likeable and has tremendous foreign policy experience. Out of the box, as a bi-racial team of experienced senators, they seemed to fit the historical expectation of selecting a capable person to succeed a president who might die in office. The transition would seem to be relatively seamless if Obama died in office. As one observes Obama, it would seem that the man is healthy and expects to live a long life. Hence, the Democratic Presidential-Vice Presidential team looks like it might survive as a unit for two terms.
McCain on the other hand seems to have sacrificed a track record in his choice for his VP. He chose his pick for her ability to bring a reinforcing tone to his campaign mantra of Attack/Distract/Discredit Obama. She is a living model of one of Leon Uris’s characters in Trinity- described by him to be able to “start an argument in an empty house”. She provides a clear advantage for Karl Rove’s behind the scenes chicanery. A religious extremist with motherhood cloaks and a love of killing animals who has been lifted from obscurity into a national presidential race for her beliefs, not her ability to lead the most influential country on earth.
Karl Rove loves it. Sarah Palin has star billing, and as a former Beauty Queen contestant, feels quite at home. It appears that she will do anything and say anything to keep the spotlight on herself. The gaping holes in her motherhood cloak are explained away as being “normal” for a family. Her decision history is defended by Rove’s back room cronies by spewing out charges against the Democrats. It is a cartoon scenario, not one that befits our nation, but one which benefits candidate McCain. Sarah Palin is a state governor, a gun toting, mother of a soldier, who hunts and fishes, with five children and a grandchild on the way. Fine for the political ads, but was the choice the best for
McCain has had four bouts with cancer. He had an heroic half decade as a prisoner of war leaving its own formidable scars in his soul and body. He has a history of anger and impatience with those who disagree with him. A recent published story told of his pride in “dressing down’ two sailors when he was a naval commander, then playfully asking another officer “how did I do?”. He is an angry man. He is also 72 years of age and of that age group which die in greater numbers that do younger men. He might die in office.
His choice of VP was made to win an election, nothing more. McCain has created a political assassin disguised as a populist gadfly whose record indicates that she will do what she wants to get what she wants. Behind the scenes are the playmakers. The limelight is enough for her while those in the wings are building her up to spew poison at Obama. American TV zombies who are enraptured swoon at the staged sound bites that surround her candidacy. Pundits skewer her critics and are well prepared to shape public opinion with their “scientific” public opinion polls that in turn affirms their punditry. It is a contrived distraction to real issues facing our country.
And all this while
Thomas P. Johnson
508-430-7887
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