the RNC

This blog may end any of my political aspirations, but sometimes safe is not the best way to play life. America is the land of promise and that promise is not something that is reserved for one group or another. The promise is a premise that if you work hard you will get everything that is coming to you. This is why we have such historic figures as the first African American Presidential nominee of a party and the first female Vice Presidential nominee of the other major political party. With that being said, let us look at what the Republicans have done this week in Minnesota.

The RNC in Minnesota in my honest opinion looked like the redneck national convention. I know what a redneck looks like because some of my best friends are rednecks. They live a simple redneck lifestyle and they have certain redneck values. I grew up with them and I have my redneck moments from time to time. I am not saying that the Democrats are any more refined, but I am saying that the tone of the conventions were different. From the hooping and hollering at every lie and piece of rhetoric to the sea of cowboy hats and slick hair. (I am not going to mention that there was a lack of minority attendance. Did they hand pick the attendees?) The RNC looked like a great big high school pep rally in the middle of nowhere. I went to a high school in the middle of nowhere, so I know what they look like too.

I tuned in night after night to listen for good ideas. I am a student of politics, my degree is in politics, and I wanted to know for myself what the Republicans were selling. They are selling fear. They are selling fear packaged in a thinly disguised package but it is fear none the less. The Republicans want you to be afraid of every other country, every other nationality, the loss of your jobs, oil prices, smart people, city people, the government, gay people, homeless people, and new ideas. How can they say all of that and in the same breath say that we are the strongest country in the world? Yes we have more wealth and a great way of doing things, but under these eight years of Republican control things have gotten pretty bad for a lot of people. It is not the Democrats' fault that the Supreme Court Justices were picked by Republican presidents over the last few years. It was not the Democrats that had control of the Presidency and most of the legislative bodies over the last few years. It is not the Democrats fault that we are in Iraq. The Republicans did all of that and the Republican President "W" has also pissed off OPEC. The Republicans should be afraid of themselves.

I believe they were giving out happy juice at the RNC. I liked mayor Giuliani and he did a great job during the crisis of September 11th, but he was able to get the crowds to chant, "Drill Baby Drill." This is not the course that we need for our nation. I wanted Romney to deliver a great speech to go along with his great hair, but he too sent the crowd into frenzies over the Reagan years. President Reagan was an actor, and I don't know what made his policies so great. Smaller government only means that a private interest can control and distribute public funds. Those private interests are similar to Cheney's fortunes that were made with Haliburton and the billions that Bush's oil buddies are making when gas prices stay high. I wanted Sarah Palin to be strong and independent and sensible, but she is tough for no reason and tough talk scares me. People that talk like Palin will make brash decisions and our country has had enough of that over the last few years. I wanted McCain to at least make me like him, but all he did was make fun of how smart and articulate that Obama is. I wanted him to have a great idea or two just in case he becomes our next President. The Republicans have millions of people believing that the end of life as they know it begins the moment a dollar of theirs is used for a social program. The dollar that they share with the next man actually keeps them from feeling like the promise of America is gone. Sure there is abuse, but there is a different way to establish checks and balances without cutting out social programs altogether so that you can use billions of dollars each month invading countries all over the world. Taking money from failing school systems does nothing to promote the greater good, all it does is alienate those children that have to live in the inner city from the promise of America even more. I didn't get it and McCain doesn't either. One has to wonder why McCain was beaten a couple of times before in his bid for the Presidency. He doesn't talk about that. All of a sudden he is their guy. He doesn't get it and I really hope he doesn't get enough votes to win in November.

The eyes of the world are upon America right now. Instead of watching CNN or Fox or NBC or CBS we should be watching BBC to see what the world is thinking about where we are as a nation. I am willing to bet that half of the people at the convention drove up in a foreign car. If they are all so patriotic they should be driving American cars to save American jobs and prove just how proud they are to be American. For me, it is not a question of how long you have been making decisions, but what your decisions are based on. Right now I am willing to vote for a thinker, a diplomat, a statesman, a person that believes in the reality that the wealth in America can afford a greater existence to generation after generation when it is distributed properly. This other way has not worked and I am ready for a change.