Random observations:
The convention is very very white and relatively old. It’s quite a contrast with last week’s Democratic convention. Sarah Palin, who must dramatically drop the average age just by walking onstage, wants to cast her family as "typically American." Yet families with school-age children are a declining minority in America, a nation with many life paths unrepresented in the GOP. It may be that Denver represents what America looks like now and is becoming — but will diversity vote? We know older white folks will, especially when they’ve had the crap scared out of them…
Which is happening in abundance in St. Paul. This convention is dominated by fear-mongering and rabid attacks on the opposite party in a way that the Democrats never could have gotten away with. It’s worked in the past two elections. Has enough of the American electorate wised up?…
The change and reform mantra is absurd. The GOP is strikingly bereft of any new ideas, or even comprehension of the mess we’re in. Republican policies have caused vast damage at home and abroad, yet the corporate media are not calling them on it in this convention. Nor is there any push to illuminate where the party and its candidates stand on critical issues. Indeed, it’s hard to find Democratic voices on the networks, a sharp contrast to the ubiquitous Republicans on TV in Denver. Among the other things not being covered: mass arrests and claims of police overreaction…
I know Sarah Palin. Well, I know her kind. She’s the type that took over the party of Lincoln, TR, Eisenhower, even of Goldwater and Reagan. They are driven by hard-core rightist ideology, hellfire evangelicalism, suburban intolerance and very savvy political training. They want to ban books, teach creationism and manage what happens in our bedrooms. They’re anti-science, anti-intellectual — "global warming is a myth." Jesus (a very bloodthirsty and intolerant version) is on their side. They are the masters of wedge issues. They’re the ones who started at the school boards and took over Republican parties in state after state, notably Arizona, banishing old-school Republicans as RINOs (Republicans in Name Only). And, being "saved," they think the rules don’t apply to them. So McCain, in choosing her, accepted the reality that he could only win with a rabidly energized base. Maverick? How about a gelding…
"Maverick" actually has a political provenance of sorts. Maury Maverick was a Texas congressman and ally of FDR, breaking with conservatives in his party. He coined the term "gobbledygook." But the word "maverick" as we know it came from his grandfather, who refused to brand his cattle. I’d say President-elect McCain has been branded by Big Oil, the corporate elite, the military-industrial complex and now the social conservatives…
Palin speaks; market drops more than 300 points.