Tag Archives: Democratic National Convention

REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION, and THE OLYMPICS

POSTED: September 1, 2024

Regular readers of my posts will know that sometimes I like to dive into topics like recipes, or little experiences with nature or some small epiphanies I have had regarding insignificant things. For those of you who like a diet of these light sweet morsels this post is not that. I have prepared for you the equivalent of a large beer mug full of battery acid.

Yes, today we are back to talking politics.

Like a lot of people, I watched some of the coverage of the Republican National Convention. I was not alive in January 1933 but imagine it was much the same as being in Germany at that time. Backroom deals, deceit, backstabbing and a lot of  “othering”.  Well by most accounts the takeover by Hitler of that party was not nearly as nasty as what has happened to the Republican party since Trump came on the scene. The absence at this convention of most of those seasoned Republican politicians both past and present, including George W. Bush was telling. I have never been a supporter of the ideas of this party, but in the past, their right of centre philosophies stayed within the bounds of the law, conventions of polite behaviour and some sense of morality. The turnover of power from George W. Bush to Barak Obama has been well documented as very respectful and helpful by the incoming President. Contrast that to the activities of January 6th 2021, when the Trump supporters stormed the Capitol.

The RNC convention was difficult to fathom. One lie would pile on top of another and I was wondering if one of them would start to argue that gravity was a conspiracy created to keep Trump from soaring to the heavens. It would have been hilarious to watch if this was not a person who really might win office again.

So yes, for most of us these are the bad guys and the only ones in that party who are not bad are too weak to do anything.

There is a little lag for me in watching these conventions as I am not in the same time zone, but beyond that I just cant take more than about an hour a day of this stuff so I tape them and watch little segments as I can, usually in the evening or if its raining. So the gap in when I finished watching the RNC and the start up of the DNC was not very long. It was also because I had taped a lot of the coverage of the Olympics and would watch segments of it to clear my head of all the politics to watch these incredible athletes do their stuff.

The truth is I actually binged on the Olympics between watching these two political events. Most Olympic events are only subject to accurate timing, not subjective elements. And most are not dealing with complex topics. There may be a lot of complex elements that go into training and execution, but the outcome is measurable. In most cases the competitors are not really even competing with others but with their own ability to complete the task faster, or otherwise better as most of these events (at least the traditional track and field events) are non contact. I love the idea of the Olympics in bringing the world together. As an institution it has many problems, but has stood up fairly well in comparison with other organizations that have attempted to bring the world together to find some common interest to build relationships on.

So after my Olympic binging and a bit of a breather I moved on to the Democratic National Convention.

Now Joe Biden claims that he really had no intention of stepping down until the point when he did. I don’t think so. This lad has been a politician all his life. He as found ways to find consensus when it wasn’t on the table and to get many skeptics to come to his way of thinking long before Donald Trump was on the scene. And I say that with respect.  A big part of the job of any leader is to find some consensus to move forward with plans, and in politics that often involves consensus where many parties are on the record of being in another camp on the topic.

My take is that this shrewd, seasoned old politician knew his time was up but waited until the Republicans had used up all their air time to swing the Democratic Party into full gear. And man have they done that. Watching the Democratic National Convention was such an amazingly orchestrated, flawless production of hype and hope I was practically standing at attention and singing the Star-Spangled Banner myself.

Well not quite. While moved by the personal stories, told by some great orators, many of the usual things that have hurt the American society kept being chanted. The notion of locking up the bad guys, praising not just veterans but the notion that being the biggest, best equipped miliary in the worlds history will create true happiness on the streets of some burned out town in Ohio, is what I expect of that other party, not the Democrats. Any talk of even a hint of Bernie Sanders social justice,  equalization, and tax reform was gone.

And that’s to put a polite spin on it. Only after days of these rousing speeches was there any reference to this parties disastrous handling of Israel’s attempt to eliminate Gaza. Yes, Israel is an ally of the United States and of most democracies. And yes, Hamas initiated this war and took hostages and killed many innocent Israelis. But the behaviour of Israel over the decades with respect to “settling” the west bank, and the economic squeezing they have done to Gaza needs to be remembered.  A wife who has been subject to continuous acts of abuse at the hands of her husband who finally rises up and puts some kitchen scissors in his gut will never be convicted by a jury of her peers. This terrible act by Hamas needed a response, but that response also needed to be a reset of the relationship, not the annihilation of the Palestinian people.

But what is an ally to do? If I am at a party with a good friend who has had too much to drink, I would give him or her a hug, tell them I love them and that for their own safety and the safety of others I am taking away their car keys. Someone needs to be the adult in the room. Netanyahu was on the run from justice when this whole mess began. He has nothing to lose in blowing up the conflict to take the focus off his personal legal problems. So in that analogy of the intoxicated friend what the Biden administration did was not to take away the keys but instead they loaded up the car with more bottles and headed out to do some driving and when the booze would run out they would just buy more along the way. History will not be kind to this support.

When I was younger there were times, I actually thought the roll of a massive U.S. military was to be the world police. Well, if that’s the case Mr. Biden and his bunch have had their knee on the neck of Gaza and need to be stopped.

Kamala Harris has a great smile. I love that smile. I love her laugh. And I love her personal story. On many policy fronts she may bring some freshness to the challenges of running so huge a federation with such diverging challenges. But she can’t just take off the coat she was wearing when she was part of that group cheering on the drunk driver. Sorry Kamala, the other guys are nasty but you come with this baggage.

Fortunately, there are some inspiring and encouraging things I have taped to get this nasty political taste out of my mouth. The Paralympics are beginning.

Django