We Built That

I am still digesting the whole RNC thing.


It is kinda hard, given the combination of bald faced lies, crazy person blathering, god praising, kindly racism and all.



That focus on debt was interesting, you know, when you look at what really launched us on that path.  Just check the graph, here.













I was puzzled by the undercurrent of nostalgia to nearly every speech, until I considered the real target audience, aging white guys.  The ones I know are pretty adept at applying that "good old days" veneer on past events, so I guess it fits.

One Republican senator, this week, mentioned that they aren't turning out "enough angry white guys" for the election.  I imagine the nostalgia bit combined with the race baiting welfare dialog was the move to appeal to that base, which was creepy in it's overt delivery.
Attendees throwing peanuts at a black camera operator, with comments about "feeding the animals" would suggest at least a few of those angry crackers were present.

The fact checker frenzy in response to most of the speakers, though appreciated, seems like a futile exercise in changing any GOP voters, really.  Given media options like Fox News are the primary news conduit for most, the lies have been told as truths for so long they are probably real for that demographic.
Though, when Fox calls out the lies in the oratory of their own VP candidate, you gotta wonder what is going down.

The big God talk, well, OK, good for you all, you like Jesus or whatever.  Woot woot.  I understand that was part of an effort to flesh out the candidate as something more human.  Not being quite so into that whole Jesus thing, I was left a bit icked out.  Whatever.

Clint Eastwood.  I am just going to pretend that was like some aged conservative Bjork performance, or something.

Then the big Mitt finale, which sorta came over like a lead balloon.  More nostalgia, platitudes, empty words, talking points inserted in odd places, like a mention of being pro-life in the middle of comments on another topic.  Just kinda slid in there, "by the way" style.
Perhaps I shouldn't have been startled by it, given that the RNC must have been fracking Reagan's tomb for most of it's speech content, was the big push for Cold War II.  I expected some standard hawkish war pedaling, not a call to make meany with Putin/Russia really.  So there is some thinking big, on Romney's part, for sure.


Much like the McCain convention, I was left thinking that most speakers seemed to be setting up there own futures with a lot of chatter.  Not so much an endorsement of the main candidate, but more stump speeches for the speakers own bids and agendas.


I am also left thinking of the movie Avatar...
You know, that one James Cameron made where all the characters were computer generated.  The narrative was sorta weak and it was delivered by people who aren't exactly lifelike.

The RNC left with that same feeling.

There was a lot of energy and effort put into making the Romney/Ryan ticket seem sorta like affable, genuine, human dudes...and I just don't quite buy it.
(No, I am not saying I think they are robots or aliens.)