Conventions

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Caution:  This is a rant.  And it comes with no new pictures.

 

We don’t get to watch much television on the road, but miraculously we had PBS/NPR coverage of both Presidential conventions and followed every minute of each.  We always watch both conventions if only to see how grim life might become should worse become worst.  It does look pretty scary:  Kat is after me to polish up my Spanish just in case we have to move to Costa Rica.  (I remind her that she is the mayor and therefore she must be fluent en el Espanol.)  She’s read that CR has coastal towns with cool Pacific breezes, good cafes, low cost rentals with help, and a large ex-patriate population most of whom are Americanos feo.  Like North Carolina, Costa Rica has mountains not far from the beach, which is a good thing should a hurricane set La Rica in its sights.  Unlike North Carolina, CR has universal health care which also covers resident human aliens (no Martians, por favor).  And hey, we both have that insurance if we need to go to Duke or Mayo for a joint replacement.

 

You too watched parts of both conventions.   Let’s not talk about production values.  There is no need to discuss live performances by the original artists vs. recorded music loudly unauthorized by its performers.  And let us agree up front, 95% of all registered voters detest one or both nominees.   Instead of political party, let’s focus on fitness for our highest public office.

 

Certain hygiene factors apply to the Presidency.   First is possession of a mindset hungry for information, especially in one’s areas of relative ignorance.  Second is a desire to work for the best interests of all Americans.  Third is respect for reason coupled with a thick skin and a long, very slow fuse.   A cause of the high negatives of Donald and Hillary is that we cannot definitively attribute any of those virtues to either.  But from my perspective, one candidate is merely vague on them.  The other clearly feels contempt for all three.

 

Kat and I have had the great misfortune to work for a narcissistic personality.   That variety of sociopath has an immense need to be the center of attention, frequently tells lies with great conviction, cares nothing for the rule of law, routinely abuses others, and under no circumstances will apologize for anything.   One candidate’s (smallish*) foot fits that shoe perfectly.

I have struggled to understand Trump’s appeal. I see no evidence on his campaign website of any real plan to govern, nor even one new idea. This morning a rationale for his poll ratings came to me in a flashback to the climactic scene of Network. Howard Beale, an aging night-time network anchor about to lose his job concluded his show with a spluttering rant.

A year ago I wrote a blog comparing the rise of Trump to the Oscar winning movie, Network.    It struck me that Donald had no policy positions, and he had no cause other than as in that wonderful movie:  “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!”

I have struggled to understand Trump’s appeal. I see no evidence on his campaign website of any real plan to govern, nor even one new idea. This morning a rationale for his poll ratings came to me in a flashback to the climactic scene of Network. Howard Beale, an aging night-time network anchor about to lose his job concluded his show with a spluttering rant.
Howard Beal on Network

That was then.  This is now.   Trump is the Republican Party’s nominee.  One year down the road he still has no policy positions of his own, other than a wall to be paid for by Mexico, a ban on Muslim tourism and immigration, and a chip on each shoulder.

 

Say what you will about Bill Clinton, Obama, Reagan, the Bushes, and even Nixon.  They made mistakes but somehow didn’t blow up the planet.  To me, on her worst days, Crooked Hillary seems mentally stable.  Do you trust The Donald with nuclear launch codes?   The man scares me.  To my Republican friends:  Losing the Supreme Court will retard your cause by twenty years.  But it would take mankind much longer to recover from the end of the world.

 

*You may call me ‘Little Jackson’.

16 thoughts on “Conventions”

    1. Given the weapons available to any Commander n Chief you have to go with stable and secretive over unpredictable and open. And firsts are good thing. Some tough old broads have represented their nations very well: Golda M, Marge Thatcher, and Merkle to name a few. Hilly is another tough old broad. I’m not putting on a bumper sticker (the Sled’s still got pretty good paint), but I’m gonna spend half of election day working the phones in the reddish state of North Carolina.

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      1. Of course I am excited about this milestone, but not about the woman who got the first nomination.

        ==

        It is a huge deal that a woman has finally been nominated as a presidential candidate.

        I hope this fact alone shows women of all ages what is possible.

        ===

        One has to be tough to endure in politics of any kind, and it’s clear Hillary fits that bill.

        My issues with her are on other fronts.

        Even so, I will be voting for her.

        ===

        In case you missed this one, LJ :-), here is some more news for you:

        http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-national-security_us_57a8d2dce4b0aae2a5a0ba36

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      2. Who are Republicans these days? They used to be the party of Lincoln and were leaders among whites of civil rights. Eisenhower had a top income tax rate of 90% and balanced a budget or two. Today the National Debt is So Important, but Bill Clinton had us on schedule to pay every dollar off by 2020 … so W cut tax rates to nothing, and once W was out of office Mitch and Paul suddenly found deficit religion.

        Who is the GOP, and other than tax cuts for the rich, integration of church and state, no government regulation, and an even larger military, what do they want?

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    1. I so miss Molly Ivins. She had a wicked talent for humorously highlighting lies, hypocrisy, and errors of logic. Molly coined The First Rule of Holes, and it’s a mystery to me that Trump hasn’t heard of it. It goes like this: “When you’re in a hole and want to get out, the first thing you do is stop digging.”

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