The Republican Infomercial

Now that the "event" is over I guess it's time to put some perspective on it.  The "it" of course is the Republican National Convention.  Delayed by Hurricane Isaac, the convention was compressed into 3 days instead of four, and judging from the ratings, America was grateful.  The fact that the cable television show, "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo Child" beat out the network GOP convention coverage should send a clear message.  Nobody cares!

Not that nobody cares about the election, it's just that since the candidate and his running mate were preordained and the platform was hammered out already, little more remained but a few minor votes on rules changes and a three night long infomercial for the Republicans as they tried to make Mitt Romney look like a "man of the people".

Mitt Romney is anything but a man of the people.  He is a millionaire money-shifter who understands nothing about what average American's  lives are like.  His world is one of buying and gutting companies and dressage horses.  Most folks in this country don't even know what "dressage" is, and they are too busy trying to make a living and provide for their families to care.

The Republican Infomercial was notable for it's absences rather than it's speakers.  Not surprisingly they trouped out every Republican woman they could find to try to make Mitt look appealing to the female voter.  The big hole, no pun intended, was the absence of "Mama Grizzly" Sarah Palin.  You would think the former VP candidate would rate a few minutes of podium time.  Sarah was even pulled off Fox News prior to the convention, once again proving that Fox is simply a propaganda arm of the GOP.  The Republicans don't want you remembering their folly of not vetting a candidate for VP, and their obvious tokenism of selecting a woman.  Apparently, just any woman would do as long as she looked good on TV.

The other gaping hole was the former president George W. Bush.  His name was never spoken, and his voice was conspicuously absent.  The Democrats are featuring former president Bill Clinton as their keynote speaker, but the GOP is trying to rewrite history and ignore that Bush ever existed.  And that is the real issue.

The GOP is all style over substance.  Their platform is filled with wacko right-wing ideology but their candidate is trying to look like a nice guy.  They are counting on the press being passive and the public being stupid.  They are wrong.  This election cycle the press has woken from their slumber and actually is doing their job, reporting facts, not just what people said.  CBS, CNN and amazingly even someone at Fox called Paul Ryan on his monumental lie-fest that was his acceptance speech. 

Thanks to the Occupy movement and the fresh memory of how bad the Bush years were, Americans have begun to look closely at politicians and not just their outward appearance.  I sincerely hope this trend continues right through the election and beyond.  It's time we all got serious about our government, and not just during election years.