Convention failure

I spent last week glued to sundry news sites, watching the storm unfold in Tampa, Fla.
It says something dark about mankind’s capacity for Schadenfreude that I remained transfixed, eagerly awaiting each new atrocity regardless of the horror it wrought.
Also, apparently there was some sort of hurricane.

I have deep misgivings about lambasting the Republican National Convention, in much the same way you might have misgivings about holding a crisp $50 bill just out of the reach of a Dickensian orphan, and for much the same reason.

There is something so heartbreakingly sad and pathetic about the victim that any comedy inherent in the situation is lost.

For those among you easily confused by literary references, allow me to rephrase.It’s essentially the same reason we don’t joke about the IU football team.

While the IU football team stares indecisively at the line separating comedy from tragedy, before their quarterback is sacked and they lose five yards, the RNC slips gaily down that same line, all the while espousing the sanctity of marriage.

Apparently, what I know about successful political conventions could likely fit on the head of a pin and still allow for generous margins, seeing as the RNC did nothing the way I would have expected.

Were I in Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s position, my first reaction upon discovering the vice-presidential candidate’s speech was riddled with blatant falsehoods would be to demand he ritually disembowel himself for bringing dishonor upon my campaign.

I most certainly would not announce to reporters, “We’re not going to let this campaign be dictated by fact-checkers.”

Following that debacle, I imagine Republicans took a deep breath and thought, “At least it can’t get any worse.“

Unfortunately, these private thoughts must have been overheard by some malevolent trickster deity who, interpreting that as a challenge, ushered Clint Eastwood to the stage.

A stunned audience looked on in horror as Eastwood embarked on a long, rambling rant directed primarily at an empty chair in which he pretended President Barack Obama was seated. The absurdity of this was topped only by the fact that he seemed to have lost his argument with the imaginary person.

At this point, I can only assume the organizers of the RNC are being punished for heinous crimes they committed in past lives.

The response to the RNC shouldn’t be ironic detachment, or even an attempt at cheap humor. It should be outrage.

In an attempt to unseat Obama, the Republican Party has made a mockery out of the American political system.

Romney has forsaken all the principles he once had as governor of Massachusetts in an attempt to appeal to a conservative base. His running mate lies shamelessly, hoping voters are either too stupid or too cynical to care. 

This wasn’t a convention.

It was a sideshow. If the Republican Party wants to again become a respected, equal and esteemed opponent, and a force of positive change, this nonsense needs to stop.

­— stefsoko@indiana.edu