A Tale of Two Conventions - great read by David Corn

[NRaleighLiberal]

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/09/comparing-republican-democratic-conventions-tampa-charlotte

The nation is deeply divided, but the gatherings in Charlotte and Tampa show how starkly dissimilar the Democratic and Republican visions of the American experience are.

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"The people. It's rather obvious: Planet Democrat is inhabited by people of different colors; Planet Republican is monochromatic. This stark contrast has long existed and is not a surprise. (One recent poll showed Mitt Romney with zero—yes, zero—support among African Americans.) Yet shifting from Tampa to Charlotte is not unlike the moment in The Wizard of Oz when black-and-white gives way to the full spectrum. In Tampa, it seemed there were more black and Hispanic Americans on the stage than among the audience of thousands of white people. The streets of downtown Charlotte—which, for some reason, is called "uptown"—are overflowing with diversity.

And this extends beyond race. The thousands of delegates in Charlotte represent more income (or class) diversity. Sure, plenty of well-heeled Democratic donors, lobbyists, and supporters are strolling about, but there are many folks who look as if they are heading back to tough jobs when the convention is done: teachers, nurses, teamsters, and the like. In Tampa, I conducted an experiment and asked several journalists to fill in this blank: "These Republican delegates look like they come from ________." The most common answer: "a country club." Another reply: "a gated community."

The street. Tampa was an antiseptic affair. The arena was in a security area that resembled a Green Zone. Delegates were bussed in, then bussed out. With scant interaction between the convention and the rest of the world, no sense of community was created. It was as if the GOP delegates were suburbanites—or exurbanites—commuting to and from their place of business, zipping past the locals and their neighborhoods. In Charlotte, the delegates and others have flooded the downtown area, walking from one event to another, interacting with one another, the residents of the city who have flocked to the city's center, and even the street-corner anti-abortion protesters. There's a vibrancy that embodies the best values of community and urban life.

The past. On Planet Democrat, memory exists. In Tampa, there was a dark hole. At Mittfest, barely any mention of George W. Bush or his presidency occurred. History began the day President Barack Obama took office (with the exception of Paul Ryan claiming Obama was responsible for the closing of a GM plant that shut down before Obama assumed office). There was no talk of what had caused the economic collapse that still reverberates. Instead, Obama's post-collapse actions were held responsible for the ongoing woes precipitated by the Bush-Cheney crash. Tribute was indeed paid to Ronald Reagan, but all Republican policies and actions since 1988 were photoshopped out of the picture. It was very Soviet—as was the Republican revisionism that erased Mitt Romney's signature policy accomplishment as Massachusetts governor: implementing comprehensive health care reform."

snip


Read this!

[csziggy]

1. Very good comparison!

Sent on to friends.

[Th1onein]

2. Great read!

Thanks for posting it. And Corn is absolutely correct in his assessments.

I think the Republican party is headed for the dustbin. It's like a train that has gone off it's tracks. I worry for the two party system, but if it dies, this will make the nominations that much more important, and it will effectively kill the electoral college system, which is a plus.