I've spent the last 4 days listening to the Republican National Convention. I'm going to link to the full & unaltered versions; however, I do NOT recommend trying to watch or listen to them. The live streams that I listened to included bitingly sarcastic commentary, and it was still a collection of the most soul-crushing political speeches I've ever been subjected to.
I've never tuned in to an American political convention before, so I don't really have anything to compare this to. I was expecting a lot of bombastic, high-energy, jingoistic, rebel-rousing, and ultimately empty rhetoric about how great Yankland is and how much greater it's going to be with less regulation and lower taxes—and yeah, there was a bit of that—but for the most part, this was a purposefully crafted orgy of human misery.
The speakers came in approximately four different flavours:
- Trump's friends and family. These were all pretty much puff-pieces about how great Trump is as a husband/father/friend/employer. And while his kids have all obviously had experience giving speeches, his wife came off as a little bit "meh", and two of his mates gave weird rambling character references that didn't go anywhere and just sort of petered out without ever making a point.
- D-list celebrities—basically, reality TV people, soap-stars, & has-beens—although they did somehow manage to swing a female astronaut. These were also generally pretty light and fluffy; however, there was one right-wing talk-show host—Laura Ingraham—who gave what might have been the most rousing and inspiring speech of the whole shebang.
- Republican politicians, such as governors, mayors, & senators. A couple of these were all, "Rah, rah, USA", but for the most part, this is where things started getting dark. One after another, they took turns hammering the crowd on the terrifying twin threats of Mexicans & Muslims—and the one thing that will open the door to both—Hillary Clinton. They talked about how they were coming to spread drugs and violence; to rape the women and murder both the cops & the gays; about how they were planning to detonate nuclear bombs in the cities; and about how the traitor Hillary would welcome them with open arms. Writing it, it sounds like fanciful, far-fetched exaggeration, but it's all there if you want to try and listen to it. Time and again the cry went up, "We cannot hope to defeat our enemy if we lack the courage to even call it by its name; and the enemy's name is radical Islam". The New Jersey governor turned his speech into a mock trial for Clinton, having the crowd shout "Guilty! Guilty!" as he read a list of her crimes. At various times throughout the conference, speakers—including Trump—led a chant of "Lock her up! Lock her up!"
- Oh, and this is where things got really dark. They also had a number of "regular people" speak—almost all of which were war veterans or people who blamed Hillary for the deaths of their children. A couple of these were literally nonsense; by which I mean, sentences that didn't seem to fit together coherently. Stuff that sounded like "Our enemy is at the gate. Like our forefathers before us, we need to stand strong. In our conviction for justice. We need to take that stand and strike a blow for the freedom that we as Americans cherish so dearly. That our fathers and their fathers taught us to stand for. This is the test that God has put before us, and we cannot shrink from it. Because God is with us." If you've ever heard Sarah Palin speak, you'll know what I mean. But it was the speeches that did make sense that were the most disturbing. A couple of people gave horrifying accounts of how their children were murdered by illegal immigrants, including graphic descriptions of the bullet-ridden bodies. A couple of blokes gave a blow-by-blow account of how a military operation in Libya went bad because of decisions made by Hillary in her role as Secretary Of State. One woman, who sounded like she'd come directly from her son's funeral, sobbed and wailed about putting Clinton behind bars. Throughout most of this, the crowd mumbled uncomfortably, unaware of whether they should cheer or boo or simply stay silent.
Y'know, I complained about Turnbull's speech at the last election being a long angry ramble, but having watched this, I now understand how fortunate we are in this country. The pinnacle of this whole event was Trump shouting—yes, literally shouting—about terrorists and dead children and locking up Hillary, for a little over an hour.
I saw two instances of "indy journalists" almost coming to blows; in one case, the confrontation was between a left-winger and a right-winger, and in the other case, it was two left-wingers arguing over whether it was morally defensible for lefties to vote for a third party candidate, like The Greens, if that means Trump might win. Oh, and by the way, both sides are now openly accusing each other of rape—apparently one of Trump's ex-wives made allegations years ago—and there's all the rumours about Bill Clinton and some of his sleazy millionaire mates—I even saw a t-shirt that had Bill's face and the word "RAPE" on the front.
If this is just the beginning—if things are only going to get worse from here on out—then this is going to be one ugly fucking campaign. Democratic convention is next week. Dunno if it's gonna be any classier. Dunno if I have the will to find out.
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