They come once every four years. They last no more than four days. They are usually only weeks apart. They are the Republican and Democratic National Conventions.
I, being a political junkie, am glued to the television. I’ve often said that there are only two things I would bet on, prize fights or a political race. The reason is because in either, anything can happen.
This past week, the Republican Party held its convention in Cleveland and I wasn’t disappointed. That, which I didn’t expect to happen, happened.
It started from the opening invocation, when the minister told the assembled delegates that; ”Our enemy is not other Republicans, but is Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party.” So much for Christian charity and the milk of human kindness.
The first night of the Convention featured the speech of Melania Trump, the wife of the Party’s nominee for President. Her speech was destined to be a success since portions of it had been delivered before by Michelle Obama whose husband went on to be elected President
I do have to confess that I remain somewhat puzzled about why the Trump campaign would lift portions of a speech for Melania Trump from one given by the First Lady, since Donald Trump and the Republican Party clearly view the President as a foreign born Presidential usurper if not the Anti-Christ.
The second night New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie, announced that he would prosecute Hillary Clinton for a variety of transgressions and the delegates could serve as a “jury of her peers.”
This was a particular treat because Christie has never been inside a courtroom.
After reading out a list of charges, Christie would ask the audience to shout out “guilty or not guilty.” To no one’s surprise the delegates pronounced her guilty on each charge.
If Christie had wanted to exhibit some real imagination, he could have asked them to return a verdict on the George Washington Bridge lane closings.
Day three of the convention featured the acceptance speech of Mike Pence, the anti-Gay Governor of Indiana.
I was initially puzzled about what the Trump campaign thought Pence brought to the ticket since Trump already had eighty percent of the evangelical vote and against Hillary Clinton seemed likely to pick up the other twenty percent. Then I realized that after Christie and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich there were no other prominent Republicans willing to join the ticket. Considering the baggage that Christie and Gingrich carry, Pence must seem like a safe choice.
On the final night of the Convention Trump doubled down on his anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, isolationist positions.
His ambivalence about our NATO obligations can only serve to give great comfort to Russia’s Putin.
Trump’s hostility to immigrants and Pence’s to Gays caused me to wonder about the message being delivered to the 65,000 foreign born men and women, the 5,895 Muslims, the 66,000 gay and 6,700 transgendered persons serving in the Armed Forces at a time when none of the Trump children have served.
In what seems to be a fitting coda to the Convention, the day after it concluded, David Duke, a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for the United States Senate in Louisiana and declared;
“I’m overjoyed to see Donald Trump and most Americans embrace the issues that I’ve championed for years.”
Pence, who describes himself as a “Christian, Conservative and Republican in that order will recognize this quote from Galatians, Chapter 6 verse 7;
“….for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.”