Friday, July 22, 2016

Crowned


by Jimmy Margulies
Well, it's finally over. The man who said that Mexicans were murderers and rapists (some are good), the man who said he has the best words, the man who has insulted just about every single person in the country, is the Republican nominee for President of the United States. It all happened on the fourth night of a convention that is supposed to focus on party, policy, the VP, and, on night four, Donald Trump. Instead, every night consisted of him in some form. Whether it was introducing his wife, Melania, or appearing live via satellite, or casting angry glares at Ted Cruz, Trump made each night about himself, something that no other candidate had done.

Mixed in with those appearances were grand spectacles of absurdness. From two survivors of the Benghazi attack reenacting that night, to Chris Christie mock trial of Hillary Clinton, to all the fearmongering that everyone and everything is going to kill us. It is just amazing how many people live with all this pent up fear and hatred. Meanwhile, in between trying to convince us that we're all going to die unless the nominee is elected (note that they rarely used Trump's name), they tried to show us that he is a family man, a well-respected businessman, a caring and compassionate man, and someone who is qualified to be president. To me, they tried too hard and it sounded more like they were convincing themselves. The anecdotes of him conducting smart business deals were boring and pretentious and, frankly, pointless when talking about using those skills on leaders of the world. Even the speeches from Trump's own children rung hollow with Trump both giving his young kids business advice before they hit puberty and communicating with them through notes.

Even Trump's own acceptance speech, running longer than any other acceptance speech in the last 40 or so years, painted the United States as a dark and dying country. Is that really what Republicans think? It's too bad that they can't see the forest for the trees. Our country's not perfect but what is? It baffles me that someone, who could be the next president, could be this dour, this insulting, this offensive to the country we love and be applauded.

Nothing I say will change the mind of someone determined to vote for Trump. You hear his anti-just about everything rhetoric and think "Yep, I'm gonna vote for that man." More power to you. I'm gonna go with someone more upbeat about our country. Someone who knows our country has problems but doesn't blame them whole groups of people just because they don't like them.

Scary Gary
Is Janet supposed to Jan-In-the-Pan from "The Brain That Wouldn't Die"?