So tonight I tried to watch the Democratic National Convention coverage but became bored in record time. This was no convention. It was a two hour long campaign ad.
As you may know, I don't watch regular commercial TV and my internet browsing is insulated from ads via my ad blocking software. So, I have no idea what's going on unless I specifically seek it out. And frankly, my dear, that's the way I like it.
But, in fact, I do miss a little bit (just a little bit) of the ad frenzy I remember from past election cycles. I'm sure it still goes on, I'd guess. But being away from it all makes me averse to any advertising at all. Even if it takes the form of the Covid-caused extended infomercial that the convention has now become. We'll see next week what the Republicans have cooked up but this pot of under cooked stew I saw the beginnings of tonight is just plain crap.
Bad low-res video excerpts, awkward from-the-home interviews, teleprompters (or maybe just notes?) positioned off-to-the-side so speakers have to look side-eyed every few seconds making them seem totally shifty, no audience/crowd/sense of community. I really don't know what the effect of this will be but for me it was a big turn off.
Covid concessions aside though, the message this year took on too many of the very highly caustic and polarising issues of the day. Well, Michael, shouldn't they? They need to challenge the current leadership. Right, I know. But there are bigger, more important issues at hand than the ones that seemed to be placed at the forefront tonight. The issues that we ALL need to come to terms with...the economy, the fact that the current president is a liar, a traitor to foreign powers, corrupt and a sociopath narcissist. Or is it narcissistic sociopath? Does it really matter?
But instead the spotlight is placed on the BLM movement and the pandemic. Granted, Trump's response to these issues has fallen directly within the parameters of my above outline of grander issues, so why hark on about the sub-matters? Am I saying that systemic racism and the appropriate scientic approach to combat the threat of the coronavirus are sub-matters?
YES!
No don't misunderstand me. I recognize these are vital issues for the future of not only our country but the world. But right now, we are conducting a convention to gather (virtually as it is) our party to form a significant and viable opposition to the reelection of the current President, Donald Trump. That's the main, and frankly, knowing his talents in this arena, preferably ONLY objective of this forum.
If we focus too much on placating the very far-left (which, hint, hint, is going to do what they did in '16 and simply not vote) we could be yet again looking at a very late American Horror Story night on November 3rd.
They love Bernie! We get it! I loved McGovern when I was a kid. Soft-spoken, no-nonsense type. Not a slick politician like Tricky Dick. But where did he get? Not far, kiddies, not far. Just like Bernie.
They love AOC! But she's just a whiny brat that literally thinks she's the most liberal person in the world and should be celebrated for it. Which, BTW, is kinda the opposite of truly altruistic liberalism in which one should shun any personal gain from boosting mankind/womankind/fluid-genderkinds life on this planet.
I mean, in the first hour of tonight's broadcast I watched as nameless cringy, out-of-focus, poorly mic'ed nobodies bitched and complained about systemic racism and the handling of the Covid crisis.
Well let me be the first to point out that indeed those two topics do come hand in hand. You see, we humans ARE, in fact, SYSTEMICALLY RACIST! Yup! It's true. We genetically-modified and consciously and consistently educated ourselves to be systemically racist...against all other species on Earth. Including, and probably especially, lifeforms like viruses. Through millennia of evolution, we have striven to be the survivor above all competitors. This is the racism we're "guilty" of and, frankly, should be very proud of.
Just being popular doesn't cut it on this level, folks. Beetles have over 50,000 species and have been successful living on Earth for millions of years before us. But does that give them carte blanche? Should they be given preferential treatment because of their struggles through the eons? Should we feel obliged to forfeit our advantages to them? Are we guilty of being intellectually entitled and thus should feel compelled to include beetles into our own wealth of resources on this world?
In other words, do we need now to fork over 40 inches and an aphid to each beetle on the planet? I mean, we stomp on them and treat them like dung. Yet they have as much right to live as we do, right? Perhaps more so if you account for their longevity and superior adaptation.
A crude analogy? Perhaps, and likely highly unpopular. But we live under the laws of nature and it fits in with those laws. Perhaps we should defund the evolution police? Oh, sorry, that's not possible.