Okay, I'm kind of bored with this convention. It's the same old stuff I covered on days 1 and 2. I mean, I don't have much to say. Clinton cares, Trump bad, blah blah blah. The only things I haven't said before that have come to mind in my last day are:
1) Religion. I'm tired of the religious overtones of the convention. I mean, I expect this of the republican party, but between the constant convocations at the beginning of the sessions, the religious choirs, and the constant talk about faith, it's a bit much. I believe in separation of church and state, and while religion and public life will intersect, it's just excessive and annoying.
2) Too many "martyrdom" stories. I plan on eventually covering this as a topic in itself, but I might as well discuss a little here. We live in a country that glorifies struggle against adversity, always. I am someone who wants to eliminate adversity. I want to make life easier, and I want to improve peoples' lives. I hate how existence can be such a struggle for some. To me, in the richest nation on earth, with the most resources available to solve our problems, it is unacceptable that these problems exist. The democrats, half their speakers talk a lot about adversity. About life challenges they needed to overcome. The working mom with 3 jobs who is trying to put their kids through college. The disabled person who had to overcome all odds. The mom who had to come to terms with her son dying in the war on terror. We, and democrats do this too, highlight these stories so we can...celebrate this stuff. We value strength and ability to deal with adversity. I believe in eliminating adversity. It's like, people allow our system to be broken just so we have good stories to tell each other about how unfair life is and how we overcame obstacles. It's like a cult of martyrdom. It's not something that touches me. I don't celebrate overcoming adversity. I'd rather adversity doesn't exist. So Clinton gives a hand up to working moms. Why not make a system in which we don't have these problems to begin with, insofar that we can realistically do so? Instead of talking about moms who lost kids in war, why not talk about not getting involved in wars we should've never fought? (like Iraq). Look, we will likely never make things PERFECT. But we should, realistically, try to make life much better. And not in small ways, in big ways. We need to stop dealing with these small targeted reforms, and start dealing with the big issues, and try to solve our problems systemically. Again, I just don't get people. Do people really have such stockholm syndrome that they see our problems as inevitable and don't try to fix them in big ways?
So, that's just two things I noticed and my reactions.
I won't go too much into the speeches. Most were boring and repetitive. I'll just touch on the big three. Biden's speech was decent and it was a good screw you to Trump. Trump, last week, laid out this huge image of America being under constant siege from terrorists and stuff, and how we need to make America great again economically. Biden mentioned how we are just about the best nation on earth with the biggest military and economy bar none. I don't think things are rosy, but Trump does paint a distorted picture of America and I think Biden did a good job refuting him.
Kaine's speech didn't go over well with me. Too much religion, too much talk about overcoming adversity and being tough. Again, machismo or whatever you want to call it doesn't sway me. See my above rant about eliminating adversity altogether.
Obama's speech was more dead on. You know, while I would've liked to have seen more progressivism out of Obama's presidency, he gets it. After all, he presided over the recession. He understands the economy isn't perfect. He understands there is progress to be made. He even gave Bernie supporters advice and encouragement and told us not to give up. I respect him a lot. I disagree with him on some things, but all in all, given the choices come November, I'm going to miss him. Obama is the guy who got me in the democratic party all things considered.
All things considered, it was another boring and annoying night out of the DNC, with the exception of Obama's speech, and maybe Biden's. I really wish more of the democratic party could at least be as far left as Obama and understand how to connect to people. I mean, so much of the party just doesn't get it. I mean, liberalism, sold properly, pushed with the right measure of solutions, can be a very unifying force. It gives a positive message of a hope of a better tomorrow and focuses on identifying and fixing problems. But so many democrats just don't get it. They're too moderate and don't understand how to connect to the younger generation of democrats, particularly those who support Sanders. Obama seems to be just about the only one in the party who gets it other than Warren and Sanders. That's part of the reason they're so disappointing this election. Not to mention the whole rigging the primary for Hillary thing.
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