RNC: The Regressive National Convention

In an editor's letter entitled "What Ever Happened to the Future?" in the July 2008 issue of Vanity Fair, Graydon Carter spoke to the trouble facing America today. He explained, far more articulately than I'm about to, that the genius of America historically was its emphasis on the future as opposed to the past. He argued that while Europe was busy looking backwards and celebrating the good old days, America was investing in its future, always looking to seize new opportunities. Unfortunately, he pointed out, those days have fallen behind us and instead of America leading the way, we have staggered recently (more precisely during the last 8 years of the Bush administration), falling behind Europe and others. In issues ranging from global warming to technology, we have hesitated or regressed entirely. To me, watching and listening to the Republicans over the last few weeks epitomizes this type of backwards-looking mentality.

Less than 1 hour into the RNC, images of the crumbling towers and references to September 11th are center stage ("Let's not forget George Bush has kept America safe" -Laura Bush). While September 11th is undoubtedly a day of siginificance to all Americans (and many across the world), it can not and should not be a political call to live in fear and govern through military might. Not only will this type of rule continue to drag us further and further behind the rest of the world, but it also doesn't work. According to a recent RAND corporation report, "the U.S. approach to countering al Qa'ida has focused far too much on the use of military force. Instead, policing and intelligence should be the backbone of U.S. efforts." They support this argument with DATA (I know, data can be SCARY, especially to those who believe in creationism and don't believe in global warming). Cory Doctorow describes the findings in the Boing Boing blog: "By analyzing a comprehensive roster of terrorist groups that existed worldwide between 1968 and 2006, the authors found that most groups ended because of operations carried out by local police or intelligence agencies or because they negotiated a settlement with their governments. Military force was rarely the primary reason a terrorist group ended . . . " And yet, Day 1 of RNC seemed to be an ode to the military and particularly the failed Iraq War. To me, Day 1 could be summed up something like this: religion, religion, religion, military, military, military, PAST, PAST, PAST!

I get it- we have a war hero presidential candidate and let's not forget that we are in the middle of a war. War hero+war=Elect McCain= put our country first! It amazes me that somehow war, and in particular the Iraq war (despite its waning popularity) still manages to garner so much positive attention and somehow equates to putting our country first. Even more shocking to me are military families and veterans, who have suffered continually from a lack of true support from the current Republican regime (unless you count repeated deployments and a lack of adequate health care for veterans as support), still seemingly enthusiastic about the Republican party and war in general (but admittedlly, I haven't actually looked at the statistics on this - YET). Shouldn't those the most likely to end up in harm's be the most war-phobic? Excuse the slight digression- now back to my original point . . .

I realize that Day 1 focused on the biography of John McCain and with 72 years of history, there is a helluva lot of "past" to discuss. I also am aware that during the DNC, we also took a brief tour into Obama and Michelle's past. But overwhelmingly, the sentiment at the DNC was excitement and encouragement for our future. And I have yet to hear anything forward-looking at the RNC. So, here's looking forward to hearing more from the Republicans in the days ahead. I only hope that that they too decide to look forward instead to continuing to dwell on the past.

And so, on to Day 2 . . .

P.S. Joe Lieberman seriously needs to stop calling himself a Democrat!!