Voices4Hillary is pleased to recount the first day of #RNCinCLE with remarks by Tanya Melich. She is known as the first person to coin the phrase, "Republican War Against Women." After what we saw in Cleveland yesterday, it seems that though that War is very much alive--did you read the RNC Platform? -- there are more targets too.
TRUMP'S REPUBLICAN PARTY
by Tanya Melich
Watching the Republican convention yesterday made me physically sick. Trump, guided by aides who had been Nixon acolytes in the Watergate scandal, had choreographed an ugly show of fear and hate. The evening was described as "Make America Safe Again." It should have been labeled "Make America Frightened Again."
Trump presented a sinister production that reached its climax with the ranting of retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn who encouraged the delegates to consider America going to war so Trump could lead the nation to victory.
Flynn called on Hillary "to leave this race now" and like a high school cheerleader exhorted the delegates in sing-song chant: "Lock her up. Lock her up." ending with "Wake up America. You can't sit this one out". (While he seemed to be referring to delegates working in the election, I got the sense he was also talking about a war on Islamists and illegal immigrants.)
7/18/16 - RNC Crowd Chants ' Lock Her Up ! ' as Gen Mike Flynn Trashes Hillary Clinton
Flynn reminds one of General Curtis Le May who wanted to use nuclear weapons against the Russians and was the prototype for the nuke-tough American general in the Dr. Strangelove movie. That Flynn is a defense advisor to Trump and was reputed to have been seriously considered to be Trump's running mate requires one to seriously pause. Would Flynn be Secretary of Defense in a Trump administration?
Trump's crudeness and his lack of civil discourse that has been so visibly evident during his campaign was on display in his choice of other speakers.
To put a grieving mother who lost her foreign service son in the Benghazi attack on national television was cruel. As she had all year, this mother blamed Hillary for her son's death. The idea that Hillary caused his death and does not too mourn for Americans lost is ludicrous.
Probably the saddest performance of the evening went to former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. After rightfully paying tribute to law enforcement officers and saying that Americans of all types, races should unite, he raised the temperature in the hall by describing an America overwhelmed with crime and violence. (Even though the nation presently has an historically low crime rate overall.)
For the first time all evening, the entire convention was electrified. Delegates rose to their feet as Giuliani in loud staccato phrases attacked Hillary and the Democrats for being soft on crime and promised, "What I did for New York, Trump will do for America." His performance was that of a classic demagogue and would fit nicely in books that categorize fascist rhetoric.
The Bushes, Mitt Romney, John McCain, John Kasich and all those other Republican leaders who decided not to attend this convention were right. I'm sorry I took the time to watch the demise of what was once a respected political party. It is now the means for a sick, power hungry man to satisfy his appetites.
Trump claims he won the most Republican votes in the primaries and thus is supported by the majority of his party. He is wrong. According to a July 16th article by Jon Ward, senior political correspondent for Yahoo "when the contested phase of the primary essentially ended in early May, Trump had roughly ll million votes compared to 17 million" for all the other presidential GOP candidates.
The no-shows were easy to identify. Here are 3.
Here are 2 more no shows.
Putin was one person who seemed to show up, since he was invoked so often.
For nearly my entire adult life, I worked to elect Republican candidates and left
when the party turned against the rights of women. The spectacle I watched last night was worse than anything I've ever experienced. I was at the 1964 San Francisco convention when Barry Goldwater was nominated and walked out of the
l992 Houston convention when President George H.W. Bush with his Lee Atwater- led team turned the convention over to Pat Buchanan, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell.
Cleveland is worse than San Francisco or Houston. I don't know whether I have the stomach to watch the next three nights. The party of Trump is a disgrace to the nation and must be particularly painful to those Republican delegates and members at home who watched as Trump orchestrated their party into the image of a pathological bully.
America deserves better. Monday night at the Cleveland Republican convention will be remembered as one of the meanest displays of crudeness and fear mongering in our nation's political history.
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July 19,2016
