Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 07:10 pm
Now that Bernie Sanders has endorsed Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party has a platform that is progressive, inclusive and of this century; the hot mess that is the Republican Convention is looking far more disastrous than it did even 24 hours ago. Even then, it looked like the Republican Party was in chaos.
So far, corporate sponsors have backed out, finding speakers is proving to be … challenging. We already know that Donald Trump is scraping the bottom of the barrel to find a warm body to be his running mate and by Trump’s own admission, it’s unlikely any of the losers on his short list is going to save his campaign and the Republican Party from political oblivion.
A striking and undeniable sign that even Republicans know that Trump is a train wreck is the number of people who announced they definitely will not attend the convention. Of the 54 Republican senators, 16 announced they won’t be attending with excuses that sound like variants of “I have to wash my hair.”
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Arizona Senator Jeff Flake has some urgent lawn mowing to do. Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse really needs to take his kids to watch some dumpster fires.
Republican Governors Susanna Martinez and Nikki Haley made it very clear they just don’t want anything to do with Donald Trump and the Trump fest in Cleveland. Ironically, Republicans will have to part with their guns to attend the convention which is – don’t laugh too hard – a designated gun free zone. Of course, they feel safe because of the Neo-Nazis who have pledged to protect Donald Trump and his supporters from scary protesters armed with grammatically correct signs.
Republicans started working on their platform of hate and fear on Monday. If what has occurred so far is an indicator, the final product is going to be even more hateful and scarier than the version they put out in 2012.
Highlights include an amendment on trade that has Donald Trump’s fingerprints all over it and is probably giving the party’s corporate sponsors ulcers. While they abandoned that all important constitutional amendment to ban marriage equality and rejected efforts to ban no fault divorce, the committee endorsed “conversion therapyâ€.
In reaction to that development, the Southern Poverty Law Center said:
Not only has conversion therapy been proven to be fraudulent, it can cause grave harm, up to and including suicidality. And it tears families apart.
The committee passed a new resolution on Israel, declaring the party’s “unequivocal support for Israel and Jerusalem,” per a tweet by Zeke Miller.
Like the United States of America, the modern state of Israel is a country born from the aspiration for freedom, and standing out among the nations as a beacon of democracy and humanity. Beyond out mutual strategic interests, Israel is likewise an exceptional country that shares our most essential values. It is the only country in the Middle East where freedom of speech and freedom of religion are found. Therefore, support for Israel is an expression of Americanism, and it is the responsibility of our government to advance policies that reflect Americans’ strong desire for a relationship with no daylight between America and Israel. We recognize Jerusalem as the eternal and indivisible capital of the Jewish state, and call for the American embassy to be moved there in fulfillment of U.S. law.
The amendment goes on to call the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, anti-Semitic. Obviously, Republicans are hoping we’ll forget about Donald Trump’s clearly anti-Semitic Star of David tweet or the numerous times he retweeted neo-Nazis, quoted dead fascists and David Duke’s very public and enthusiastic support for Donald Trump.
As Jason Easley reported, even Trump knows his party is headed for disaster as reflected in one of his twitter meltdowns today.
Usually, candidates enjoy a bit of a bump during and following their convention. It looks like this year’s Republican convention is shaping up to be very good for Hillary Clinton.
Former contributor.
