Convention Speeches: Putting Party Over Country
So, as many of you know I have been posting the more prominant convention speeches from the Dems and Repubs under the Convention Highlights . In addition to posting the speeches I’ve watched each of them just to see what is being said. I was particularly disheartened last night by the speeches. In my opinion the tone of the speeches were caustic including blatant insults that went beyond simply criticizing the actions of Senator Obama. Before I continue though, I do want to say that the Democrats are not innocent in this. While the tone of the Democratic convention felt less mean-spirited some of the speeches and Democratic organizations like the DNC, DCCC, and DSCC have certainly said their fair share of unfair things.
Getting back to last night, I cannot help but feel that the tone was both divisive and unbecoming of political discourse. I am not here to thrash Republicans or Democrats, I am writing about this because I want to encourage individuals, no matter what there party affiliation, to denounce the type of rhetoric that came out of last night’s convention. Send letters to your elected officials, political parties, etc to say that you’re not interested in hearing Democrat or Republican bashing. As I was watching the speeches last night I got angry at the fact that the crowd responded so readily and loudly to such negativity. The same happened at the Democratic convention. I’ve been thinking about this for awhile and it finally came to a head last night as I was watching the speeches because I found them PARTICULARLY disrespectful and unbecoming of those who claim to wear the mantle of “leadership.” True leaders don’t need to resort to damaging rhetoric to get their point across.
Last night’s speeches also upset me because Democrats are not always right, Republicans are not always right, Green Party, Libertarians, etc. Everyone has a piece of the solution and we need the power of all those ideas at the same proverbial table if we really want to move our country forward! These conventions could have been a venue for bringing ideas together and really having a conversation about what direction our country should go in. Instead, the conventions were about bashing the other side of blatant political gain. Parents tell their children to “play nice” in the playground and encourage them to work out their differences without using force. Why cannot we, as adults, do the same?
This generation has the opportunity to be judged by the breadth of our accomplishments and the steps that we took to collectively solve the world’s problems. We have the ability to write our own history through our deeds, accomplishments, failures, and through the ability to bring imagination into reality. We will never get there if we don’t begin to expect and demand that our leaders act as such. I am including videos of Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Governor Sarah Palin’s speeches from last night to use as examples of what we cannot continue to accept in our political discourse.
Rudy Giuliani’s Speech
Sarah Palin’s Speech
I like your comments very much, and your reasoning is sound; thanks for the clear-headed logic.
Rick Davis, McCain’s campaign chief, has said, “This election is not about issues. This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates.” He said this in an moment of candor with the press, but he probably says it all the time to his staff. The strategy is to create and play on cultural tensions between people.