The Anti-Community Populists?

“You have a resume from a gifted man with an Ivy League education. He worked as a...community organizer.” Then, he paused as if to allow the absurdity of that notion wash over the faithful crowd, "What?" he added with a dismissive shrug and half chuckle.

Later, the potential Vice-President, Sarah Palin added in her snarky introduction to the country, "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer", except that you have actual responsibilities."

And here is where the Republican party showed its true colors.

It was community organizers who helped immigrants arriving on our shores during the industrial revolution find shelter and jobs. It was the community organizers who developed the Catholic Worker program to gather the poor and homeless into farming communities, saving thousands of lives when the government was helpless and had written them off during the Great Depression. It was the community organizers who worked to create the groundswell to end slavery, segregation, and is working to defeat racism. Community organizers helped give a voice to workers to create the 8 hour work day, and other employee benefits. And Mrs. Palin would do very well to know, it is community organizers who are responsible for the suffrage movement, who put pressure on politicians to enact the Family Leave act for new mothers, and who continue to fight for women's equality.

Jesus was a community organizer. Pontius Pilate was a governor.

But why should we be surprised that the party responsible for the tragedy of the last 7 1/2 years would mock the foot soldiers of populism, while in the very same breath claiming to be champions of "the common man"? Consider this quote:

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic, and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State." - Joseph Goebbels

And therefore, in St. Paul Minnesota, you are seeing the Big Lie and the repression of dissent on full display. However, Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda minister, was wrong about one thing: it doesn't matter if the "political, economic and/or military consequences" effect the people or not - as long as you have a boogieman. And the right-wing has many at their disposal: the "liberal media" and liberals in general, immigrants, minorities, gun control, and anyone not believing in the fundamentalist Christian doctrine. So far, the Republican convention has been an orgy of boogieman flogging. Damn the facts, damn the lies, and (shhhh) damn the people. Don't pay attention to what we've done to this country, to the constitution, and to your jobs. Those damned liberals are coming to take your guns, your bible, and force you and your children to live next to a brown person!

"I'm sorry that Barack Obama feels that (Palin's) hometown isn't cosmopolitan enough." Giuliani sneered with a wink and a nod to the cowboy hat wearing good ol' boys in the front row.

Putting the O in GOP

Watching the convention last night, I invented a new drinking game. It's sure to sweep the nation over the next few days. Best of all, it's the only drinking game endorsed by Alcoholics Anonymous and MADD!

I warn you, this might be challenging:

Take a good look at the Republican convention. Scan the crowd. For every brown person in the audience that you see, take a big gulp of whatever alcoholic beverage you have on hand. Don't cheat by counting Donna Brazil, Soledad O'Brien, Amy Holmes, or the rest of the melanin-rich media who have no choice but to be there.

You can give your designated driver the night off.

All jokes aside, how is it, that in a country of 300 million people, with a minority population over 100 million, you can have a "major" political party gather in an arena of 10,000 people and only be able to find less than 50 brown people in the bunch? You'd be hard pressed anywhere in this country to find such racial disparity this side of a Klan rally!

Forget the polar bear, or the spotted owl. Somebody should put the Republican party on the endangered list. Watching this dinosaur of a convention, I can't help but imagine those giant lizards 65 million years ago, lifting their old leathery heads defiantly towards the tiny pin hole in the sky. That pin hole grew into the size of a marble, then an 8-ball, then a bowling ball before revealing it's true identity as an asteroid that would smash the earth, creating a duvetyne blanket to blot out the sun and their existence. Even as the sky went permanently dark, those primitive beasts remained blissfully ignorant to their impending doom. And once the dust eventually settled, the sun rose on a new day no longer dominated by the clumsy lumbering of those cold blooded behemoths.

Enjoy your convention, GOP. Your outdated platform will soon become the fossil that future generations study in disbelief that a party claiming to represent the nation, thought they could avoid representing ALL the people, and survive.