Editor,
The Republican and Democratic National Conventions: Why do we pay for them, again?
The national conventions of the major parties during the last few weeks did nothing but further prove the degradation of our nation’s republican and democratic ideals. Conventions used to be a gathering of elected delegates representing their localities from across the country to debate and discuss the future of their party and the methods in which to bring about prosperity for the country.
Instead, what we got was a gathering of sheep to celebrate the immaculate decisions already made by the party bosses. There was no debate or discussion. The votes on the floors were a complete farce, the entire ordeal scripted and staged from the get-go.
Conventions are no longer conventions. They’re coronations celebrating the greatness of the anointed ones by the elite party leadership. Extravagant parties paid for by the taxpayer. Nothing of substance is discussed. Dissent is utterly crushed. The RNC passed rules against the will of the delegates. The DNC changed the platform against the will of their delegates. When votes are brought to the floor, it is merely going through the motions. The teleprompters demonstrate how the script has been written and the result of the votes has been decided no matter the result of the actual delegate votes.
Our country has serious problems. We’re broke, we’re spread thin militarily across the planet, our economy is in the biggest slump since the Depression with a dim future, the middle class is shrinking, civil liberties are being violated, and what did we hear from these conventions to address these serious concerns? Silence.
Instead, we had presidential candidate Mitt Romney talking about how many women he had in his administration as governor and how his plan will magically create “12 million jobs” out of thin air (as if government creates jobs). There was no mention of specific cuts, our service men and women or reforming entitlements.
The Democrats continued to blame the current predicament on results of Bush policies they inherited and then bragged about creating millions of jobs as if the American people can be that blind to the reality around them.
What has Obama accomplished? He continued to use the Bush playbook — that he blames for the country’s problems — by increasing the already record-high spending of the Bush years, and expanded our role as the policeman of the world despite the anti-war protests of Democrats during Bush years. He also expanded and extended the Patriot Act, and passed NDAA despite the Democrats’ protest on Bush’s violation of civil liberties. They discuss how corporations aren’t people, unless the corporation is GM or Goldman Sachs, in which case they hand them billions of taxpayer dollars.
Liberalism is supposed to mean freedom from the tyranny of government and not having our lives run by the heavy hand of government that “we all belong to.” The worst part of all this was the fact that these conventions force the taxpayers to pay nearly $20 million for each of them. And that’s a conservative estimate.
The citizens pay for the booze, confetti and balloons for this rich political class to celebrate and lie to our faces.
These conventions are nothing but smoke and mirrors; the political elite who auction off the wealth of the people to their various cronies while they blow smoke at the American people. At the very least, save us some money and just combine the conventions into just one big one. It’s not like the two parties are all that different. They can still have their big crony bash. Put the Patriot Act/NDAA, wars, money printing, bailouts, crony regulations and perpetual debt under one roof, finally.
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We could also stop the parties from changing the meaning of the words “liberalism” and “conservatism.” Call it what it is:
corporatism, socialism or crony capitalism. Because neither, at this moment, is doing a very good job of representing the traditions of our country and espousing a true message of liberty and individual freedom. Tell them to blow smoke somewhere else.
Marcos Portillo
UNM student
