A bit late, I suppose, but Ana Cox reviews the Republican convention with wit:
The Republican National Convention, to paraphrase Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show,” put on a display of the anger of the enfranchised. They control all three branches of government, they’ve created the first presidential dynasty in more than a century, they got us into a war on the basis of spite, and they’re not going to take it anymore!
It’s a peculiar thing, when the powerful rail against the powerless. Peculiar and frightening and grand entertainment, if you can forget that the future of the country is at stake. Indeed, the Republicans’ ultra-scripted extravaganza of bile topped the Democrats’ love-in convention ratings by more than 2 million viewers. Let’s recap the highlights.
Who, for instance, could fail to be amused when Senator Zell Miller—the GOP’s yipping dog of a mascot—all but challenged MSNBC’s Chris Matthews to pistols at dawn? Up until then, I had taken author Thomas Frank’s assertion that the Republicans want to “repeal the 20th Century” to be a metaphor. But Miller’s outburst was funny only until you remembered that he had just given the keynote address at a national party convention—for the opposite party in which he says he resides. What does it mean when political discourse in America is such that it’s perfectly OK to threaten personal violence, but not OK to admit you speak French?
