The RNC Message 2020 - Day 1

In many conversations I have had with my conservative friends a common theme that emerges is an irrational and unreasonable fear of people of color, of change, and of the collapse of institutions.
I sometimes have difficulty not pointing out the obvious racism they express because I hope to appeal to their reason and invite them to examine how their emotions lead them away from the ideals we Americans profess.

The RNC Convention is a riot of political darkness. It offers a cornucopia of madness. I submit this gem of madness that masquerades as hyperbole. Just think about the mindset that accepts as fact that ''they'' want to destroy the suburbs.

'''They want to abolish the suburbs altogether by ending single-family home zoning,' Patricia McCloskey said. 'This forced rezoning would bring crime, lawlessness and low-quality apartments into thriving suburban neighborhoods.'''
 
It takes a millisecond to code switch, unpack, and translate that statement into something that is simultaneously outrageously comical and frighteningly tragic. Indeed, this kind of ''unthinking'' accompanies the precipitous fall from our heights as a world power that enjoyed some semblance of moral authority. Indeed, the shocking transformation of the once GOP into the party of Trump means that there are many people willing to abandon democratic principles when black and brown people threaten to participate. Yes, the techniques of the fascists, nazis, and totalitarians to manipulate a nation afraid of the future is well known to historians and scholars, but not to most Americans because... we don't read, or understand what we do read.

We have been down this road before when we tore our nation apart at the seams of race. The gloves are off again because we could never truly deal with our original sin and because we now have a leader of the GOP who revels in the destructive comfort of our first, most genocidal of racist waltzes.
The spiraling circle to the basement of our weakened, and now crumbled, democracy was flown on the wings of greed, xenophobia, racial and ethnic animus, homophobia, sexism, intolerance, religious cowardice, and hatred of the ''other''. Like all once great nations, it has taken us too long to realize that our era has passed. And like all past great fallen nations, we foolishly think a powerful and expensive military will keep us safe in a world we can no longer control. Good job Russia, et al!

Now... we rebuild. But first we must recognize a stark choice to be made. We will either value love for human beings and our planet or continue to devalue human beings and our planet. If we choose love we Americans can finally, and truthfully, lay claim to our lofty ideals. Otherwise, we will continue drinking from our poisoned cup and persuade ourselves the drunken gasps for air are but a chimaera.