I just finished watching Bill Clinton’s speech at the Democratic National Convention. I remember the first time I really heard of Bill Clinton. I was working, but in an uninspired way, for a different candidate, standing on a Massachusetts street corner holding that candidate’s sign, and the guy next to me was holding a Clinton sign. It was primary day in the Bay State. I was not getting too much into that election season’s work because I was just about to head out of the country for an extended period in a remote part of Africa where I would not likely hear much news. The guy holding the Clinton sign made a very good case for Bill being the man we should nominate, and the main reason was very simple: He, Clinton, was much, much smarter than all of the other candidates. I’m sure he was right. I turned the sign in early that day.
Tonight’s speech at the DNC demonstrated Clinton’s abilities, and it demonstrated a few other things as well, including the simple fact that Democrats are simply much better than Republicans. I respect the fact that if you are a life long Republican that it may be hard to leave your party and you have to kind of keep your head down until the culture of the GOP totally changes, but really, if you are in that position, you should seriously consider stepping away from that particular cookie jar. It is starting to get a little embarrassing. Well, it has been embarrassing for a long time and it is actually getting to be very embarrassing. Maybe I should have said something to you earlier.
There are so many words that can be used to replace “Republican” in the sentence “I am a Republican” that you would never want to use in reference to yourself or anyone you respect. So maybe you should just stop using that word, Republican, as well. At least, stop calling yourself that. And for goodness sake, stop voting that way too.
Here’s Clinton’s speech in case you missed it:
In contract, we have this:
Seriously. Just step away from the cookie jar.
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“And for goodness sake, stop voting that way too.”
That is what it will take to change the current GOP culture. As long as their behaviour is rewarded with votes it will continue
Surely the comparison speech from the RNC to put up would be the most recent Republican former president’s speech. What?
Wesley: Ya, actually, I thought about the equivalence thing. The proper comparison may have been the nominating speech for the nominating speech, but instead I opted for the speech the party chose to highlight vs. the speech the party chose to highlight.
Ah, the John Birch and Ayn Rand Society. Let’s call it by it’s real agenda – forget that ‘Tea Party’ nonsense.
I stepped away from the cookie jar about 10 or 12 years ago, when they really began the hard sell to the paranoid fringe. Sure, there’s always been the Birch faction, but they were never actually in charge of anything. Now they run the party.
The ads for our Senate primary degenerated into “Vote for Tome Dewhurst, a True Conservative.” “Vote for Ted Cruz, THE True Conservative.” I would just close my eyes, and imagine in my mind the word “conservative” replaced with “lunatic.” It sounded so much more believable.