Osler's Razor

Nothing Christie says is worth taking a minute, no a nanosecond, to listen to.
 

Pretty sad to see a former prosecutor give a speech that pretty much endorses mob rule over the system that we have in place...
 

Last night at the GOP convention which was labeled "Making America Work", Chis Christie was certainly as good as any of the other speakers in laying out the party's plans to create jobs in America. Bluster and creative fact making are not ideas.

How fortunate are the Republicans who stayed at home. They will not have to embarrass themselves like Chris Christie. With no policies to back, speaker after speaker found themselves spewing propaganda,slogans and vile untrue attacks. Talk of guns, force, winning, anger and hate get the standing ovations. There is not even a faint show of love for their presidential candidate.

I have been particularly appalled by the tragic use of fragile people who have lost loved ones. They were asked to bring their ugliest and basest emotions into the spotlight.

The GOP reminds me of a fresh caught walleye lying on the fillet table, shaking and jerking as it is taking its last gasp of breath. It is not that appealing.


 

There was good reason to schedule Christie before the broadcast networks and their mass audiences joined the party. A perhaps more relevant question: what did you think of Donald Trump, Jr?
 

This may sound overdramatic, but this was my reaction to Chris Christie's "speech," if you can call it that: horror. Horror at the way he whipped up the crowd into a frenzy as he crudely presented his prosecutor's "case" against Hillary Clinton. And horror at the crowd that shouted "Guilty!" and "Go to jail!" after every "charge" Christie presented.

It horrified me because it felt so much like participating in the Good Friday liturgy in church, when the long Passion story is read and the congregation reads the part of the crowd after Pontius Pilate (i.e. Christie?) asks them what he should do with Jesus and the congregation/crowd yells "Crucify!" There is the part where, if I remember correctly, the congregation also yells that Jesus is "Guilty!".

We've seen so many scenes of crowd behavior during the last year: at political rallies, particularly Trump's, and also at more recent peaceful protests where there's still the tension of what could happen if the crowd turns violent. The crowd at the Repub Convention was primed to respond like that, after a night of speakers they were lukewarm about. Chris Christie's speech (which, I admit, was gripping as well) reminded me of what's buried in our hearts and gets expressed when in a crowd.

And it reminded me of the division between us . . . I kept thinking, What if Hillary had actually been there, after all that hatred? Would the crowd have descended on her?

They have to bash her because many of the Repub speakers don't like Trump--I understand that. But it led to a frightening emotional pitch, to me.

Re: Donald Trump, Jr: He was maybe the best of the night, in terms of both giving personal stories about his dad, and actually talking about issues and policy rather than Hillary-bashing. I don't agree with him, but his was the more typical convention speech.

Whew . . . don't know if I can stand to watch tonight. I'm curious to see Lynyrd Skynyrd play (if they haven't already), though it bothers me that Trump is using them to whip up the crowd, too. And I hate to contribute to running up the ratings . . .
 

Ah, just remembered: The crowd during Christie's speech was yelling, "Lock her up!", not "Go to jail!"
"Lock her up!" felt eerily close to "Crucify!"