This week the nation witnessed the power and the glory of the 2012 Republican National Convention, a four-day long event at which delegates from all 50 states attend rounds of group meetings and social events ranging from casual (jeans and an RNC t-shirt) to high formal (heels, pearls, red power suit) in order to be vetted by more senior members of the party for potential membership. They sang songs, performed skits, and shared with the group what sisterhood means to them, while explaining why they feel that they deserve to wear the letters GOP. This year’s theme was “Welcome to Paradise,” with beach umbrellas set up around the convention center and women serving tiki-themed mocktails while making sure to avoid eye contact with men. Hazing is rumored to have occurred, but RNC spokespeople have denied this.
Just kidding! Actually it’s a fashion show for ten-gallon hats.
Via Associated Pressj
In all seriousness, the Republican National Convention is an event that occurs in order to facilitate:
+ the nomination of the party’s candidates for president and vice president;
+ the formulation and adoption of the party’s statement of principles – its platform; and
+ the formulation and adoption of rules and procedures governing party activities, including the process for selecting the presidential candidates in the next election cycle.
For a full description of what the Republican Party thinks the RNC is for, you can check out this helpful handout, which has one of the lowest information-to-words rations of any document I’ve ever seen. In practical terms, the RNC is for the GOP candidate for President (Mitt Romney) to officially accept his (let’s be real, it’s “his”) nomination, and for viewers both at home and at the convention to either revel in or reel from the party’s platform and philosophy. The opportunities in that regard were, to put it delicately, plentiful.
Via Associated Press
I did not watch the vast majority of the RNC, due to a combination of not having a TV and also not wanting to waste my one wild and precious life staring at that many old white men in American flag suspenders. But C-SPAN has video of virtually every event, from “Politico Playbook Breakfast with Karl Rove” to Clint Eastwood’s surprise appearance, which, hahahahaha ohmygod what! But we’ll get to that. To fully enjoy this event from your own home, yell out “We built it!” occasionally while you scroll through.
Monday, August 27
Imagine the longest day of your life, and then imagine that you knew you had to do the same thing for the next three days, and then also imagine that Chris Christie and Ron Paul were both there. That’s what being at the first day of the RNC was apparently like! Also though, Hurricane Isaac. Remember that, you guys? In deference to the hurricane and also so that the majority of the Republican party could go into media blackout and therefore avoid reference to how badly they failed New Orleans during Katrina, much of Monday’s scheduled programming was postponed. Still though, long day regardless.
Clearly some other people also felt the same way, like all of the protesters outside the convention center in Tampa. Here is a lady who looks exactly like my daycare provider circa ages 7-11 to tell you about it. What’s your favorite chant? I think for me it’s a tie between “The people/united/will never be divided” and “What’s disgusting? Union busting!”
Also, there was a Ron Paul campaign rally held at the University of South Florida Sun Dome during the first day of the convention, which is neat. This is sort of like the queers and losers holding an anti-prom on the same night as prom, except that the Sun Dome is a much more impressive venue than Denny’s. I am hesitant to say too much about it because Ron Paul supporters will pull some J. Edgar Hoover shit on you if you are too mean to their Ronbear on the internet, but I will say that his opening song is so pathetic that even the ASL interpreter can’t pretend that she’s excited about it. I would embed the video and/or actually watch it so that I could comment upon it, but it’s an hour and 38 minutes long and also it’s of Ron Paul, so.
Tuesday, August 28
Lots of super magical things happened on Tuesday! Tuesday, day of kings. And offensive speeches. Also, sidenote, reading the RNC schedule with everyone’s official title makes you feel like you’re in a sequel to National Treasure. Did you know that John Boehner not only spoke, but was “Convention Permanent Chairman Speaker John Boehner, Presiding?” Do you think he had a sceptre? Or at least a really weird rider? Like eight roast chickens, Nyquil and a bottle of cherry whiskey? Other names to note included Scott Walker (see above w/r/t union busting being disgusting), Rick Santorum, and the 2008 winner of America’s Got Talent, Neal Boyd. That sounds like I was making a joke but I wasn’t. Here he is. The worst part is all the people waving their Mitt signs above their heads because (I am assuming?) they did not have lighters on them.
But even with Boyd’s operatic talents the real star of the show was Ann Romney, Mitt’s partner in crime. (Usually in life when I say “partner in crime” it’s a cute way to refer to my or another’s significant other without gendered pronouns or whatever but in this case Mitt’s a proponent of business practices that are so irresponsible it seems fair to call them criminal, making this term very technically accurate!) And you know what Ann Romney wanted to talk to you about, guys? Ann Romney wanted to talk about LOVE.
I want to talk to you about the deep and abiding love I have for a man I met at a dance many years ago. And the profound love I have, and I know we share, for this country. I want to talk to you about that love so deep only a mother can fathom it — the love we have for our children and our children’s children. And I want us to think tonight about the love we all share for those Americans, our brothers and sisters, who are going through difficult times, whose days are never easy, nights are always long, and whose work never seems done.
You guys, I don’t know if you picked up on this, but Ann Romney is a LADY, with LADYPARTS. You can tell because she just LOVES things so MUCH, which you know all about because you’re a lady too! You have lady concerns, right? Like all those other “working moms who love their jobs but would like to work just a little less to spend more time with the kids, but that’s just out of the question with this economy. Or that couple who would like to have another child, but wonder how will they afford it.” Hahaha, having a uterus and growing children in it, right? Have you gotten the point about what Ann Romney’s job here is, or should I beat this horse a little more?
It’s the moms of this nation — single, married, widowed — who really hold this country together. We’re the mothers, we’re the wives, we’re the grandmothers, we’re the big sisters, we’re the little sisters, we’re the daughters. You know it’s true, don’t you? You’re the ones who always have to do a little more.
Via Zumapress
Yes, we do. Like sometimes you just want to make a giant non-alcoholic Manhattan and lay on the sofa in one of your living rooms in one of your many homes and pet your own professionally maintained hair like it’s a Shih Tzu while you watch a slideshow of pictures of yourself that you’ve made one of your servants compile like you do every night to fall asleep, but instead your dumb husband makes you give a speech to try to convince women to vote for him! Life is so much harder for women, especially women like Ann Romney! She would be delighted to explain the difficulty of her own life in greater detail:
I am the granddaughter of a Welsh coal miner who was determined that his kids get out of the mines. My dad got his first job when he was six years old, in a little village in Wales called Nantyffyllon, cleaning bottles at the Colliers Arms. When he was 15, dad came to America. In our country, he saw hope and an opportunity to escape from poverty. He moved to a small town in the great state of Michigan. There, he started a business — one he built himself, by the way.
But that’s nothing compared to how hard she had it when she got married to Mittsy!
We got married and moved into a basement apartment. We walked to class together, shared the housekeeping, and ate a lot of pasta and tuna fish. Our desk was a door propped up on sawhorses. Our dining room table was a fold-down ironing board in the kitchen. Those were very special days.
Little does she know how many dolphins she killed during those heady tuna days! Seriously though, if you were even slightly endeared to her and Mitt by this living-in-poverty (in-an-extremely-generous-sense-of-the-word-poverty) montage, it’s gone by the next few sentences, where she mentions that when their first son was born, Mitt was enrolled in both business school and law school at the same time. Which a) betrays that her “special days” were perhaps more along the lines of “scrimping and financial austerity” than “poverty” or “lack of access to money, education, and socially privileged spaces” and b) that she doesn’t even realize that. This, I think is what kills me about the Republican party and the Romneys in particular, and we’ll talk about it again. But they’re so disconnected from the experiences of actual underprivileged people in America that I think they genuinely think they’re in the same boat. Like, not the same part of the same boat — they know they’re in the fancy cabins on the Titanic while the rest of us are in steerage, getting bedsores and sharing one single potato between six people. But they think that if we hit an iceberg they’d go down with us, and that’s just not true. They’re trying to appeal to the working-class vote, the working poor vote, the un- and underemployed vote, the votes of people of color and single parents and small business owners and they think this is a relatable anecdote? “I had to be a mom while my husband was in business AND law school!” Someone call Sapphire; there’s a story that needs to be told here.
Speaking of telling stories (it’s a weak segue just go with it) you know who else talked, is Chris Christie, governor of New Jersey!
Aside from a silly name and being homophobic, Chris Christie is also someone to keep an eye on with regards to the future of the Republican party. There was a lot of talk about the possibility of his running for president in 2012, and when he announced that he was not running, it was with the knowledge that there were many people out there who were hoping he would. So this speech isn’t just a window into what a bunch of old rich white people wanted to hear said about other old rich white people and also ~*~America~*~, but also a window into a guy who probably wants to be your next President. So, eyes peeled and ears open, kittens! It’s not pretty. (Also, quick question: are there any other contexts besides national political conventions and mediocre free basement indie shows in which it is socially acceptable to have like eight introducers/openers for one headliner?)
This will come as a shock, but Christie also came from a supremely marginalized background, to hear him tell it. “Dad grew up in poverty,” and “Mom also came from nothing.” Christie lets us know the gravity of this situation by referencing “Darkness on the Edge of Town.” (Fun sidenote about Chris Christie — he loves Bruce Springsteen. LOOOOOVES him. “Born in the USA” is a song about a disaffected vet being abandoned by his country, you guys. It’s not like a patriotic rallying cry. Just saying.)
Essentially, Christie talked for a long time about how the key is to look for being respected over being loved, which I believe is code for “It’s okay that a significant portion of the country hates us for our policies that specifically target them and their personal liberties; sometimes that’s just what it takes, and that’s how you know you’re doing it right!” Also: elderly people only think social security is a good thing because they’ve been lied to by Democrats, and also “real leaders don’t follow polls, leaders change polls,” despite obeying the mandate of the voting public being more or less how a republic works. Perhaps my favorite part was when Christie called Romney someone who “will tell us the hard truths we need to hear.” Which, just, like, guys, have you read this? You should read this.
Via Associated Press
But while picking apart the things in Christie’s speech that were misleading, untrue or overblown is more fun, there is a less fun thing to be acknowledged: Christie is a good speaker! And he managed to weave all of these ideas into a coherent narrative that was designed to assuage and validate the feelings of Republican voters in a way that will secure a pitbull-like loyalty from them. He’s a talented speaker, and lines like “There is doubt and fear for our future in every corner of our country. These feelings are real. This moment is real” are like trained-hypnotist/controlling-high-school-boyfriend/CIA-interrogator levels of effective at getting an emotional connection, and helping a listener feel like this person is on their side regardless of what their policy says. SO that’s an important thing to know about the man who will likely run for president in 2016, barring… actually I just tried to think of an event which could change that course of events and I’ve got nothing. Stay tuned for that one in four years, kids!
But it would be foolhardy to take away from the RNC only what its attendees want you to via their rehearsed words. It’s important to also take into account whether or not attendees also, say, hurl peanuts at media presence and call them animals because they’re black! This event has made Contributing Editor Carmen Rios’s official Top Five Worst Moments of the RNC. It is unclear who the attendee was that threw peanuts at a camerawoman and yelled “This is how we feed animals” was; all that is known is that she was escorted out and the incident was hushed by the GOP as much as possible. But just to be clear, when we say that it’s not clear who the attendee is, what that means is that it is unclear whether she was a GOP delegate or not. Do you feel comfortable saying “no, it couldn’t have been a delegate, it must have been someone else, some total nutjob with no real affiliation to the party whatsoever!” Yeah, that’s what I thought. Although, as Wonkette points out, there are literally thousands of people at the convention who managed to avoid throwing things at people of color, so really, we should count this as a win! God bless America.
Next: Romney and Ryan’s High School Reunion!
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I just love your recaps of all this… You’re like our own little mini Maddow. Funny, endearing, and informative. Four for you!
Another highlight from Rubio’s speech: “Faith in our creator is the most important American value of all.”
I honestly can’t believe that came out of a politician’s mouth, on a public platform, in 2012.
Oh god, same. He said that right after talking about how “the family” is the most important thing. “The Family” of course being a codeword for the Heterosexual Family Unit, which is almost always used as an attack on gay people.
Rachel, will you be my internet girlfriend?
Seriously, you are just always so funny while informative, and I couldn’t pick a favorite part of this article if I tried. You make me swing more towards the love side of my love/hate relationship with politics, even while reading about the fucking RNC. And that is seriously incredible.
I lied, this is totes my favorite part:
“Look at his weird rubbery face that looks sort of like a Nixon Halloween mask that someone left in their attic and was nested inside of by a squirrel…”
It’s funny cause it’s true!
Does anybody understand why so many people think this guy is good-looking? Seriously you guys, I’m bi and everything and I just. don’t. see it. He looks like a Hallowe’en mask. And not a nice, friendly one, either.
I think it’s just in comparison to everyone else in politics. Like, if it gets to dinner time and you’ve only got kidney beans in the cupboard, that out-of-date can of rice pudding in the fridge is going to start looking kind of appetising, you know?
Rachel, this is really good. Really really.
I only made it halfway through this and then felt the need to immediately stop reading and go register to vote.
I don’t actually know where I’m supposed to go register, I’ll have to figure that out before I can do it, but I think I will too!
check out ali’s voter’s guide!
http://develop.autostraddle.com/voting-an-autostraddle-guide-a-k-a-vag-143984/
AUTOSTRADDLE HAS SOMETHING FOR EVERYTHING!
THIS IS GLORIOUS.
THANK YOU SO MUCH.
You are officially my favorite internet political analyst, please keep doing this because it is amazing.
Clint Eastwood stole the show with invisible angry President Obama. Chris was actually throwing Romney under the bus and that was funny to me. But most of the convention was just full of lies, sexism, homophobia, no love for the troops, and racism.
I enjoyed reading your take on things.
Excellent post, Rachel! I really like how you framed the rhetoric/lies in the bigger picture – so many voters focus on the current moment in politics without considering policy over time. This Republican ticket’s plan for America seems to be to trample the backs of everyone who is not like them so they and their peers can continue to hoard American wealth, use it to buy power (elections), and use that power to systematically codify their privilege.
The ongoing, brazen misrepresentation and manipulation shows an infuriating contempt for the American public. That so much of the public willingly embraces this mistreatment breaks my heart as a citizen.
I have trouble believing that the Romney’s have any idea what it’s like to be poor since in their version of poor when they needed money they could sell off some stock options.
My thoughts about Ann Romney’s speech:
-If I hadn’t been told what this was going to be about before hearing it, I would have thought, with that nice red outfit and you talking about hearts at the beginning, that this was going to be a PSA about heart disease.
-Thank you for implying that if you’re a woman and not a mother, your experience as a woman is invalid and/or less important. I appreciate that so much
-Um, also thanks for pointing out that if you’re a woman, you’re probs also a mom, grandmother, wife, sister, and/or daughter. Also thanks for the only shout-out to the women who are not wives and/or mothers are going to get this whole speech.
-“I love you women!” Ann, I don’t know if you know this, but there are probs more supportive times and places to come out of the closet than the RNC. Just a FYI.
-Do you really have to stereotype women as the only ones involved with child care?
-People like you aren’t helping women’s situation in this country
-“we’re too smart to know that there aren’t easy answers, but we’re not dumb enough to accept that there aren’t better answers.” I’m sorry Ann, and I’mma let you finish…but you lost me there. You’re not even making sense anymore
-Thanks, but I’d rather not get to know Mittens even more than we alsready did in Massachusetts.
-You know, he makes me laugh too!, but only in a way that makes me want to curl up and cry in a corner at the idea that he is actually for reals running for public office again.
-The days living in a basement apartment were the best days? really? Something tells me you like your standard of living much more now. Most of us will never know what that’s like. Also if the two of you could afford an apartment with just the two of you and no other roommates, while you were in college, you couldn’t have been doing that badly.
-“We have a REAL marriage” ok, now can the rest of us have an opportunity for that too? kthanks
-You really call everything he’s done a success? Were you there and conscious the last time he held public office?
-Ok, this is starting to make me feel physically ill now.
-“Dreams fulfilled help others launch new dreams!” um…actually when the income equality gap is as big as it is, the richest achieving their dreams is usually at the expense of us poor folks. But you wouldn’t know about that, now would you?
-“This man will not let us down…will lift up America.” You know, I’m actually starting to feel bad for you, if you actually believe this is true. Maybe you have Stockholm syndrome? Is someone forcing you to do this? There is help out there, Ann. You can still escape!
And now that that’s done, I don’t know if I have the patience or a strong enough stomach to watch the rest of these videos.
Dear Autostraddle,
I live in New Jersey and have seen the Chris Christie experience first hand.
The gifted and talented program at my elementary school used to build a society on Mars in our gymnasium. They ran a mock stock exchange. I knew what it was like to have a piece in an art show before I left fifth grade, and could talk articulately about my process.
Now, they do worksheets because the gutted budget allows them nothing more. This is the future for the brightest children in our country should the Republican party, and Christie, have their way. Tell them no now with Mittsy, and tell them no in the future when my fat-head governor runs for office. Or your off-spring will be robots.
Love, Ali
Amen. McDonnell (in VA) similarly has cut funding for schools and it sucks so hard. Our kids are apparently not our future anymore.
I grew up in Jersey and went to a high-ranking public school there; while I do think Christie has no skin in the game, since his kids go to private school, I have mixed feelings about how he’s dealt with teachers’ unions. I clearly remember how debilitating the power of teachers’ unions were; my high school teachers were paid upwards of $60K-90K, and once they got tenure, they could not be sacked for any reason other than abusing a student. The union would go on strike every single year, cutting after-school help and extracurricular clubs. So I can see why he gets support for fighting teachers’ unions.
But anyway, have you guys seen the NYPost exclusive that Christie declined to be considered for veep because he thought Mittens was doomed? (http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/christie_had_veeping_doubts_b1gkN5io8CtDgcuiuEgMqL) Ouch.
I loathe that nitwit. Within his first year of office, Chris Christie killed the largest mass transit project in the country (the commuter train under the Hudson to Manhattan), a project that had been 20 years in the making. He is incredibly short-sighted and arrogant.
Keep that man as far away from more power as possible.
Also also Rachel this is a brilliant article, autostraddle is always great but then there are posts that just really stick out. This is one of them :)
Rachel, you are good at things.
Yes but also: understatement.
This the best and most articulate critique of the Republican Party that I have ever read. I want everyone everywhere to read it.
Sidenote, when people talk about ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’ without saying ‘my Mom’ or ‘my Dad’ (eg, “Dad grew up in poverty, and Mom also came from nothing”) that makes me want to rip my ears off. They are not MY parents, idiot!
wait but this is actually the first time i am seeing the clint eastwood / chair situation (i dunno how i missed it all week) and just…what?!?! what the actual fuck.
Word.
My friend and I played a drinking game while playing this: “Drink everytime you see a minority on the screen”
After awhile we were still sober and it was boring so we amended the definition of minority to include women who didn’t have blonde hair.
omg I was literally about to make this exact same comment about how you could play a drinking game for seeing minorities and you would end up sad and sober. GREAT MINDS yo.
Thanks for writing this–it makes me feel just a little bit better about this election, and it gives me hope that things will come out okay. (Go Obama.) Every time I hear/listen about the RNC (or anything that makes Romney, Ryan and the GOP sound like they’re saints?) I kinda want to tear out my hair and throw my shoes at people and cry…but this actually made me laugh. Thanks for that.
I’m not even an American, but this was really interesting.
I’ve been marathoning the entirety of Pretty Little Liars in lieu of writing my dissertation for the past two weeks, and this just hit me last night as I was watching Aria Montgomery trying not to fall off a ladder due to the weight of her dictionary-sized earrings:
Paul Ryan is like the Noel Kahn of the GOP.
That smarmy ass.
Sorry to Bang on about Wales, but I didn’t realise we were a third world country?
There are so many words in my head right now. But mainly this: Homosexuals do NOT let their loved ones vote republican!!! And this: Get out the vote 2012. Spread the word.
Side note: Did anyone else notice that GOP fashion seems to be a disturbing throwback to the early 90’s?? (1989-1993 called and they want their hair, shoulder pads, and political ideology back, please cooperate…) I wonder if this is a metaphor for havng a desire to go back in time and undo all we have done in the name of human rights…
This is really good, thank you Rachel!
I really don’t see the point of a non-alcoholic Manhattan, that’s just wrong
Rachel, you are a star. Also, I can’t wait till debate season. Stocking up right now.
great article! I learned and laughed a lot.
Romney is Heather no.1 red scrunchie playing croquet
rnc=racist national convention. i wish someone WOULD try and throw peanuts at me and call me an animal for have the temerity to be a black woman in public, doing my motherfucking JOB. whoever that was, had to know they were in a safe place to pull that shit and not face any real consequences ( like the ass kicking they so richly deserve). this is why my blood boils anyone tries to claim the repugnicant party is not racist and doesn’t use dog whistle racist political tactics and language to attract stupid ignorant racists to it’s agenda. so tired of these asswipes.
I heard that some straight guy proposed to his straight girlfriend at the RNC. I’m sorry, but does that make anyone else want to kick things?
Ugggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
While this was hilarious, and while I am a proud Democrat, I’ve appreciated the articles on this site that were less partisan – or partisan in the other direction. Next time, can you guys have a Republican recap the convention? This was funny, but I want a representation of what actually happened.
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