The Republican Convention

Tampa, Florida -- We didn't just survive our week of convention hosting. By most accounts, we nailed it. Now it's Charlotte's turn.

And they have something to worry about that we didn't: Charlotte is America's second largest financial center behind New York City.

That status is expected to draw the attention of thousands of protesters.

Security is now on display in Charlotte as it was here in Tampa, with officers wheeling through the streets on bikes and others forming human walls.

Although they're doing it without Tampa's more militaristic khaki uniforms -- officers in Charlotte for the DNC have been wearing their traditional dark blue attire.

The area around the city's Time Warner Cable Arena has that same lockdown feel as our Tampa Bay Times Forum. But the secure area is notably larger, with a 100-block security zone in place.

Still, there's a push to get normal folks into the city with a free, non-partisan party called CarolinaFest all day Monday.

Around 800 protesters already hit the streets Sunday.

Chanting "banks got bailed out -- we got sold out," they marched past towering bank buildings. They argued banks haven't done enough to stop foreclosures and have profited at the expense of average Americans.

Police there have clearly learned from Tampa's success. Officers showed firm friendliness, plus some flexibility, and made just two arrests.

President Obama is passing through swing states and storm-damaged Louisiana on his way to the Democratic National Convention, which starts Tuesday.

He's hoping the event will help him land North Carolina's 15 electoral votes on November 6th. That's is exactly two months after he accepts his party's nomination Thursday night.

While Mitt Romney accepted the Republican Party nomination on a stage that had been expanded overnight inside the Forum, the President will be speaking on a whole new stage Thursday.

As he did in Denver four years ago, Obama will speak in the city's football stadium. The move opens up attendance to members of the public, in addition to delegates and reporters.

A new Gallup poll shows that 38% of national adults rated Mitt Romney’s convention speech as either excellent or good -- that's the lowest percentage since Gallup began tracking this question in 1996.

The other past convention speeches:

58% said Barack Obama’s ’08 speech was excellent or good
52% said the same of John Kerry’s ’04 speech
52% for Bob Dole’s ’96 speech
51% for Al Gore’s ’00 speech
51% for George W. Bush’s ’00 speech
49% for Bush’s ’04 speech
47% for John McCain’s 08 speech

At their core, Republicans are for smaller government. That means LESS governmental intrusion into our lives, our affairs, our money. Consistently applied, this is a sound and important philosophy that acts as a counterweight to wasteful government spending, excessive taxation, and Big Brother intrusiveness....

What I simply can’t understand is why the GOP ignores the gorilla in their tent when it comes to social issues. For a party that prides itself on less government intrusion, it sure seems busy these days telling women and LGBT persons what they can and cannot do. This is not only inconsistent, it is a poor strategy for keeping the party strong, growing, and current. If religious fundamentalists want to push their extremist agendas, they should do it in some other party, so that I don’t have sit there in awkward conversations with my Republican friends, secretly wondering how they can continue to pander to such drivel.

...

So far as I understand, the reasons for the existence of the GOP are to preserve the Individualism & personal liberty of each citizen against government, to kick government (robustly) in the face by political means, exalting the Bill of Rights, and to defend each citizen from the bullying of collectivist oppression.

In 1964, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, a landmark piece of legislation that — among other results — ended the “Solid South,” the traditional southern Democratic voting bloc.

Religious conservatives flooded into the Republican Party, kicking off a trend that has created candidates such as Rick Santorum and distanced the party from historical leaders such as Barry Goldwater, synonymous with everything the Republican Party stood for before the Civil Rights Act: fiscal conservatism and libertarianism.

Goldwater, known famously as Mr. Conservative, has been largely forgotten by the inheritors of his party. Mainstream Republicans are now expected to profess a Christian faith, defend Christian values, and support popular Christian agendas.

It should be an alarming trend, especially for Washingtonians, residents of the sixth-least religious state according to Gallup, a political research organization. Goldwater was openly dismayed by this nonsecular change of course, and rightfully so: It distorted political discourse to an extreme and intolerable degree.

After losing to Lyndon B. Johnson in a landslide in the 1964 presidential election, Goldwater’s status as the leader of his party was lost, and he retreated to an advisory role. By the 1990s, he disavowed any connection with the modern Republican Party, complaining extremist elements had taken over. In his later years he supported abortion rights, gay rights, and marijuana legalization. Goldwater passed away in 1998 at the age of 89.

Even when he was an institutional player in the early ’60s, Goldwater articulated wise views that would now be scorned by Republican candidates. In his 1960 values guide, “The Conscience of a Conservative,” Goldwater argued only individuals should be allowed to contribute to campaigns, as corporations are meant to be solely economic entities concerned only with the creation of profit and should have no political role. Additionally, he argued for termination of the farm subsidy program on the grounds it was detrimental for the nation and needlessly distorted the free market.

Albeit — in the same volume — Goldwater revealed his old conservative roots, warmongering with the Soviet Union in the final chapter and, regrettably, mentioning that, “we are all equal in the eyes of God but we are equal in no other respect.” He was nothing if not a divisive character, and it would be highly imaginative to paint him as a perfect savior of any cause.

However, his legacy deserves greater attention, if only because it has been intentionally ignored. Contemporary Republicans would prefer to forget Goldwater, Eisenhower, and Lincoln were part of a radically different party that was modernized in 1964 through racism. The real value of Goldwater’s politics is that they’re still compatible with discourse. Goldwater would support any reform as long as it was codified into the constitution or represented an attempt at limited government, whereas religious conservatives make no such compromises.

To quote Goldwater: “By maintaining the separation of church and state, the United States has avoided the intolerance which has so divided the rest of the world with religious wars.”

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I don't know why you even try to pretend that it's not all about guns to you.

OmSigDAVID wrote:

So far as I understand, the reasons for the existence of the GOP
are to preserve the Individualism & personal liberty of each citizen against government,
to kick government (robustly) in the face by political means, exalting the Bill of Rights,
and to defend each citizen from the bullying of collectivist oppression.

In other words: it is supposed to be the manifestation
of the views of Barry Goldwater.
Those r the reasons that I support the Party.

I don't know why you even try to pretend that it's not all about guns to you.