The Republican National Convention. A time where the Republican party comes together to showcase their platform, introduce new and rising party members, and above all, officiate the nomination of their chosen candidate in the presidential race. While all the above were included in the prestigious occasion, one act among all the rest was proven to up-show the rest; Clint Eastwood and the chair.
While I'm one who believes party politics can become too stifling and rigid, there is a cause for some criticism of the award studded Hollywood actor Clint Eastwood. Unorthodox may be an understatement while funny may be an exaggeration, but like the Republicans said, viewing Eastwood's performance under the guise of our overly critical political lens does not do the actor's intentions justice. I do believe his motives were light hearted and were meant to be taken with a grain of salt.
But there is a bigger picture here. What Eastwood most likely did not intend to do was actually sum up the Republican party's false perceptions on who the President is and what problems this country actually faces.
Mounting debt, reinforced through the Republican party's obscene placement of two real time debt clocks, one counting up the country's debt from the time the convention started and the other counting up the country's total sum of debt, while may be nice back drops for poorly written sound bytes, fails to address what are the causes of this climbing debt.
As shown on CNN's "Your Money", our debt by the end of this year will reach 16 trillion dollars. That is trillion with a T. Alarming to say the least. What Republicans won't say is what caused a majority of that debt. Instead, they'll talk to an imaginary person in a chair, metaphoric of their accusations and claims against the President and the Democratic party.
It was shown that almost 70% of the current debt was caused by 3 main causes- Firstly, the Bush Tax Cuts, secondly, two unfunded wars, and third, the economic downturn. Two of these were Republican party policies, and the third may well have been a result of such policies. Meanwhile TARP/The Stimulus comprise about 15%, not to mention that that policy was necessary to prevent an economic free fall.
But hey, Republicans might be right afterall. Maybe there is an imaginary Obama who wrote those policies and/or caused all the economic problems we face. Too bad no one else can see him.
