Anyone watching Democratic Convention Chairman Antonio Villaraigosa gavel in the changes to the Democratic Platform had to be amazed. Convention rules required a two-thirds vote in the affirmative to make changes at this late date. The response of the voting delegates on the floor was clearly not two-thirds for the Ayes. The party was clearly embarrassed in public by its failure to mention God in the platform and its overlooking the party's historic support for Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. So when the party is desperate to pull up a fig leaf -- two fig leaves, actually -- it's best to avert your Ayes.
So, they managed to gavel it through. It reminds us of some deft chairing by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "We'll have to pass this [2,700-page] bill to find out what's in it." That's how she rammed Obamacare through the House of Representatives. That's how she got to be the former Speaker of the House.
The worst part of the Villaraigosa stumbling -- apart from having to take the vote three times -- were the loud boos from the convention floor. Who were those liberal delegates booing? God?
Jerusalem? It kind of defeats the purpose of the fig leaves to have them blowing in the wind, doesn't it?
This all reminds me of another quick change that didn't quite work. General Winfield Scott was past 70 and well over 350 pounds when the Civil War broke out. He had to be helped onto his horse. He rode a gentle mare. After the war, when the time came to erect a statue to "Old Fuss 'n' Feathers," the sculptor naturally enough depicted the hero mounted on his beloved mare.
The Scott family was horrified. A gallant soldier has to be shown riding a charger, they said, a fine stallion. So, the sculptor had to move fast. Like Chairman Villaraigosa, he added to the mare some necessary amendments. It was perhaps Washington's first public sex-change operation. And just like the Democrats' quick maneuvers, it wasn't very convincing.
So now, the Democratic Platform has been changed. Are we satisfied? Does anyone think that a party that has to be arm-wrestled into acknowledging God is sincere? A friend of mine tells the story of his pastor. The clergyman grew up on a farm in Wisconsin. It was his job to make oatmeal for his dad and his older brothers before they headed into the fields for a day's work. One cold morning, the young farm boy forgot to put the salt into the pot as the oatmeal was cooking. So he threw it in on top and stirred it in. His dad and his brothers spat the stuff out it tasted so bad.
Does anyone think that if he is re-elected President Obama will hasten to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel? For the past four years, he has gone out of his way to avoid setting foot in Jerusalem. He's been to Ankara, Turkey. He's been to Cairo, Egypt. He went to Jakarta, Indonesia, where he denounced the Israelis for building apartments in Jerusalem. No Jews can live in Jakarta at all.
The Israelis were pretty generous. They said he could build all the apartments he wanted in Bethesda, Maryland, just outside D.C., and they wouldn't criticize him for it.
Barack Obama has been all around Israel without ever setting foot in the Holy Land. Well, maybe next year in Jerusalem.
What we saw on the convention floor in Charlotte was the real Democratic Party. It was hostile to religion and not very friendly to Israel. And that part is no joke.
Ronald Reagan was right when he said of his party: "I didn't leave the Democrats; the Democrats left me." This week, a lot more Americans feel that way.
Ken Blackwell was vice chairman of the 2008 GOP Platform Committee.
Richard (RJ) Eskow: Silence is Golden: What Democrats Aren't Saying in Charlotte
Nick Penniman: Money in Politics: From Bad to Worse
Truthout Interviews Chris Hedges About Why Revolt Is All We Have Left
Chris Hedges, a former New York Times reporter, has become perhaps the foremost media scribe and most prolific advocate of a need for revolutionary change in our current institutional oppression and control of the government by the oligarchical and political elite. Hedges writes with a reporter's detail, a prophet's eloquence and a compelling sense of urgency. This is evident in his latest book, which visits the "sacrifice zones" of America. Get the just-released "Days of Destruction Days of Revolt" (with illustrations by Joe Sacco) directly from Truthout right now by clicking here. Make a minimum donation and support progressive writers and Truthout.
Mark Karlin: You begin "Days of Destruction Days of Revolt" with a visit to and reflection upon the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, the poorest and perhaps most hopeless Native American settlement in the United States. Indian reservations were a tragically ironic result of the American revolt to throw off the shackles of being a colony, only to become a colonial power over the indigenous residents that lay in its way to achieving "Manifest Destiny." Is this irony the reason why you begin your journey across the "sacrifice zones" of the United States at Pine Ridge?
good read:http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/11032-truthout-interviews-chris-hedges-about-why-revolt-is-all-we-have-left
Mr. Blackwell had so many, many options available to him when writing this piece -- odd that he chose to write it in the first place.
I can now believe it now that the Democrats aren't even pretending to be moral anymore.
FRC, which made the statement above, is dead on.
Go Ken Blackwell!
No -- you're wrong: the party is (and should be) hostile to the commingling of religion and politics.
Whether the part is "not very friendly" to Israel is open to debate, but regardless, it the country quite fairly.
Sorry, Ken, but it's difficult to take you seriously, as my memory is a bit longer than some around this country: I remember Diebold and the 2004 elections in Ohio. Enough said.
You are right the Democrats made a mistake, but this only prove how important it is that we always have seperation of Church and State. This convention is not about our religion it is about our government. This convention is not about Israel, it is about America. America where people have the choice of what religion they want or don't want persuading their lives. Where we should be talking about the problems here at home instead of those in the Middle East. I am sure that we have enough problems here in America to keep us busy without us talking about Jersusalem when we should be talking about what Jesus said..Give unto the Needy insltead of to the top one percent millionaires in this country. There is a reason why Jesus said a rich man has as much chance of getting into Heaven as a camel has getting through the eye of a needle. The American people do not want to hear about
One of the mainstays for the party was the Jewish community,I don't see how they will be able to justify being thrown under the bus like they were yesterday. Secondly unionism in American is predominately supported by Jewish administrators as is our business sector.
Even hollywood needs to rethink their stance
It's very apparent that the dnc has been overrun with special interest groups from the greenies to the black carcuss, the gay movement, athieism. and all non religious movements, unions. Ect.
None of these groups are strong enough to stand alone, so they banded together to form a collage of nonconformist to our American way of life.
obama needs to be replaced, I laughed last night during Clinton's speech on how both parties need to get together, it will never happen under obama watch. He has a different agenda for America and working together is not one of his goals. Women beware your childre welfare are in jeopardy. (16 trillion and counting)
The real Democrat need to take their party back and maybe with God's blessing it can happen. So be it, in a nut shell.
The floor of the Democratic National Convention erupted Wednesday over a sudden move to restore to the platform a reference to “God” and recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital — after heavy criticism from Republicans for initially omitting them.
Democrats, though, were hardly in agreement over the reversal.
A large and loud group of delegates shouted “no” as convention chairman, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, called for the vote late Wednesday afternoon. Villaraigosa had to call for the vote three times before ruling that the “ayes” had it. Many in the crowd booed after he determined the language would be restored.
The entire mess tells us a few things. The Democratic Party is radicalized and desperate. Its delegates are drastically out of tune with the country and even their own party. The reinsertion attempted to cover up the radicalization of the Democrats but instead revealed just how bad it had gotten.