RNC Convention: Messages and Messengers

The themes of the Republican National Convention combine ridiculous assertions about the "compassionate" nature of the Bush agenda, rabid attacks on Democrats in general and John Kerry in particular, and a Riefenstahlian glorification of Bush's alleged "courage" and iron will. Let's take a look at some of the messengers who are delivering these bogus messages:

- Non-girlieman Schwarzenegger was presented as the prototype of the American immigrant success story; just your average Mr. Universe who comes to America with pluck and offers of Hollywood contracts and who ultimately gets big corporate funding so that he can supplant an elected Democratic Governor and become a GOP superstar. However, we learned from his speech that Young Arnold fled Austria not in search of Hollywood fame and fortune, but in fact, to escape political oppression. According to Arnold, he came to America because of his lingering fear of Communism, which he allegedly experienced first-hand during the Soviet occupation of a portion of eastern Austria. The chronology is a bit confusing here, since the last Soviet troops left Austria in 1955 (peacefully, by the way, without any force or threat of force), which was more than twenty years before Arnold struck Hollywood gold (to mix metallic metaphors) with his smash documentary, "Pumping Iron." Anyway, Arnold told the rapt RNC audience about his childhood terror that his father would be pulled out of his car by Soviet soldiers, stating, "[M]y family and so many others lived in fear of the Soviet boot." Arnold's reference to Soviet footwear is regrettable. In fact, his father, Gustav, was a veteran of the Nazi SA (generally known as the "Brownshirts"), having volunteered for "service" in 1939, shortly after Austria united with Nazi Germany. Arnold also has had a long-standing friendship with Nazi war criminal Kurt Waldheim. Apparently, Arnold and his family had a selective distaste for jackboots, depending upon whose feet they were on.

- Keynote Speaker Zell Miller, whom Republicans have dubbed the "conscience of the Democratic Party," offered a particularly frothy rant, in which he decried the fact that the Democratic Party of John Kerry and John Edwards is not the same party with which Miller identified in his youth. We can only thank the Lord that this is so. Although not widely reported in the media, one should note that Miller got his big break in Georgia politics by serving as Chief of Staff to then-Governor Lester Maddox. To younger readers who don't remember the civil rights movement or have not studied it in history classes, Maddox rose to prominence under the banner of "Segregation Forever!", wielding an axe-handle to prevent Blacks from dining at his chicken restaurant. Miller is correct that axe-handles are not part of the Democratic Party platform; they may well have a plank in the GOP's.

If you really want to burn your noodle, consider the prominence given by the RNC to Miller in conjunction with the remarks of Maryland's Lt. Gov. Michael Steele (calling Steele and other African-American Republicans tokens is an insult to tokens). Steele hailed the history of the GOP, going back to Lincoln and pointing out that a majority of Republican Senators supported the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in opposition to "segregationist Democrats." Steele failed to note that one Republican who did not support the Civil Rights Act was young George H.W. Bush, then an unsuccessful Congressional candidate. Nor did Steele note that those "segregationist Democrats"-- such as Miller's mentor Maddox -- went on to become the stalwarts of the born-again Republican Party, such as Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms.

Yes, Zell, the Democratic Party of John Kerry and John Edwards is not the party of Maddox, and no, Michael, the Republican Party of George Bush and Dick Cheney is not the party of Lincoln.