By Jaime on 8/12/2004, 10:35pm PT  

(Guest blogged by jaime)

Last month, the Democratic National Convention in Boston proudly boasted minority delegates that exceded 40 percent of the total count. The Republicans boast "the most diverse delegation in their history to the Republican National Convention". The GOP points out with fancy facts, figures, and graphs how much more diverse they are than their counterparts.

Percentage Increase Of Ethnically Diverse Delegates between the 2000-2004 National Conventions

What many would miss in this graph is not how much less yellow there is than blue, but the fact that the Seventy actually represents the percentage increase in minorities. The actual numbers tell a vastly different story.

Of the 4,853 delegates and alternates from across the nation at the New York convention, 17 percent will be minorities

Now recent statistics show us minorities make up thirty percent of the American populace. The Republican party's leaps and bounds are old news to the rest of us. We learned from the 2000 Convention that they are willing to go through extraordinary lengthe to hid who they are and whose dog wags whose tail. The tactic of herding up every minority they could find and position them oh so slyly in front of network camera banks highlight their lack of shame.

In contrast the 2004 Democratic National Convention, whatever else you want to say about it, reflected not only what America is, but what it will be. It may have crafted a message of "unity" and "hope" that seemed disengenuous to some, but it was unafraid to hide its true character with such liberal progressive voices as Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean, Dennis Kucinich, and Al Sharpton taking the platform in or near prime time.

Now the Republicans would have the electorate believe that THEY are the face of moderation trotting out such GOP all-stars as John McCain, Rudy Guiliani, and Ah-nuld himself.

The conservative christian base is now ticked off because the purse strings that put Bush in power are no longer welcome. The Republicans are taking great care to hide it's true nature. Uninvited Pat Robertson told reporters:

"In the last convention, the thought was to keep all the conservatives out of sight," said Robertson, who has attended every Republican convention since 1988, but said he won't go this year. "The general thrust will be to entice the so-called independent moderates and I am not sure that there would be much reason for a conservative to be there."

Ah-nuld and Guiliani are both decidedly liberal on social issues, yet their Prime Time speaking slots they posses are designed to fool the undecided as to who really pulls the GOP strings. When Representative Jim Kolbe spoke in their 2000 Convention many in the audience bowed their heads, turned their backs and walked out.

Whether Bush is certain his base will follow lockstep or the "mushy middle" will be shocked and awed by his convention smoke and mirrors, all of us on the left know that the face of the Republican Party is less Guiliani and more Robertson. The platform, which will include, Anti-gay amendments to the Constitution, Pro-Choice rollbacks, Blurring of Separation of Church and State, Pro gun laws, Anti-Environmental bills, and the quelching of requested Stem-Cell research funding are the antithesis of the positions of main stream America. But with a little help from his friends Bush may fool some of the people all of the time and...wait...all of them some of the people time...can't get fooled again.

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