I chaperoned a group of youth journalists to the 2016 DNC and RNC.
UPDATE looks like an article of convention notes by two of our reporters ran in the Mining Journal!
Trump is officially the Republican nominee for President of the United States of America. My first reaction to this news was a feeling of impending doom.
Something that struck me as absolutely outrageous (more than other things that I’ve seen this week) was the connection of the roots of the Republican party to the modern Republican party.
While it never hurts to be proud of where the party comes from, it is completely unreasonable to claim that the modern-day party stands for the same things it did when it was founded.
The Republican party was founded in 1854 on an anti-slavery platform, where it filled in the power gap in the north left by the collapsed Whig party. It saw strong support in the north of the US, where Republicans fought to end slavery. Abraham Lincoln was elected as the first Republican president in 1860.
When Lincoln ended slavery with the Emancipation Proclamation, Democrats in the south resisted, sometimes violently, and sometimes with laws, known as Jim Crow laws.
Eventually, northern Republicans made rich by civil war industry grew tired of supporting the rights of freed slaves in the south. These rich white men became party officials and did not want to give up any of their power. The aimed to protect their own interests. In this manner, the Republican party became the party of big business.
The parties as we know them today were solidified in the ’80s.
It’s entirely inaccurate to claim that the Republican party of today resembles in any way the Republican party at the time of its founding.
I was inspired to write this article by mention of this idea at the convention, as well as this Vox video.
Something that has been on my mind all week is the utter lack of minority representation at the convention. Inside the security perimeter, most black people that you see are working here. I check everyone’s credentials to see what their role here is. Of all the ones that I’ve seen, one hand would be enough to count all of the non-white delegates here.
White people are an enormous majority here. Seeing a hispanic or black speaker on stage seems entirely incongruous with the messages and platform of Donald Trump of the Republican party itself. It seems self-defeating for anyone who is not white to be a Republican.
Black guy quotes Martin Luther King Jr.’s I have a dream speech to limited applause from the white delegates on the floor.
This is an excerpt of some notes that I made while watching the convention.
Tonight was Republican Vice Presidential nominee Mike Pence’s first appearance on the stage of the convention. He seems fully aware of how boring he is, making a point to mention it to the audience. It’s interesting to see him finally joining the Trump train. Especially in contrast to his endorsement of Ted Cruz around the primaries.
Another interesting day at the Republican National Convention.
Bonus video
Our second day at the RNC began once again at the Michigan Delegation Breakfast Session.
Michigan Speaker of the House Kevin Cotter addressed the delegation with a report on the state of the state. His moderate, compromising stance was all but booed out by the delegation. To me, this highlighted the increasing radicalization of partisan politics. A reasonable politician who understands that things get done through compromise is criticized for not doing enough for the “party.”
Despite not attending the RNC itself, Ohio Governor John Kasich addressed the MI delegation immediately following Speaker Cotter at the breakfast. As I expected, he didn’t mention the white elephant in the room: Trump. Trump and other party Republicans have called Kasich out for his absence from the Convention proceedings at the Quicken Loans Arena. Many delegates expected him to endorse Trump, but were left unsatisfied.
Delegates who were originally sent to represent Kasich were left confused, expecting him to give some sort of indication (that would have been made clear by some sort of endorsement). Once Kasich left, it seemed that these delegates would end up falling into party lines by voting Trump.
After returning to edit some stories and get lunch, we drove to an event that had been recommended to us by a local contact. The American Dream included a 4000 pound ice sculpture of “The American Dream” that was left outside to melt, a metaphor for the idea of the American Dream.
A panel of local artists and coordinators discussed the potential of art to be a powerful force for change. It was refreshing to hear some reasonable voices and empowering to hear about the experiences that these people have had in working together to produce a series of documentaries called The Fixers
Bonus video:
UPDATE: Looks like Donald is now officially the Republican nominee… the votes are in.
#BlueLivesMatter completely misses the point. And it makes #AllLivesMatter hypocritical.
This cartoon says it all.
The same people that pioneered the #AllLivesMatter movement are now claiming that #BlueLivesMatter. Do they not understand the irony of this?
By claiming that all lives matter, this minimizes the importance of lives that currently need the attention, much like the house on fire in the cartoon above.
Michigan delegates to the Republican National Convention got fired up for New Jersey Governor Chris Christie as he addressed them this morning at their first breakfast meeting. Christie stressed the importance of party unity behind the presumptive nominee, Donald Trump.
However, the enthusiasm for Trump was not as strong as expected. The emphasis was placed on bashing Hillary, rather than promoting a Trump presidency. It makes sense, as it’s very hard to promote a candidate who has nothing to offer.
The scene downtown has been peaceful so far. There are, however, huge crowds, but everyone has been respectful aside from some jeers and boos for Hillary.
We have had to take turns in the convention center, as we only have three (of which only two are valid for entering the arena itself) passes for six people.
At the convention center, any mention of Hillary Clinton’s name generates a huge boo from the audience.
According to Willie Robertson, of Duck Dynasty fame, Trump is:
and will
It’s really showing that the Republican Party had trouble finding people to speak here at the convention. What place do reality TV stars have in our political process?
Overall, it’s a disturbing display of the state of our country.
UPDATE: Melania’s Plagiarism of Michelle’s 2008 speech So that’s pretty blatant, right? pic.twitter.com/EPnHME7afV— Mike Hearn (@mikehearn) July 19, 2016
UPDATE: Tony Schwartz, ghostwriter of The Art of the Deal, spoke out about writing the book. He believes that if Trump wins and gets the nuclear codes, there is an excellent possibility it will lead to the end of civilization. Source: NY Times
I was asked to chaperone a group of youth journalists with 8-18 Media (a youth journalism program in Marquette that I was once a part of)
Disclaimer: these blog posts represent my opinion!
I plan on writing a post for each day of the RNC journaling my thoughts about the event.