To the editor:

I have watched these political conventions since I was a kid (LBJ & Goldwater). I cannot remember one as mendacious, banal, superficial and down right empty of any content as this one was. (That includes the conventions for Reagan, Dole and even Mondale!) Stunning lies and cornball sloganeering were the high points. Why have them at all? To “introduce the candidates to the nation?” Oh please!

Anyone under 30 probably doesn’t know that these party conventions used to be about voting on the party’s candidates and putting together the “planks” of their “platform” that they would run their candidates on.

They used to make speeches about the different candidates and speeches for or against different positions that they wanted included or stripped from the party platform. They used to argue, bargain, form coalitions and make heated deals to get things in or out of the platform or to win over delegates.

They used to vote on platform “planks.” They famously used to roll call state after state for the delegates to give their votes and they were tabulated until one of the candidates got the nomination. Occasionally there were even “upsets” and… yes, surprises.

What what was this Republican thing that went down in Tampa? At this convention they never gave any specific information about just how they were going to do anything. They couldn’t because they never stated anything that they intended to do, with the exception of three things!

Do away with Obamacare. Cut taxes on businesses (translation: corporations) and reduce regulations on businesses (again read: corporations).

They never gave any specifics about their platform or what they were running on. Nothing specific about foreign policy. Nothing specific offered about health care. Nothing at all about bringing jobs back into the country. No responsibility taken for the collapse of the economy under Bush/Cheney.

Nothing about reigning in massive wall street criminal activity. Nothing about building any infrastructure. Nothing about women’s issues. Nothing about veterans issues or the wars that the Republicans started. Nothing about immigration. Nothing specific about education or student loans. Nothing specific about energy.

Nothing about their intentions to privatize the U.S. Postal Service, social security and Medicare/Medicaid. Nothing about their candidate’s vast financial holdings or his secret tax returns. Nothing specific about anything. They didn’t even give a general overview of what was in their Republican party platform!

All we got were provably outright lies about Obama, vague generalities, banal sloganeering and tearjerker sidebar stories that had nothing at all to do with either the candidates or the unmentioned party platform. We got an infomercial for Bain Capital and one for the Olympics with something about 9/11 mixed in. We got the jumbled and tasteless musings of a big Hollywood star (who cares?).

The whole thing was a FOX News infomercial. (I was watching on C-Span so I avoided any of the unnecessary “commentary” by pundits and “expert” interpreters). Nonsense was repeated over and over as fact. Things like “Obama spends too much.” The president, any president, cannot spend anything, not a penny. Only congress (like this Republican-dominated congress) can spend the government’s money. Presidents can either sign or veto their proposals. That’s it. (By the way, Gitmo Gulag is still open because Congress refused Obama’s request for funds to shut it down.)

For the love of liberty, citizens wake up! Wake your families and friends up. The last time we had a “businessman” in the White House it was Hoover which gave us the first Republican Great Depression. The government isn’t a “business” to be run for a profit!

If people swallow this simplistic, inaccurate garbage being peddled by the billionaires like Boss Rove, the Koch brothers (John Birch Society), Rupert Murdoch (Fox and the Wall Street Journal etc.) and all of their dozens of front groups (CATO Institute, Heritage Foundation etc.) then it will exhibit and prove that the Oooo Ess Aye is number one, alright. The stupidest country on the planet, TEABAGISTAN!

R.D. Bond

Langley