The end is here...

You like that slogan don't you?

"The end is here..."

Neat twist on an old theme.  Yes, I like it too.  It's the slogan for my film.  Just plugging it 'cause you never know when good 'ol Stevie is going to stumble across your blog.

But I'm using it today because of what happened at the Republican National Convention last night.

Oh booyy...

Now, in the interests of full-disclosure, let's get it right out of the way.  I am a guy who would have voted for 'W' the first time around--for sure.  I liked Al Gore, but at the time I was still reeling from the icky feeling that had attached itself to Brother Clinton... 

And I was much more of a single issue voter back then (pro-life) than I am today.

I probably would have voted for 'W' again for his second term 'cause, like much of his base, I felt like giving the Arab world a good ass whuppin' was a pretty good idea at the time and Theresa Heinz Kerry scared the ketchup out of me.

Alrighty, how's that for some honesty?

And all of the above means that I probably would have been kicking myself as 'W' slowly but surely got stupider and stupider and drove the country more and more into the ground these past four years which means that I would have been very encouraged by what looks to be on offer with Brother Obama.

Yes, I'm one of those 'would be Republicans' who would've been voting Democrat this year.

All the more so after last night.

Am I the only guy who felt like Sarah Palin's speech (and Rudy Giuliani's and Friggin' Romney's) was a throwback?  Can you believe how offensive and partisan they were?  I felt like I was watching something from the early eighties.  So much for "There is no Red America.  

There is no Blue America..."  Frig.  I was so upset by how the RNC decided to attempt to re-draw the battle lines along partisan, old-politics, lines.

Depressing.

And I can't help but wonder if it's going to backfire on them.

'Cause my sense of it is, there are plenty of younger folk like me out there, who are sick and tired of having to choose between red and blue like it's between black and white or wrong and right.  What happened to grey?  Palin's railing about how Barak wants to raise your taxes and what a horrible thing that is and I'm shouting back at the TV--"Hello! Have you noticed your national deficit these days?"  Then she insulted the European way of life as if for America to take it's cues from Europe, as Obama seemed to be doing on his trip overseas, is nigh unto death itself.  And again, I was screaming at the TV--"You could learn a thing or two from Europe ya' numbskull!"  I wonder if she's looked at the brilliant successes Norway and her sister nations have made of themselves?

And again, the hammering on pro-life vs pro-choice.

Look, I get it, I'm pro-life.  I have four babies to prove it.  I think the abortions that have been carried out, seemingly willy-nilly, for the past several decades are a travesty and a searing indictment on our shared humanity.  I think linking the abortion issue to a woman's right to choose thereby making it a feminist issue was brilliant and evil.  

But 'W' has been in office for eight friggin' years and the Republicans have controlled congress and the senate for six of the eight and have had a lock on the supreme court for almost as long and has Roe vs Wade been overturned?  

Hell no.

So what's the point of locking yourself out of the discussion, out of making a difference for justice and peace and unity, because you're stuck on trying to reform a law that's as entrenched as the first amendment?

And did they mention the unjust war in Iraq once?

No.

Or the tanking economy?

No.

Or the death-grip big-oil and big-lobbying and Wallstreet have on the White House?

Nope.

And on and on she went about 'small town' America.  You know what I want to do when I get to a small town?  I want to run.  As if these small towns outweigh the cities.  As if an insular society is somehow superior to a pluralistic one.  As if having Jesus AND Elvis as your heroes is a good thing.

Jesus, I get.

Elvis?

No thank you.

So 'no thank you' from me to the RNC.  No thank you to trying to divide us along red and blue lines.  Not anymore.  

No thank you to 'single issue voting'.  No thank you to trying to scare me into thinking that North America is a target without acknowledging that the reason we're a target is because of our imperialist tendencies since WWII.  Can you believe she said that saying 'We're all Georgians' is a good thing?  As if the U.S.A has the right to intervene.  Who gave us the right? Call it what it is.  It's that pipeline that runs through Georgia that you're freaking out about.

Oh, and the whole "We've got plenty of oil and natural gas off the Alaskan shelf..." comment? Gee, maybe she knows something the rest of us don't.  

I'm certainly not a left-wing, lunatic-fringe, tree-hugger but I gotta' admit that the Picken's Plan makes a heck of a lot of sense to me.

"More drilling now"?

No thanks.

How 'bout more repentance now?  How 'bout more 'you know we really ought to re-think how we spend out money and our standard of living...' now?  How 'bout 'we need to stop sticking our noses in other people's business...' now?

Sheesh.

So depressing.

Back to sermonizing and screenwriting tomorrow, but I had to get that off my chest today.

T