republican national convention | A Flea in the Fur of the Beast A Flea in the Fur of the Beast Masthead “Death, fire, and burglary make all men equals.” —Dickens Tag: republican national convention August 22, 2012 God To Ruin Republican National Convention With A Hurricane, Again by evanmcmurry If the projections are accurate, Tropical Depression #9 will become Hurricane Helene and touch down on Florida in the middle of next week—or, exactly on top of the Republican National Convention. Hurricanes, needless to say, are bad news for Republicans, as they tend to produce people in need of federal aid who can’t be written off as Takers. (Though the current GOP seems happy to define people who work for a living as Takers, so who knows.) Given that only one of the many elements of Paul Ryan’s budget that the GOP is trying not to publicize is the slashing of infrastructure funds by ten dillion percent—that would be the same infrastructure Floridians need to get the hell out of the way of the hurricane—this should get interesting real quick. Those of you with long memories will recall that the 2008 Republican National Convention was also ruined by a hurricane. Back then, it just seemed like another bump on John McCain’s Wild Ride. But two hurricanes in a row suggest some divine force at work. It’s almost as if God is punishing the GOP for its response to something hurricane related. By the way, should the Hurricane Hugo touch down, this blog will officially be running a pool to see how quickly a Republican operative accuses Democrats of politicizing the tragedy. (via Gawker) Leave a comment July 16, 2012 Ron Paul Doesn’t Even Get A Participation Trophy by evanmcmurry I’ll admit that at one time I was secretly rooting for Ron Paul to mount enough of a primary effort that he got onto the ballot at the Republican National Convention. a) It might have forced the RNC into an actual debate over actual policy, as opposed to the Anti-Obama Greatest Hits Package it will now surely be; and b) the resulting chaos would have been the best political spectator sport of the entire race. The stills of William Kristol and Charles Krauthammer grimacing alone would have been worth it. Alas, at some point after New Hampshire, Ron Paul stopped standing for anything besides getting his son a speaking spot at the convention, and his followers took over, implementing a strategy that sure looked, walked, and talked like backdoor disenfranchisement. So now that Ron Paul isn’t actually a substantive alternative to the GOP platform, I’m happy to hear he didn’t clear the delegate threshold to get on the ballot. No Ron Paul party this year, kids. You’ll have to wait until Rand runs. Scott Lemieux with the close: Paul’s strategy was to game the system in order to produce a nominee (or at least competitive campaign) whose political positions were dramatically at variance with the bulk of his party; this strategy was premised on the assumption that the Paul people were, in effect, the smartest people in the room. This is generally in accord with the “you just don’t get it, do you” feeling that accompanies any conversation with a Ron Paul fanatic, and it’s altogether satisfying to see that deflated. Leave a comment Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. Follow Following A Flea in the Fur of the Beast Join 2,219 other followers Sign me up Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now. A Flea in the Fur of the Beast Customize Follow Following Sign up Log in Report this content View site in Reader Manage subscriptions Collapse this bar