COVER -> RECOMMENDED DAILY REQUIREMENT
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE! - 
Let's face it: no matter how you cut it, James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, can no longer be called the hardest working man in show business.
Tonight, 3 August, 2000, political junkies will see one of the two men vying for that title. But you don't have to be a political junkie to know that.
Disaffected as we all might be from the sideshow that is American politics, we all also know that this will be the first glimpse we'll get at the flim-flam that George W. Bush, Jr., will offer us if he is chosen to be the most powerful man in the world.
I intended to produce a jocular column in this space today. I was hoping that someone would send one in. I paced trying to say something that wouldn't be considered "heavy" or "old school."
But, as I thought about it, I could neither concede the point to Thomas Hart that it didn't matter, nor pretend that all the golfing and corporate parties of this week for most of the convention delegates over there in Philadelphia rendered tonight's speech insignificant.
I don't expect Bush to say a guldern thing that is new, substantive, or deviating from the script of his maximally-scripted convention.
But I know, viscerally, having worked in politics for thirty years, and for politicians --- as precinct worker, consultant, fund-raiser, ghost-writer --- for twenty years, that it does matter.
Historically,
- Ronald Reagan's supporting speech of the Goldwater presidency in 1964 pegged an actor as a potential political leader; but more significantly,
- Jim Carter's speech at Madison Square Garden in 1976 changed an unknown quantity into the next President;
- Bill Clinton's speech at the same place in 1992 had the same effect.
THUS --- even though most of us can now rationally concede that national leaders are not as powerful as corporate interests, in general --- in specific, tonight's view of George W. Bush, Jr., gives us a first glimpse of what those corporate interests of globalization now find acceptable articulations of the "vision" of the putative "leader of the Free World." That is no small matter.
There's no suspense to political conventions anymore. We all know that. The national broadcast networks figured out that we aren't interested and are giving them short shrift. In fact, more people will watch "Survivor" tonight, as Hart implied, than the Republican National Convention.
Tom Brokaw was absolutely correct, when challenged to comment about the networks abandoning the conventions, in stating on Sunday that (paraphrasing Gertrude Stein's statement about Oakland, CA) "...there's no there there."
BY INTENTION the corporate governments which now control our national polity have rendered political parties meaningless so that we become less involved in civic life. It serves their interests: making consumerism a replacement for citizenship.
None of these factors, again, diminish the importance of this Bush speech.
This Bush speech will give us an idea of what kind of Show Business we just might have to deal with over the next four years --- all of us, all over the world --- since the United States is the only Superpower.
That is no small matter.
Looking at the NewsWeek magazine cover this week for their Republican National Convention warm-up, I could not but experience a chill. I don't know about you, but seeing Dick Cheney, the Republican US Vice-Presidential candidate, look over George W. Bush's shoulder that way gave me a Darth Vader/Borg Collective cringe.
"Ohmigod!" I thought. "Maybe we are facing real trouble!" (By "we," in this instance, I meant human beings who might want to think for themselves instead of being automatons. Excuse my secular humanism and iconoclasm here, to parody Tom Hart.)
There's just something about the look on Cheney's face that, for me, says:
"Resistance in futile. You will be assimilated.... Embrace the dark side of The Force."
I think it's important to make one thing clear at this point: G21, with myself at the forefront, has railed for nine years now against the blow-dried, mealy-mouthed, lack of vertebrae, corporate welfare policies of the Clinton-Gore Administration. I believe we coined the acronym "Dollar Bill" to refer to the sitting President of the United States. By castigating the equally corrupt constitution of the Republican Party nominees, we are in NO WAY endorsing the Democratic Party nominees.
The closest we have come to endorsement this year is to suggest (in an essay by me) that the only vote that will not be wasted would be for the Reform or Green parties. I see no reason to back away from that position, as a dissident.
But getting back to the Republicans: As my colleague Jeff Winbush said in the previous RDR: BE AFRAID... BE VERY AFRAID!
What you will see and hear from George W. Bush tonight, in his 15-times (at last count) re-written acceptance speech, will be "Please, Please, Please!" redux.
He will try to show that now the Republican Party's "compassionate conservatism" feels your pain more than the Democratic Party's.... The only thing that will be missing from this classic James Brown turn will be Maceo or one of the other "Famous Flames" putting the cape on his back before he comes back to the mike.
This week's Poll:
RDR RECOMMENDED SITE OF THE DAY: Here's another great look at people with cogent arguments against the notion of intellectual property. Our freak flying again!
