Thursday, September 6, 2012

The Power of Words













Among the RNC last week and the DNC this week, there has been "War of Words" over what is in or out each party platform or what is being said, or not said at the big tent parties last week in Tampa and this week in Charlotte. Last week, with 80,000 U.S. troops still actively serving in Afghanistan, the Republicans failed to mention the word once. Middle Class also failed to make words bubbling out of the Florida convention hall. They did have a national debt clock, though.

And while the Democrats opened their convention this week, GOP VP candidate Paul Ryan wondered in front of the cameras why a debt clock was missing at the DNC. Then came the criticism of words left out of the DNC platform (remember we posted about the RNC platform last week).

Missing (before passing an amended version) from the DNC platform: God and Jerusalem. As Huffington Post reports:

"CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A rare unscripted moment at the Democratic National Convention here Wednesday resulted in an embarrassing moment for the party that is certain to be used in Republican television ads over the next two months.
After they took heat for omitting any reference to "God" in their platform, and for eliminating language from the 2008 platform that identified Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Democrats tried to add the language back into their party platform with a voice vote.

A source informed on the deliberations told The Huffington Post that President Obama personally intervened to strengthen the language. Speaking with HuffPost, a senior Obama administration official also confirmed the president's involvement."

Watch the video of how this vote went down above, and blog here about what this says about the state of politics in the U.S. In the Hardball game of politics, words matter. What Hardball strategy was the DNC using as it amended its platform?

Here is the full, original version of the DNC platform.

DNC 2012 Platform

BTW, is this an example of the Power of Fox News?

1 comment:

Zaic H said...

I don't understand why the omission of a deity and or the omission of a city which is not under US sovereignty (though at times it feels the other way around) is of any concern. This is a party platform and manifesto, not a church service, and constitutionally there is no official state deity. Fortunately, the US is not a theocracy, unlike Iran or Israel. Actually, now that I've said that, I now understand the Republican love of Israel. Though in all seriousness, I think the larger story should be why the GOP's economic section of their party platform is a gross plagiarism of Atlas Shrugged, and why the Misogyny - sorry, Women's Issue - section, sounds so similar to Vatican II. Mind you, nothing in the Republican platform sounded similar to anything Jesus said; things like anti-capitalism, separation of church and state, free healthcare, etc.

Suggestions for Republicans who don't like the secular state: there is always Iran. Except they have universal healthcare, taxes, women can go to university, contraception, and Muslims - not exactly the republican cup of tea. Oh, I know. Somalia! No regulations whatsoever, no healthcare, and loads of weapons!