The Convention is Over |

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By Michael Spragins, Stafford County Democratic Committee Issues Committee Chair

The Republican convention is over. As a taxpayer, I was appalled at the desecration of the White House, our house, the “People’s House,” as a backdrop for a political convention for a candidate with which I have profound disagreement. While the president and vice president are not covered by the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from campaigning on government time or property, the White House claims that there is no violation for the services of the many government employees used to prepare for the event or that it was happening on one of our most sacred and celebrated government buildings. This is corruption of the highest order. Mark Meadows, the Chief of Staff, says that people outside the beltway do not care about this. The White House, I believe, has a different conception of “corruption.” To them, “corruption” is about corruption of purity, of the usurpation of the traditional order by those not considered “worthy” (read here minorities, non-Christians, immigrants, not those “real” Americans of the heartland). As long as “Republican values” are upheld, any law can be broken. This is the mindset of this administration. It will only get worse if Trump is re-elected.

I haven’t even mentioned the photo-op naturalization ceremony, whose participants were not aware they were going to be starring in a Republican convention, the pardoning of a criminal as part of the show, or the Secretary of State beaming in a partisan speech from overseas, or the blatant disregard of masking or social distancing on the White House grounds.

But, I digress. I was planning to write about their new platform, but the Republican National Committee has declared that they have no platform this year except for whatever utterance proceeds from the mouth of Donald Trump. I suppose that means that if Trump is re-elected we will have more of the same. More children in cages on the border, more immigrant families separated, more bans on Muslims, more tariffs, more insulting tweets, more cavalier breaking of laws, more pseudo-police sent into cities, more Covid-19 deaths, more love for Vladimir Putin, more pardons for the friends of the president, more unconfirmed and unqualified people in charge of government departments, more separation from our old allies in NATO and elsewhere, more authoritarianism, more lies, more incompetence, and more promotion of white supremacy. As I am writing this, the United States has had 182,000 deaths from Covid-19 and has 5,930,000 cases. Who can want more of this? The re-election of Donald Trump will give this and much, much more.

This is a post by a member of the Stafford County Democratic Committee. This post does not necessarily reflect the views of the Stafford County Democratic Committee, the Democratic Party of Virginia, or the Democratic Party of America.