The Parties Are Over

OK, both conventions are over and America sits in the middle holding out a cup. All the delegates who went to Denver and Minneapolis are excited, though the Dems are a lot more nervous now than they were last week. But in the end, absolutely nothing changed. The Republican candidate says he's the man for change and requests that America ignore the fact that his party raped the country for eight years. He's for more war and his VP wants to teach creationism in the schools. It's a dream ticket.

Meanwhile, not one Republican speaker ever mentioned the scandal of America's National Debt. They look at the photo above and see America's prosperity, symbolized by that beautiful green cup.

But it plays. John McCain's message is very tempting to people of the WW II -- Korea generation and those tens of millions of others who long for the good old days. It glorifies America. It's calming, it's reassuring. It's a very simple proposition: America is great. Where's that voting lever?

So here's what we have: Young versus old. White collar/no collar versus blue collar. Both coasts versus the middle. College students versus veterans. Freer thinking versus a more fundamental view. A new social paradigm versus the status quo. The possibility of real change versus a few systemic tinkerings.

And of course: Mixed up brown versus lily white. Don't ever forget that. One of the candidates 'looks like us.'

The Great Plotnik comes away from these two weeks of balloons and buffoons with an interesting thought, one that perhaps you will ponder with him. Most Democrats feel if you place McCain and Palin on one side of the scale and Bush and Cheney on the other, McPale doesn't seem so bad. Whoever wins in November is a major improvement over what we've got.

But Republicans don't feel that way. They are so fearful of Democrats and blacks and gays and immigrants and Bill Clinton and electric cars that, to them, a nation led by Obama is far scarier than four more years of Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Abramoff. Remember that above all other human emotions, one ranks highest in motivating people: fear.

The Great Plotnik does not like John McCain, but he's not afraid of him. Republicans are terrified of Barack Obama. When you think about crossover voters, think about that.