Democratic and Republican National Convention - Movie Review Example

 I watched the Democratic National Convention on the evening of September 4th and the Republican National Convention on the evening of August 28th. I watched several different activities each evening. For the Republicans, I watched speeches by Ann Romney, the Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie and the Governor of Wisconsin Scott Walker. I watched a video from the Democratic National Convention about President Obama’s family, a lady whose family was serving in the United States Military, a speech by Michelle Obama, a speech by Martin O’Malley who is the Governor of Maryland and a speech by the mayor of San Antonio, Texas Julian Castro. These were the main events that I watched, but there were other smaller events that I watched on other evenings. I felt that both conventions were very similar in the way that they were structured and conducted. An emcee would address the cheering crown to announce each segment, speech or activity. The person conducting this seemed to be part master of ceremonies, part cheerleader for each party. Both of the conventions followed the same basic format. The Republicans had something called a roll call of delegates. This was necessary because they had primary elections earlier in the year and the convention is the place that Mitt Romney officially became their nominee. Technically this is true for the Democrats too, but it seemed to be a bigger deal for the Republicans because they are challenging a returning president. The activities of the conventions were very similar. I had to listen very closely to the speeches to tell any real difference. The speeches all seemed to fall into a few narrow categories. Some of the speeches seemed to be designed to make the candidates appear to be just normal people. These speeches were given by the candidate’s wives. Both of the women professed their love for their spouses and talked about things like raising kids, dealing with the stresses of daily life and making a marriage work. There were photographs from family albums displayed on large electronic screens, video montages of tender family moments and funny stories about the couple dating in their early years. The next category of speeches struck me as odd, because it seemed to be a complete reversal of the “my husband is just an ordinary guy” speeches given by the wives. These were policy speeches that explained why each candidate was the only, extraordinary person in the entire country of America that can possibly fix what is broken. Julian Castillo spoke with great passion about how President Obama’s ideas about education reform are the only way to fix America’s schools. His speech was about social policy that allows the most possible people to participate in the educational and economic activities in American life. Chris Christie and Scott Walker both countered this argument by stating that it was the teacher’s unions that were ruining American education. Both cited teachers unions as protecting bad teachers and giving teachers too much pay and benefits. President Obama was accused of holding back school reform as a way of winning votes from teachers. A final type of speech given at the convention was the broad policy speech that seeks to create an Us vs. Them feeling at the convention. This was especially true of Chris Christie’s speech. He clearly defined what a Republican was and what a Republican was not. Republicans are people that still believe in America’s ability to accomplish, grow and achieve. Republicans want a smaller government and less control. Republicans are against labor unions, social welfare and wasteful government spending. They want to shrink the national deficit and lower taxes for everyone. Chris Christie clearly showed in his speech at the people that really love America are Republicans. Democrats represent everything that is bad about America such as deficit spending and government programs. My reaction to the national conventions was mostly amusement. I could not help but feel that the people in the audience looked a little foolish. Cheering wildly and for too long before big speakers like Michelle Obama just seemed a little fanatical to me. I thought it was interesting that even Michelle Obama seemed perturbed by the excessive cheering. She actually had to stop the cheering by saying, “Ok, I’m going to start now.” I thought that the crowd was trying to show their enthusiasm, but it actually was becoming rude. I think that I understand the real reason behind the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. I know that there is some quasi-procedural things that need to happen that make the convention feel like it has some sort of actual purpose, such as the roll call of delegates. However, the impression I get from watching the convention is that the real purpose behind them is to get people excited about the upcoming election. Cheering, speeches, rally cries, chanting are all things that people in many types of social setting do to get excited about something. The conventions really reminded me of rock concerts and football games I have attended in the past. The political conventions are not there to convince anyone that they should switch their vote and support a different candidate than they already do. They are there for people that already know for whom they are voting. They are there to reinforce decisions people have already made by showing them that many other people agree with them. From this experience, I learned that emotion plays a big role in American politics. Many of the presentations and speeches were designed to get people emotionally involved with the candidate. No one offered a concise plan about reducing the national debt in America. Plenty of people spoke about family values, integrity and hard work. These issues are emotional issues more than they are policy issues. The national conventions of the political parties in America are nothing more than an opportunity to play on the emotions of party members. Democracy offers great freedoms to the American people and Americans often exercise their freedoms based on emotion rather than facts or data. That is probably why the national conventions are so important to politically active people all over America. It is a few evenings every few years when they can feel like they are very correct and the other side is very wrong. That is a powerful emotion for many people. Read More