the meaning of convention

i hate to beat a dead horse (or a dead donkey), but honestly, what happened to creativity and politics? i mean, has it always been dead and i just never noticed before? or are democrats really so afraid of anything new (and getting their asses kicked) that they are accidentally boring us all to death by playing it safe? and i won't even get into the republican side of things because even the thought of watching their convention makes me want to puke for hours.

this year's democratic national convention is so heavily scripted, i can hardly bring myself to watch it. but of course, i curled up on the couch with a bucket of popcorn and watched it anyway. who can miss our country's greatest public speaker of all time, president bill clinton? he's amazing.

but beyond that, i've got some gripes. i think the democrats need some new and fresh ideas to spruce things up a bit. i mean, sure, they've got celebrities (hi glenn close who seemed to be completely unfamiliar with her speech prior to getting on stage....hm....you aren't that unprepared in the movies are you?), musicians and of course, more politicians, but let's get real people. it's called marketing and whether you like it or not...it helps.

everyone in america can't get enough reality tv, so why not bring some of that reality to the convention. instead of a bunch of people being so careful (wouldn't want to offend anyone, wouldn't want to say anything that could bite you in the ass, etc.), why don't we get people saying REAL things? if bill clinton can do it, why can't the rest of the party join in?

idea #1: maybe they could have a "whose line is it anyway" improv section to the evening. let's see how well our politicians think on their feet. god knows they should be able to do it everyday.

idea #2: cirque de soleil acting out the past four years. that could be interesting. people like visual stuff. all this talking gets boring and people tune it out. but if you use charts and graphs, or preferably, mimes, you could really show how fucked we've been for the past four years. (and of course, we'd keep it clean for the kids)

idea #3: a real primary season with the delegates going to the convention to actually choose a candidate rather than christen one. i have to preface this by saying i've been a john kerry supporter all along. i think he's the best candidate and i've thought so since day one. but it seems that everyone is caught up in the fact that they'd like bush out of office. well, i want john kerry in the white house...how's that? and i'd like to be able to see our delegates actually do some work at the convention rather than sit around and ogle over each other without having any real work to do. c'mon people...let's make it interesting!

idea #4: make it easier for young people to go to the convention. i know here in minnesota, i went to my caucus for the first time ever. and what memories do i have? i met some great folks from my neighborhood at the caucus. we all agreed to go to the district convention. after four long and boring hours at the district convention, my new friends and i caucused. we wanted to make it to the state convention. our caucus was called, "new blood for kerry." the convention leaders didn't seem to like the word, "blood" in our name, but we didn't care. it was true...we were new blood and they would have to stomach us. to make a long story short, some freaky woman took over our caucus, got herself to the state convention (we were all in shock and were frightfully confused, being newbies and all) and left us all wondering why the hell we wasted so much valuable saturday morning time. i tell you this story because i don't think it is unique. i think it is indicative of the problem with my party and with our system. let the youngsters in people! we'd come if the people in charge would just open the friggin' door once in awhile.

this would help idea #4 which is get some solid gold, hip-looking (clothed, of course) dancers who can shake some booty. did you see the folks they showed on tv dancing along to crap assed music between speeches? pathetic.

look democrats. you've got plenty of good marketing minds who want you to succeed. why don't you just use the talents already in the party? those are my ideas for the day. they could all be crap, but they are better than safety as usual. c'mon...be fucking interesting!