What is it about massive storms and Republican conventions?
Four years ago, right about this time, the Republicans were preparing for their national convention in Minneapolis. At the same time, Hurricane Gustav was bearing down on the Gulf Coast.
Remembering the utter devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, people all over the southeastern US, and all over the country, feverishly prepared for possible imminent disaster.
Gustav turned out to be a serious storm but nowhere near as damaging or deadly, as Katrina.
However, it thoroughly disrupted the Republican convention as many R electeds chose to stay home to avoid the heavy criticism that dogged the Rs in the aftermath of Katrina, when the Bush Administration all but ignored the disaster for days.
Fast forward four years, and history is on track to possibly repeat itself.
Tropical Storm Isaac is working its way across the Caribbean toward the Florida coast, and the panic in Tampa is setting in.
The grand ol' poobahs of the Grand Old Party are pledging to stick it out, but if Isaac strengthens into a hurricane (expected to happen on Friday) and makes landfall at or near Tampa (murkier, but on track right now), they may be the only ones left in Tampa when the convention begins - most residents of Florida know enough to "get the hell out of Dodge" (so to speak).
Many GOPers spout some of the most inane, insane, and just plain hateful rhetoric ever heard, and justify their spoutings by claiming that "God spoke to them."
Well, I'm not qualified to say if God spoke to them before one of their number murdered a doctor in a church in Kansas, or another slaughtered six Sikhs at a temple in Wisconsin, or shot at a mosque in Chicago (no deaths yet, but give the shooter time), but with two storms in two conventions, it looks like God (or Mother Nature or Random Chance, or whatever you prefer) is saying something to the Republican Party and its convention delegates now -
If you go to Tampa, dress appropriately. It's going to get deeeeeeep.
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