#Elongated | Condoleezza Rice Addresses Us Like We're Adults
While everyone will rant and rave over the Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan’s convention appearance, the speech that soared for the night was former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Rice hit the stage with a confidence not seen in any speaker outside of Ryan himself. As she delivered her vision for America, I found myself deeply conflicted. I’m aware of her role within the George W. Bush administration, yet her tone and angle, and the target of her words, made me want to root for her.
I disagreed with Rice’s undercover conservative ideology so much — but her framing was amazing. She was able to make ideas that I specifically detest palatable. After two nights of programming at the Republican National Convention that highlighted voices who consistently ignored who I am — voices that actively spoke over me and my community — Rice found the ability to take conservative thoughts and shape them for consumption by the masses.
This all made me wonder: Why couldn’t — or, better yet, why wouldn‘t — the rest of the GOP try to cater their messages to a wider audience?
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Elon James White
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Propagandistic, jingoistic speeches like this are a dime a dozen during this phase of the electoral cycle. They are the only kind of speech the GOP can make that could POTENTIALLY appeal to a wider audience. They lose massively on social issues, so they steer clear of those. The reason the republicans dont try to appeal to a wider audience (women, races other than white, homosexuals, the disabled, the youth: i.e. everyone who isn’t a white old male) is because their base are hate filled crotchety white old men! They are hitting them at their level. This demographic is exactly what makes the GOP strong, but its strength is its exact weakness. The more diverse and educated this country becomes, the more the GOP will be faced with the idea that they must evolve. You hear rumblings of this idea from stalwarts like Jeb Bush and others. The problem is that their base are hate filled old bastards that dont want any ethnics hangin round their house much less being involved in THEIR party! You cannot teach an old dog new tricks and you cannot get a GOP-voting white old male to evolve. Its too late for them. Clint Eastwood was batshit crazy at the RNC but the things he said were outrageously progressive compared to the rest of the audiences views, I guarantee you. His conservative stance on a few issues he mentioned compared to the right-wing extremist views of the now dominant wing of the GOP, the tea-party wing further illustrate the astounding disconnect the GOP has with the America that isnt white old and male.