The Media, the Forest, the GOP Marchers and Animal Farm

Sometimes the media pundits get it so wrong that it’s really laughable - if it weren’t so serious.
How many times in the past two days have we heard that none of the Republican Convention speakers mentioned Mitt Romney by name until the last minute or so of their speech? I have, frankly, lost count.

But, the joke is on the pundits and analysts -- they are missing the forest because they’re dangling by their ankles from Democrat-woven cords on a Democratic oak tree of considerable diameter, making it impossible for them to see beyond the rough tree bark that’s ripping away at the skin on their noses.
But, the forest is out there, just beyond their line of vision. It is full of Americans - a forest species that most media types have some difficulty in recognizing - who are able to see beyond the tree in front of them because they aren’t dangling. They are marching -- marching -- marching. And like all high quality Marchers, they have a Band to lead them.
That Band, in the past two days, has been made up of key GOP leaders who have talked to the Marchers about Mitt Romney, the man who will be leading them onward after the Convention has been gavelled into history.
The Band is composed of :

- Former GOP US Senator Rick Santorum (PA), who told the Marchers his history, one of immigrants coming to Pittsburgh, educating their children, working hard and fulfilling their dream to become Americans.
- Ohio Republican Governor John Kasich, who told the Marchers that in the midst of the national malaise his state is the fourth in the nation in job creation and the first in the Midwest.
- Kentucky GOP US Senator Rand Paul, who told the Marchers about his grandfather’s and father’s efforts, leading to the acceptance of his father, Texan Congressman Ron Paul, a Libertarian by philosophy, as a member of the Band that is leading the Marchers.
- New Hampshire GOP US Senator Kelly Ayotte, who told the Marchers about her husband’s and her landscaping business, as an example of the all-important American small business phenomenon, and of her husband’s service in Iraq as a fighter pilot.
- Ted Cruz, the Texas GOP US Senate candidate, who thanked his father for being brave enough to come to America with just $100 sewn into his underwear, because he wanted to be an American.
- Wisconsin GOP Governor Scott Walker, who told the Marchers about his successful confrontation with public unions that refused to contribute their share to the needed economies caused by the current fiscal problems his state is facing, and who was thunderously applauded when he mentioned that the unions attempted to oust him in a recall, but he won.
- South Carolina GOP Governor Nikki Haley, whose own life story, that of the daughter of Americans of Asian Indian descent who rose through the GOP to become governor of a southern state, is in itself a story of courage and determination.
- Virginia GOP Governor Bob McDonnell, who told the Marchers about his grandfather leaving a poor dirt farm in Ireland to pass through Ellis Island on his way to fulfilling his American Dream.

How are the media pundits characterizing these testimonials?

Here’s what Dana Milbank wrote in his Washington Post Opinion piece today:
“As a rule, politicians aren’t the most loyal lot. It’s often self first, party second and country third. But Romney has a particular problem commanding loyalty, and the Republicans playing Brutus at this week’s convention have been just brutal.
“Exploiting the tepid enthusiasm for Romney, up-and-comers in the party are using the convention to put down markers for their own presidential bids in 2016. They haven’t gone so far as to disparage Romney — such flagrant disloyalty would be a turnoff — but they are using their moments on stage as auditions. Unfortunately for Romney, the implied assumption is that he’s going to lose.”

If that is not the biggest piece of GARBAGE you have ever read, please send me your nomination.

The reality is that these Republican leaders have been delivering a message that every Marcher and every honest-to-God American understands, because they feel it in their guts and souls and hearts. America was built by immigrants who came to America and worked hard. America is now in great fiscal trouble because only about 50% of Americans are working hard. But, it is not too late. The GOP governors recited their success stories to show what can be done if there is a will to do it. The others told of their families because they wanted all Americans to understand that in America we work - we do not wait for the government to feed and clothe us. We find work and we take care of ourselves. Only the truly needy should expect and receive help.
They told their stories to underscore the fact that President Obama has failed -- to lead, to have the will to turn the country around, to say to the 50% who are working, I’m with you. Instead, he has chosen to take the taxes of the 50% who work and distribute the money to the other 50% in the hope that they will vote for him, whether they are eligible voters or not.

That is the message coming out of the Republican Convention for the past two days.

But, Milbank and all the others are so sure that the large tree in the forest holding them by the ankles while they dangle in front of the nose-scraping bark is the entire world that they are completely missing reality. If they ever fall to the ground, peek around the tree and see the forest, they will feel a lot like the poor cows and horses and sheep in Animal Farm peeking through the dining room window to see their leaders, socialist pigs, eating at a banquet table while they themselves were being fed garbage before being carted off to the slaughterhouse.