The Daily Sausage – Friday Edition

A wrap-up of the Democratic National Convention.

Welcome to the Daily Sausage.

*takes a deep drag off a cigarette*

Was this week good for you? It was good for me.

I’ll tell you what: it’s a strange world we live in when the Democratic Party comes across as strong and decisive and leading on issues like foreign policy, the military, and the economy, while the Republican Party comes across as weak and petty and out of ideas.

The DNC rolled out a veritable Murderer’s Row of speakers this week, each with a new and interesting way of mocking Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan’s many flaws and foibles, culminating with Bill “Big Dawg” Clinton coming out of political semi-retirement to pass the proverbial torch to the next generation of Democrats.

However, one thing stood out to me more than anything, and it wasn’t the speeches. Politicians talk. It’s what they do. Some speak well, others not so well. What struck me most about the DNC vs. the RNC was the crowds. The RNC crowd was old, almost entirely devoid of minorities, and palpably angry at what they see as the usurpation of their country, which is exactly what their speakers played to. The DNC crowd looked like, well, America. Young and old, white and black and hispanic, Christians and Jews and Muslims (and Sikhs!).

The theme of this week, and indeed of both conventions, is that there is no longer a squishy purple middle. The battle lines have been drawn, the choices made clear.

First up, Esquire’s Tom Junod has an excellent review of the President’s acceptance speech last night.

on the level of platitude, the convention was relentless, and it might have turned into a comic spectacle if it had not also managed to be sometimes moving and at other times thrillingly ruthless — if it didn’t seem to work, especially in its effort to transform apparent Democratic vulnerabilities on the issues of immigration and gay marriage into Republican ones.

This, I think, is the great transformational moment liberals have been waiting for. A disciplined, muscular liberalism, unafraid to pick a fight over values held most dear.

However, not all is right in the world. Esquire’s Charles P. Pierce on perhaps the most under-covered speech of the convention: Rep. John Lewis of Georgia.

There are some politicians — not many, but a very distinct few — who, when they talk to you about one specific issue, you listen politely, agree wholeheartedly, and move along to the next topic, thank you very much. For example, when John McCain tells you what’s wrong with torture, there seems to be very little point in arguing with him about it.

[…]

The same dynamic prevails when Congressman John Lewis of Georgia talks to you about voting rights. Nobody knows more than he does about their value because nobody knows more than he does about what they’ve cost. He was beaten nearly to death in the struggle for them. John Lewis tells you something about voting rights and you say, yes, sir, and you shut the fk up.

Meanwhile, in Ohio, Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted has refused to comply with the court’s ruling that Ohio must allow early voting in the three days leading up to the general election. I’m sure that the judge is going to love that.

Next up, Maryland State Delegate Emmett C. Burns Jr. wrote to Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Disciotti that Ravens Linebacker Brendon Ayanbaejo should be sanctioned after speaking out in a Mraylanders for Marriage Equality ad last October.

Burns noted that the team “that is strictly for pride, entertainment and excitement” should “take the necessary action, as a National Football League Owner, to inhibit such expressions from your employees and that he be ordered to cease and desist such injurious actions.”

It’s worth noting that Burns is a Democrat. With friends like these, who needs anemones?

And finally, Arizona Judge Jacqueline Hatch had some harsh words for a woman that was sexually assaulted by an off-duty police officer in a bar, saying “If you wouldn’t have been there that night, none of this would have happened to you,”.

The officer in question, Robb Gary Evans, drank eight beers, drove himself to a concert, flashed his badge to get inside for free, assaulted the victim, and when thrown out told the bouncers he was a cop and that they would be arrested.

The jury originally convicted Evans of sexual abuse, a felony with between six months and two and a half years in prison, in July. Judge Hatch knocked it down to two years of probation.

It’s not often you see slut-shaming and covering for corrupt cops happen in the same court case, but here we are.