The Convention is Coming, The Convention is Coming!

The Republican National Convention will be in St. Paul, Mn. My home town. I can't think of a larger irony than that. St. Paul, the die-hard core of Democratic politics is hosting the Republican Convention. It feels like Alice has gone through the looking glass! Right now I wish I still lived there as I am sure there will be high drama in town. In the past several years the ability to exercise your guaranteed right to assembly has been curtailed, putting protesters in 'freedom zones'. Silly me, I thought the entire country is a freedom zone, what was I thinking.

Lest it is felt that I am not fair, let me say that yesterday I caught a portion of a story about Denver and the Democratic Convention. There where wire cages set up to put protesters in as they were arrested. There had been talk of topping them with razor wire. Razor wire! Where are we and what have we become? People have a right to protest, all people. If they are causing harm to others, then they must be stopped, but the act itself is not an offense and it certainly doesn't require metal cages topped with razor wire. To be fair, it was decided that the razor wire was maybe a bit over the top.

It has been a slow but steady decline to this, although it has been accelerated over the past few years, but the slow decline has made it possible to convince the population that what is done 'to protect us' is in our best interest. 

I much prefer a messy and imperfect democracy to a perfect autocracy.