“Hi, I’m a Clown”: The Democratic and Republican National Conventions Are Over
“Shabbat Shalom, Motherfuckers!” A guy in a blue sparkling costume and a clown nose suddenly takes off his top hat to reveal a yarmulke in the same color scheme to nearby Jewish democrat. Everyone laughs loudly, their genuine pleasure in the moment blending seamlessly into the cheering.
For the past few minutes, the clown had fixated on his religious compatriot from among dozens of Democratic National Convention visitors packed with us in a backstage corridor. The Hebronic clown is actually not a human. He claims, at least, to be a vampire from the fifth dimension, by the name of Mr. Gorgonzolla. And he seems to be popular among the media for his vogue political instinct.
“Let me explain to you the masterpiece of evil and suffering which is being perpetrated on this planet using the very social issues that your moral hearts desire, such as a $15 minimum wage, medicare for all — yes, you are going to get these things — isn’t that wonderful? But in the interim, we are going to continue the devastating, bankrupting practices of your federal banks to rob your population blind so that your children will wake up homeless in the land that their fathers and forefathers fought for!”
This is only a small part of Mr. Gorgonzolla’s performance, a prelude really, that he presents to his captive audience. People watch, but they don’t know how to react. The one can see smiles intermingle with perplexedness on people’s faces. The surreal Mr.Gorgonzolla seems to be the only natural person here: Playing the necessary role, confident in his sarcastic understanding of reality.
Here at the Democratic conventions no one says anything sarcastic or desperate. The party itself announces the presence of Great America and its optimistic future. That is the quintessence of DNC Ideolody 2016 and that’s the strategic cornerstone of the democratic plan to beat the pessimistic and aggressive Republicans.
The situation at DNC really is optimistic: One can find diversity merging everyone. “Make America Gay Again” is the motto on the cap of Scott, a black man I interview. Scott wanted to buy a T-Shirt, but found a hat that almost resembles Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan and bought it. Though he seems not to notice the irony of playing the Trump card.
I can hardly finish the interview as a man in his 70s pushes my cameraman away. Actually this is the rule of the DNC: No one can stay even for a minute on the floor of the convention. The DNC rules demand constant movement. That is why the guard breaks up our interview. I feel disturbed by the fact that even as an accredited journalist, this means I’m unable to interview even a single individual Standing With Her, as nobody was allowed to stand anywhere at all.
The level of organization at the Democratic convention is surprising after the Republicans. Trump organized everything in the center of Cleveland, Ohio. We experienced some traffic problems, but could always locate a space in a parking garage for $20. But the Democrats found a remote place from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, — the Wells Fargo Center — and they made us walk on hot asphalt for over a mile due to security issues. They had special credentials for parking that neither I nor my produce could figure out. If you couldn’t solve the puzzle, the nearest private parking lot, a mile away, cost you $50.
It was inconvenient to sit in Cleveland traffic, but it took us an entire tank of fuel to drive across Philadeliphia because of the closed roads and other special credentials about which we had never even heard. Compared to the RNC, everything was more difficult for journalists at the DNC. The staff never knew how to get where or what we wanted, but instead they always knew someone else who might know. Lots of journalists couldn’t even find the media center to get accredited.
Joah, one local Tv journalist, didn’t know the difference between local and international TV credentials. And the nearly 80-year-old women giving out credentials didn’t pay attention when she heard that we were from different continent. That’s why it took us half an hour of standing in the line for local TV journalists to learn that we had to go back down to a mysterious floor numbered “EF” to wait in another line for credentials that will give us a permission to film for half an hour. Believe me, when you have a professional tripod, camera, laptop, microphone and wires, it’s a real chore.
“Hillary sucks, but not like Monica.” I rejected the de facto motto of RNC, but it arrived in my mind all too often at the DNC. I heard it a week earlier on the only popular Cleveland street, where were gathered all the media, Republican fans and souvenir sellers.
Actually it was funny to watch the irritation of people struggling to walk down the narrow crowded street, although the parallel ones were totally empty and led to the same place. This behaviour seemed to describe the general mentality of the RNC: The heard usually does what it’s expected to do.
Like the couple we met who had converted from democrats to republicans and were defending all of Trump’s failures, just to justify their choice. I asked the couple what they thought about Trump’s earlier support of Hillary’s campaigns and they said he’s a diplomat. I asked about his aggressive foreign policy and they answered he was going to defend America. I asked about his loses in business and they simply didn’t believe me.
Democrats, however, never justify themselves. Democrats look in the future and analize what Hillary promised and what they need. As a white young heterosexual woman with a PhD, I didn’t feel any resemblance to Hillary’s audience. But as a person interested in her international policies, I was quite surprised by the bulletins on the street proposed by Hillary’s supporters: They endorsed her nuclear agreement with Iran.
“When you have the nuclear codes at your fingertips and the military at your command, you can’t make snap decisions,” Michelle Obama said, endorsing Hillary for president.
That’s where I, as Ukrainian, could never accept Trump, who thinks he will decide whether Crimea is a part of Ukraine or Russia. Here I’d also agree with the esteemed Mr. Gorgonzolla who said that “Trump would be like introducing a monkey on acid with a tin garbage can and a wooden spoon.” Then again, maybe Mr. Gorgonzolla rhetoric against Mr. Trump simply amounts to professional jealousy between clowns.
Obviously, if countries could vote, Clinton would get more voices from across the globe. The world seems to believe she will be the next President of the strongest modern empire. And Hillary herself in her final speech at the convention reassured the world: “Our Founders fought a revolution and wrote a Constitution so America would never be a nation where one person had all the power.”
