A protester just distracted John McCain’s speech. He instructed the audience to pay no attention to ground noise and static. Cheers erupted.
When did the media and McCain lose site of the fact that this country was founded by those who created ground noise and static?
Is this document (the Declaration of Independence) not a ground noise document annoying to King George?
Not listening to the ground noise is a dangerous rule.
This is a little simplistic. The Republican Welcoming Committee is a violent group of protesters that have been threatening and intimidating delegates at the RNC, damaging property and throwing human waste on cars — there is protest, and then there is pointless violent disruption meant to ruin something rather than make a point. That is the “ground noise” McCain was referring to, and rightly. How can the country have a civil discussion if those who shout the loudest are the only ones that are ever heard? Force, and loudness, don’t make rightness. And that’s what he recognizes.
Fair enough.
My point is less about this particular set of protests and more the dismissive attitude towards alternative views.
At my commencement many years ago President Clinton was set to speak. There were several nutball students who made pointless protests that were highly disruptive. Clinton, instead of condescendingly dismissing them, spoke directly too them and actually threw out his prepared talk to discuss the issues causing so much distress. The protestors shut their months and I actually learned quite a bit NAFTA that day.
Civil discussion. Good.
Convention speeches, well, conventions in general. Not as good. These are civil discussions, they are marketing, and bad marketing at that.