I was prepared to rant about the convention speeches last night. Prepared to make my points and provide links to support my case. I was too tired. I’d do it today, I thought. Well, I’ve slept on it.

I have been watching the conventions this season. Religiously. Even when it’s boring or it sucks or I’d rather be doing something else. Instead of my planned rant, I only have two things to say — quotes from my written journal.

“When I look at the crowds of people in attendance, it looks like America to me. What I am hearing sounds like the America I want to live in.”
–Orb, during the DNC

“What a fucking hatefest.”
–Orb, during the RNC

That’s really all I have to say about it. Last night, the Republicans utterly disgusted me with their sneering, their laughing, their belittlement of others, and their seeming sole desire to cut down anyone who isn’t like them rather than discuss the actual issues. It made me realize exactly when the Republican Party lost me as a straight party voter — a die-hard Republican. It was when they became compassionate conservatives. Why? Aren’t I compassionate? Yes, I would say I am, but it was at that point in the party’s history when they co-opted the word “compassionate” and began to unleash the hate. I see that things haven’t gotten better on that front. In fact, they seem to have unleashed even more hate than ever. As someone who is a centrist and a conservative, it made me ill.

In closing, a couple of links:

Attacks, praise stretch truth at GOP convention
and Biden’s Vote Total? Higher Than Palin’s. It’s amazing how easily some people can lie while looking a camera straight in the eye.

I might have more to say at a later date, but I am having to work hard to try to wrap my head around the hate, lies, and disgusting behavior I witnessed last night. That’s why my party hasn’t been my party for quite some time and why I will likely never return to the fold again.