A few changes were made to the Democratic platform, introducing the word God and declaring the capital of Isreal to be Jerusalem. I’m Canadian, so my official position is that Tel Aviv is the capital of Isreal. That’s where I’d go if I lost my passport on vacation, but heck, who am I or most of the international community to deny a sovereign country’s right to declare its own capital?
The Democratic Party has pseudo-voted for a resolution that casually declares Jerusalem to be the Capitol city of Israel. You know, just a mid-convention add-on to counter accusations from Mitt Romney that the party is “veering further and further away into an extreme wing that Americans don’t recognize.”
Secularism rearing its ugly head again, surely. First it’s separation of church and state, now it’s professing belief in God and siding with Israel in a centuries-old battle involving all three Abrahamic religions. Casual, minor adjustments to be made by audience applause that grew with each cautious request by convention chairman Antonio Villaraigosa to start again, given the almost identical response he had received in all three votes.
Despite his obvious embarrassment at having exposed division within the Democratic Party on such a hotly debated issue, Villaraigosa managed to squeak out that “in the opinion of the chair, two-thirds have voted in the affirmative, the motion is adopted, and the platform has been amended as shown on the screen.”
Villaraigosa’s body language indicated his hands-off true feelings about his likely coerced judgement as he held back the cascade of boos emanating from the crowd with his outstretched hands and paused shortly to stare at his shoes in a subconscious act of contrition.
Delegates clearly unhappy with this amendment shouted their objection to deaf ears as the convention’s morale limped and stumbled. Its freshly shot foot still searing from the self-inflicted bullet wound.
It’s my experience that shooting yourself in the foot is not the best way to facilitate moving “Forward.” But hey, I’ve been wrong before. And if that lady behind him really is a self-assured nun, I’d hate to be the one to get in her way.