E. Faye Williams

Last week, I spent my evening hours viewing television and looking at the circus that formally was labeled by the networks as the Republican National Convention.

Granted, many viewers and convention attendees saw it as a serious endeavor by one of two major political parties to present itself in the most favorable light to our citizens who will perform their civic duty and vote in the upcoming November election.

I, however, viewed it as a twisted reality drama starring Donald Trump, his family and all of the Trump-detractors-turned-supporters who rose to spout the most divisive rhetoric broadcast in recent times.

At its core, I saw racism, misogyny, plus religious and ethnic intolerance. I truly find some of what I heard unbelievable. For starters, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s claim that the phrase Black Lives Matter is racist!

As partisan as some might consider me, I’m eager to see the construct of political discourse based upon the legitimate concerns of the voting populace. Like many seasoned political observers, I’m of the belief that any “legitimate” candidate or political party must present some type of affirmative agenda to be deserving of the support of any thinking voter.

To date, I’ve seen nothing come from the Republican camp doing more than sparking politically prurient interest among the party faithful and/or those waiting to see the Republicans “crash and burn.”

Instead of articulating a coherent platform for civic betterment, we still hear Trump Republicans complaining about the ills of society and blaming them on President Obama. These same critics fail to speak honestly about the obstruction they posed in the Congress to many works of legislation that would have proven beneficial to the nation and given the president and his party a “political victory.”

Those Republicans who’ve complained the longest and loudest about Benghazi and have used its associated deaths of Americans as a whipping post fail to admit that Republican legislators voted overwhelmingly to reduce the budget for worldwide embassy security.

Republicans still speak in sweeping terms about repealing “Obamacare,” yet offer nothing more. They just want to strip health insurance from more than 30 million people and throw millions more people back under the economic tyranny of insurance companies.

Trumpian apostles join him in his kabuki theater of doom and gloom condemning people and policies while never saying in positive terms what can be or will be. What we do know is that they propose policies that reverse the advances made in rights for women and minorities. We see them fighting to reduce the pool of eligible voters in order to secure political victories for candidates who, by virtue of their political agendas, could not otherwise realize success in the election process.

Now that Mr. Trump has received his party’s nomination, what remains constant and incessant are the narcissistic declarations of candidate Trump and his vague meanderings and assurances that he will accomplish something H-U-U-U-G-E!!!

Adding insult to injury, we have the embodiment of the Trumpian character of lies, deceit and misrepresentation manifest in the convention speech made by Melania Trump. Initially lauded for providing insight into the character of her husband, Melania Trump’s speech proved to be nothing more than another Trump lie.

There continues to be animated discussion surrounding Mrs. Trump’s blatant plagiarizing of a 2008 speech made by First Lady Michelle Obama. After futile attempts to convince the public that Mrs. Trump’s speech was an original work and an “expert” speech writer assessing the odds of that speech not being plagiarized at a trillion-to-one, the Trump camp found a scapegoat to offer her letter of resignation that was summarily refused by candidate Trump.

Are all of these lies to be swallowed as truth? Really? Really?

The writer is national president of the National Congress of Black Women.