Convention Wrap-Up, Three Mos. Late

One of the fascinated foreigners who attended the Nashville T.P. convention in February finally typed it up & handed it in.

Inside the Tennessee Ballroom of the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, it was rather different: what struck me was how many remained seated through the ovations, how many failed to clap, how many muttered quietly into the ears of their neighbours while others around them rose to their feet and hollered.

[...]

As we milled around in the convention centre lobby, we might have been mistaken for passengers on a cruise ship. We belonged to a similar demographic: most – though by no means all – over 50, white, and dressed in smart leisurewear. Few of us would see much change from the $1,500– $2,000 (£1,000-£1,400) we'd spent on travel to Nashville, the $558.95 convention fee, and a room at the opulent hotel. Seen as a group, we were, I thought, a shade too prosperous, too amiably chatty and mild- mannered, to pass as the voice of the enraged grassroots.

[...]

We said prayers, recited the Pledge of Allegiance, and clapped in time to country music. Lisa Mei Norton, a former Air Force senior master sergeant, sang, "The shining light, on the right, the left just doesn't get,/Sarah Palin for change you won't regret ..." It would have taken a finely calibrated stopwatch to measure how very rapidly such folksy piety and patriotism could swivel into crude nativism, conspiracy theory, and xenophobia – and to measure, too, the dawning discomfort at this switch of tone registered by a sizable part of the audience.

Plenty more, though not enough to justify the three mo. delay.