I didn’t watch too much of the Republican National Convention. I saw the Clint and Willard speeches, but didn’t see either Mrs. Willard or Paul Ryan. In addition, I saw snippets that were quite interesting. I have already commented on both the Invisible Obama speech and the Shout-Down-the-Meskin incident (to people wearing cowboy hats, all Spanish speakers are illegal immigrant Mexicans). But one thing difference I found striking between the RNC and the DNC is that the latter was almost annoyingly cheery. Much has been written on the relatively monochrome crowd at the RNC and the diversity of the DNC, but I was considering more the source of their enthusiasm.

Look at the faces of the two different crowds while shouting the obnoxious “USA! USA! USA!” chants. In Charlotte, those faces were goofy and silly and appeared to be having a good time. In Tampa, they were sinister and serious, and appeared to only be having a good time in a mean-spirited way.

If I had to boil it down to a couple of images:

Two different ways of performing obnoxious “USA! USA! USA!” chant: angry and aggressive (RNC Tampa, above), or with some semblance of dignity (DNC Charlotte, below)

I only wish the picture on top could more reflect the audience reaction to the bellicose attempt to shout down a small middle-aged woman for the crime of having a Spanish accent. Some joined the mean-spirited cacophony, while others mouthed the words with a look of confusion while looking around for any sign of what the hell was going on. It is interesting that the two angriest groups were the baseball cap wearing group in the picture and the cowboy hat wearing contingent from Texas. Too tight, perhaps?