DATELINE–South California

There is but one promise, one ideal, one hope lodged like a nugget of gold within the pan-filtered rhetoric of the Republican National Convention: We will save You Money, We will give You Money, We will be Money for You.

This is not democracy, this is not autonomy, this is not self-determination. The Puritans were not searching for a better bargain on candles and linen when they boarded the Mayflower and crossed unknown waters to settle in an even more unknown land.

Ladies and Gentlemen, let us refresh our random access memory: the phrase that fomented the Revolution of 1776 was “Taxation Without Representation.” That is to say, “representation,” the political articulation of our hopes, fears and creativity, mattered more to the early American colonists than “taxation.”

How is it, then, that we have come to value “taxes” more than “politics"? What numbing slumber is this that we have just begun to shake off like a nauseating coma? How many candy bars does it take to make the modern day American citizen recognize the existence (let alone the needs) of fellow Americans?

The man who nominated Bob Dole spoke of the American Dream as if it were a great discount, a generous loan, a short-term lease, a gold credit card. Prosperity, affluence, riches – what ever happened to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?

Hello? Earth to Americans, is anyone breathing? Happiness is not a mortgage, happiness is not a minivan, happiness is not a mail-order outfit. Liberty is not the opposite of poverty, life is not just a prefix for “lifestyle.”

How dare these vapid bozos in drab suits and ties sell out the America of ex-slaves and servicemen, riveters and visionaries for 15% of anything.

Freedom does not come in proportions – a noble death is no percentage sign.