{"id":6,"date":"2008-07-25T11:31:47","date_gmt":"2008-07-25T11:31:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/progressiverevival\/2008\/07\/the-conventions-and-the-issues.html"},"modified":"2008-07-25T11:31:47","modified_gmt":"2008-07-25T11:31:47","slug":"the-conventions-and-the-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/07\/the-conventions-and-the-issues.html","title":{"rendered":"The Conventions and the Issues"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once again, both political parties are heading into their national conventions with just about everything already decided – the candidates, platforms and even the speakers.The excitement of political conventions is a thing of the past.Choreographers and media consultants have replaced backroom political horse trading.<\/p>\n

Some people might say, “Thank God.”I say, “We’ve taken the human emotion and fun out of politics.”We’ve taken the voice of average Americans out of politics and substituted it with slick “talking points” and punched sound bites.<\/p>\n

“Mayor Flynn, do you have any suggestions?You’ve been in politics 50 years.””As a matter of fact I do,” I responded.<\/p>\n

At the upcoming conventions, don’t allow any longwinded political speakers from the past, including former nominees of either party for president or vice president.And definitely no movie stars.<\/p>\n

The candidates will certainly address the specific issues on the war and the economy, but the other convention speakers should focus their comments on issues that are on peoples’ minds, but not often talked about by either party.<\/p>\n

Such important topics include:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Tuition tax credits for non-public school parents.\n
  2. Ending trade deals that ship American jobs overseas.\n
  3. A discussion of right to life issues, including the death penalty and euthanasia.\n
  4. A human rights policy that would have religious freedom as a key.Singling out offenders like China, North Korea and Vietnam.\n
  5. Immigration reform, including border security.\n
  6. Suggestions for media coverage of the conventions.Ask important questions about issues to strengthen American families and help the needy, children and elderly on fixed incomes.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Once again, both political parties are heading into their national conventions with just about everything already decided – the candidates, platforms and even the speakers.The excitement of political conventions is a thing of the past.Choreographers and media consultants have replaced backroom political horse trading. 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Some people might say, “Thank God.”I say, “We’ve taken the human…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/07\/the-conventions-and-the-issues.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Progressive Revival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-07-25T11:31:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ray Flynn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Conventions and the Issues - Progressive Revival","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/07\/the-conventions-and-the-issues.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Conventions and the Issues - Progressive Revival","og_description":"Once again, both political parties are heading into their national conventions with just about everything already decided – the candidates, platforms and even the speakers.The excitement of political conventions is a thing of the past.Choreographers and media consultants have replaced backroom political horse trading. 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Flynn is a best selling author, writer and national public speaker. He is a regular political commentator and is also a frequent political and religious analysts on national and local television, including, Meet the Press, Nightline, ABC, NBC, CTV, PBS Jim Leher News Hour, CNN, FOX News, MSNBC, EWTN, BBC, CBS News and many other national newspaper, magazine and radio programs. He has been praised as one of the most insightful and foremost experienced political - religious analysts in the United States. As U.S. Ambassador, Flynn served as America's Envoy to the Vatican, the government of the worldwide Catholic Church. He has also been selected by both Democratic and Republican U.S. Presidents to represent our country at official Vatican events. On behalf of the United States, he assisted the Vatican in the establishment of full diplomatic relations between the Vatican and the State of Israel. He also represented the U.S. efforts that helped win Vatican support for the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, for U.N. peace-keeping efforts in the Balkans, and for U.S.-backed efforts to restore democracy in Haiti. While Ambassador, Flynn also served as the United States representative in relief efforts around the world and helped establish a compact between the U.S. government and the Catholic Church with other religious and non-profit organizations to deliver humanitarian aid to countries suffering from natural disasters, famine, disease, and political unrest. Flynn was first elected Mayor of Boston in 1984, and won reelection twice each time by record margins. In 1991, he won every ward and percent in the city, the first mayor to achieve that distinction in the history of the city of Boston. As mayor, Flynn's day-to-day involvement in the life of the city, his tireless energy and hands-on style led him to be called the \"Mayor of the Neighborhoods.\" He was widely credited with ensuring that all the people of Boston's neighborhoods shared the prosperity of the city's downtown and led efforts to achieve a new sprit of racial harmony to Boston. By the time he left office, a newspaper poll showed that his favorability rating was nearly 80% - and that almost half of the city's residents had actually met him. Prior to serving as Mayor of Boston, Flynn served as a Massachusetts State Representative (1971-1978) and an at-large member of the Boston City Council (1978-1983). He is a graduate of Providence College where he was a Dean's List Student, an Academic All-American basketball player, and the Most Valuable Player in the National Initiation Tournament. He was the last player cut by the world champion Boston Celtics in 1964. In 2000, he was voted South Boston's Greatest Athlete of the Century and one of the best all around high school athletics to come out of Boston. Following a tour of duty in the U.S. Army, he worked as a teacher, coach and probation officer before entering politics. Flynn has written two inspiring books. His first book, a best seller, The Accidental Pope,(which he wrote with author Robin Moore) published by St. Martins Press. The second book is a non-fiction, John Paul II, The Pope and The Man. ,( He has written many articles for national publications. Flynn has a Masters Degree in Education from Harvard University and an honorary doctorate degree from a number of institutions of higher learning.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/author\/rflynn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}