After the RNC Convention, talking heads are buzzing about so much nonsense. Picking apart little divisions within the party. Fly poop out of pepper stuff. Eating our own.

Let’s take a step back. While we’re busy being worried about the pomp and circumstance of the formal process, what is the other side is up to? It can help us see the “Big Picture”.

A Tale of Two Parties. Where better to see their stark difference than their leadership conventions?

Forget speeches and policies. Just look at the guest lists. That one difference tells you everything to you really need to know about each party. There is going to be hype and hyperbole in the speeches. But the one place their true colors come through that guest list. Intentional or not, values drive those choices.

Who are the people on the guest lists? Besides the predictable political insiders?

For the Republicans, Marcus Luttrell spoke. So did Pat Smith. We heard from Mary Ann Mendoza, Sabine Durden, & Jamiel Shaw. We heard from David A Clarke Jr.

Their stories highlight what Republicans call important. Marcus Luttrell — Navy Seal. Pat Smith — Gold Star mother of murdered Benghazi ambassador Sean Smith. Mary Ann Mendoza, Sabine Durden and Jamiel Shaw — each a grieving mother of children killed by illegal immigrants. David A Clarke Jr. is Milwaukee County Sheriff who doesn’t think the “Thin Blue Line” should describe a Funeral Procession.

In their usual “unbiased reporting”, CNN chose those grieving mothers’ speeches as the best time to take a station break.

(In a graphic, CNN described the mothers whose speeches they had omitted as having been “affected by undocumented immigrants”. That’s a little like saying the Twin Towers and Pentagon were “affected by mass transit”.)

A quick glance over that list reminds the voters about the courage of those who defend the national interests abroad and at home, as well as examples of obvious failures of the current administration to safeguard citizens abroad or at home. These were not mere failures, but refusal either to do the right thing, or to admit and learn from error.

Contrast that to the Democrats guest list.

• One is the mother of that guy who was shot dead while slamming someone’s head into a curb. Trayvon something. I hear he looks like a President’s son.
• Another is the mother of the famous “gentle giant” (also dead) famous for stealing from a convenience store and giving us the forensically disproven “hands up don’t shoot” BS.
• Will any of Chicago’s 300(+) 2016 fatalities be remembered in these speeches? Nope. Progs like petty thugs for their political martyrs. They threw in a few others besides these to round out the list.

These are the names energizing a movement — a movement demonstrating its deep love for the democratic process by blocking highways, chucking rocks, and lobbing piss-bombs at police officers.

One party celebrates proud traditions: Duty. Honor. Courage. And when it is angry, that anger is against injustices. Injustices involving politicians who put private political agendas above the safety of citizens and diplomats.

Their Side? They specialize in race-baiting. Division. Blame-shifting. They are known for recycling disproven propaganda and lies.

One party honored mothers mourning children killed by people who should never have been in America in the first place.

The other leveraged “children” with rap sheets to galvanize a grievance group.

Do you even need the Debates to know who is who?