Chris Christie's moment was lurid TV. And utterly unnerving
It’s unlikely Chris Christie will get this much attention again. Or have such sway over a mesmerized crowd.
In the future, he’ll probably turn up on late-night chat shows, all blather and amiability. Some Jimmy, be it Kimmel or Fallon, will josh around about that time he allegedly caused a huge traffic jam as a screw-you to some political opponent or other. It’s inconceivable that Christie would want to josh about that time at the Republican Convention when he incited an angry, frothing throng that was chanting, “Lock her up! Lock her up!”
It was a lurid, livid TV moment. And utterly unnerving. It’s best forgotten, but the images are hard to erase. The point of Christie’s speech was to “prosecute” Hillary Clinton for her alleged crimes. The braying mob was in favour of a witch-burning scenario. One understood instantly how a tin-pot rabble rouser in the town square could incite a mob to ransack homes and burn people at the stake.
On CNN, there was some tut-tutting about the “Lock her up!” chants. Someone on the vast panels that seem mandatory during coverage of this Republican Convention pointed out that, you know, next week during the Democratic Convention, they’re going to “hammer” Donald Trump. That lame assertion seemed to close the matter.
Besides, the braying mob was there to enjoy the moment when Donald Trump went from “presumptive” to actual Republican candidate. And to enjoy some more speeches from members of the Trump clan. The “Lock her up!” mob doesn’t particularly care about the originality of such speeches, one suspected, no matter what the media says.
Full Article - http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/television/john-doyle-at-the-rnc-the-only-coherence-is-the-incoherence-of-anger/article31015326/