Impression of Julian Castro's Use of G-MA At Demo. Convention

First I really, really don't want this to be a thread about the political race. We all know how south that will go within a matter of a few posts. What I want to do is ask a question about something that bothered me. Julian Castro, the Mayor of San Antonio decided to start his speech at the Democratic Convention by talking about his Grandmother. That's nice enough. It's manipulative but I can live with that manipulation because every politician does it. But he went a little further.

As he was talking about his Grandmother a live camera feed of his Grandmother was shown to the audience but at the convention and to the broadcast audience. She just sat there as Julian talked about how great she was and etc. etc. etc. This felt a little overly manipulative. I can't quite put a finger on it but the nature of this arrangement required him to tell his Grandmother to sit in front of a camera, be shown to millions of people, and just sit there. And the end of this arrangement, its entire function, was to manipulate the audience by informing their opinion of Castro and his political affiliation. Very little of the motivation for this whole thing felt like it was designed to honor his Grandmother. I can't quite explain why this is though. Maybe it's because it's a Democratic Convention. The whole point of this convention is to sell the Democratic party. So lets throw in Grandma's trials and tribulations to show how great we are? It just felt crass to me.

What about the rest of you? Am I crazy or overly sensitive or did some of you feel the same way?

EDIT: Apparently it was his Mother. Heh, oops.

The only good Julian is Casablanca Julian.

There's a director in a production truck somewhere that chooses what shots are up and for how long. Keeping grandma up on screen for so long probably wasn't Julian Castro's idea.

@Muerthoz said:

There's a director in a production truck somewhere that chooses what shots are up and for how long. Keeping grandma up on screen for so long probably wasn't Julian Castro's idea.

Yeah, I get that. I'm not necessarily saying that this issue that I took is entirely on Castro. It was just the whole thing, no matter who is to blame, that bothered me.

I do think you're being overly sensitive. Talking about relatives growing up and how your family came from nothing is like politics 101. It's a base appeal to emotion, and I would prefer any politician stick more to policy than wasting time on this kind of stuff. But its no where near the grossest thing some politicians do. It's orders of magnitude better than some of the manipulations used today (or last week specifically).

@Puddlesworth said:

I do think you're being overly sensitive. Talking about relatives growing up and how your family came from nothing is like politics 101. It's a base appeal to emotion, and I would prefer any politician stick more to policy than wasting time on this kind of stuff. But its no where near the grossest thing some politicians do. It's orders of magnitude better than some of the manipulations used today (or last week specifically).

Like I said in the OP, discussing the relative is one thing. Having her sit there like an ornament while he talks about her to his gain is another.

A politician did something you find unethical?

@Brodehouse said:

A politician did something you find unethical?

I know! Crazy right?

@JasonR86 said:

@Puddlesworth said:

I do think you're being overly sensitive. Talking about relatives growing up and how your family came from nothing is like politics 101. It's a base appeal to emotion, and I would prefer any politician stick more to policy than wasting time on this kind of stuff. But its no where near the grossest thing some politicians do. It's orders of magnitude better than some of the manipulations used today (or last week specifically).

Like I said in the OP, discussing the relative is one thing. Having her sit there like an ornament while he talks about her to his gain is another.

First of all that was his mother, he mentioned in the speech that his grandmother had died. He also doesn't control the cameras, as someone mentioned earlier.

So yeah, no offense dude, but I think you're just inventing a controversy here. When he talked about his family during the speech do you really think the cameras should have ignored his family sitting right there? They have to cut to the audience to keep speeches on TV interesting, they were literally the only relevant people in the audience during those parts of the speech.

@Puddlesworth said:

@JasonR86 said:

@Puddlesworth said:

I do think you're being overly sensitive. Talking about relatives growing up and how your family came from nothing is like politics 101. It's a base appeal to emotion, and I would prefer any politician stick more to policy than wasting time on this kind of stuff. But its no where near the grossest thing some politicians do. It's orders of magnitude better than some of the manipulations used today (or last week specifically).

Like I said in the OP, discussing the relative is one thing. Having her sit there like an ornament while he talks about her to his gain is another.

First of all that was his mother, he mentioned in the speech that his grandmother had died. He also doesn't control the cameras, as someone mentioned earlier.

So yeah, no offense dude, but I think you're just inventing a controversy here. When he talked about his family during the speech do you really think the cameras should have ignored his family sitting right there? They have to cut to the audience to keep speeches on TV interesting, they were literally the only relevant people in the audience during those parts of the speech.

Oh, heh. I was eating at the time when I saw the video so I only half heard. I could have swore it was his grandmother. And as I told the guy who mentioned the producer controlling the camera shots, I'm not saying Castro is necessarily to blame for me being uncomfortable with this whole thing. I'm simply commenting on what I felt was crass and wondering what the rest of the GB community thought.

If you don't feel as I did then awesome dude. But don't assume the motivations for my posts on here. I'm not trying to create a controversy. I'm commenting on my reaction to what I saw.

lol I thought you were talking about the Governor of MAssachusetts at first, some sort of stupid romney thing.

nah, that's not overly manipulative. just plainly so.

could be worse... could be talking about joe the plumber and somehow turn a random plumber into a "celebrity"....

get it? get it? republicans.....

@tunaburn said:

could be worse... could be talking about joe the plumber and somehow turn a random plumber into a "celebrity"....

get it? get it? republicans.....

Ohh Joe the Plumber. Jesus Christ.

Politicians pandering and manipulating for their own ends. This is nothing new, sadly.

Is anyone a fan of The West Wing?? All I could think of was this guy is Matt Santos.