For us, the GOP convention is a shocking horror show. But what is the average American seeing?

[Silent3]

There's much crazier, nastier shit going on at the GOP convention than mere plagiarism, but I don't get much sense yet that the so-called "liberal media" is doing much to convey the extreme ugliness and insanity of this event to the general public.

Just ho-hum, matter-of-fact, hey, the GOP is having their big shindig this week, tune in next week for the Democratic convention.

[fun n serious]

1. They don't know how to respond

It's shocking.

[major debacle]

2. We ARE the average American

[Silent3]

3. I wish!

It's scary that the race could be this close, even before this the hatefest in Cleveland.

[major debacle]

5. Yeah...

... sometimes I think I would be better off watching reruns of Green Acres for the next four months.

[yeoman6987]

11. Only 22 million watched the first night and 18 million watched the second night

That is from all channels showing it. So most Americans don't get the full effect at all.

[RandiFan1290]

14. Most will only hear about the plagiarism

The lies about the plagiarism.

The campaign finance violation.

The death threats that the Secret Service have to investigate.

Not looking good for Don the Con. I just hope the trolls will be here on election night when he loses.

[oberliner]

4. I doubt many of them are watching

Probably just a few highlight clips.

The Trump people think Trump is great. The non-Trump people think he is nuts. Everyone pretty much has their own problems to worry about.

[Silent3]

8. In a normal world, the "highlights" of this travesty would be enough to sink Trump

The conventions, even if the average person isn't watching much more than highlights, are when many of the voters who didn't pay attention during the primaries finally start to tune into a presidential election.

If this convention is what voters are first tuning into, AND if the media weren't doing their very best to "normalize" the GOP, downplaying the mainstreaming of the formerly fringe far-right elements of the party, Trump's candidacy would be sinking like a rock.

Unfortunately I'm beginning to feel like the best I can hope for is that Trump simply doesn't get a post-convention bump, perhaps suffers a small single-digit poll drop, after a convention which should be utterly destroying him.

[RonniePudding]

6. I don't think the "lock her up" stuff plays well outside of the hall.

To people who are not passionate about politics AKA a large swath of the electorate.

[jcgoldie]

9. Plays well to rednecks

In red parts of a lot of states. I live in rural Illinois. We will be reliably blue every time thanks to Chicago but I see those stupid "Hillary for prison" signs already on farms along the highway.

[RonniePudding]

12. Right

But they've been conditioned to vote R for decades so already baked into the cake.

[Thrill]

7. Comes off as very hateful

Offering no solutions. Just mean insults. But whatever

[Silent3]

10. It does come of as hateful, but I'm afraid merely hateful is just ho-hum now

At least when it comes from the GOP, hateful has been normalized. Democrats couldn't get away with anything like this, but the public and the media seem ready to accept almost anything from the GOP.

[Wednesdays]

13. I'd say the "Average American" is clueless

about what's going on, except for things that grab huge headlines, and/or provide material to the late night comedians. The plagiarized speech, for example. It's only political junkies like us who watch all speeches and proceedings with bated breath. Case in point: it was extremely hard for me to find gavel-to-gavel coverage on TV without relying on cable (I finally did find it, on ABC News New Digital, available via Roku).

[Ex Lurker]

15. To be honest, people who aren't political junkies aren't paying attention yet nt

[Cosmocat]

16. They are both the same

Any reasonably sane person paying attention can clearly see how god awful republicans are and flat reject them. This is about 40 percent of us.

About 40 percent of are hopelessly lost.

The 20 percent in the "middle" either have some innate "right" leanings or have a bias toward the bullshit narrative that "they are both the same" which is a standard deflection Republicans use constantly to excuse the never ending crazy ass shit they do, and the media knowingly, gleefully spew to sully democrats, and the mushy headed dolts in tgis country lap up.