At the conclusion of Rob Reiner’s film, “The American President,” Michael Douglas, playing the incumbent President Andrew Shepherd, delivers an impassioned speech about presidential character and the usual tactics and agenda of his Republican opponents.  He describes the agenda as follows:

“They can’t sell it, so their goal is to simply make you afraid and tell you who is to blame. That is how you win elections. You gather a group of middle age, middle class and middle income voters who remember with longing an easier time and then talk of family, American values and character.”

That aptly describes a majority of the speeches at the Republican National Convention. Each began with a scathing indictment of President Joe Biden and blamed him for everything wrong in the country. They then shifted gears to family values and insisted that Donald Trump will address and solve all current problems facing the country.

“Vote for DT and he’ll set you free” could have been the refrain from Trump family members and several elected officials. None of them provided specific solutions for crime or the housing and immigration crises but instead just guaranteed results.  Elected officials spoke of Trump in platitudes, ignoring all of his past transgressions.

At this juncture, it is unclear whether the Democratic platform revealed next month at the convention will also resort to pie in the sky successes with no roadmap to achieve them.  At this point, they don’t even know Vice President Kamala Harris will have as her running mate. That will be determined soon.

One thing, however, is for sure. Voters are fed up with empty promises of grandiose results with no means to achieve them. They have listened to more than enough cheerleader rhetoric at party conventions.  They want the “changes in attitudes and platitudes“  promised in speeches to finally become reality .

Steve Kramer is a former Assistant Attorney General in Massachusetts and author of the new book “Common Sense To Save Democracy.”