As I follow the Republican National Convention's nightly slanders and imbecilities through reporting or the occasional transcript, they almost always remind me of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's table-turning "Fala speech."
On September 23, 1944, at a Teamsters Union campaign dinner for FDR, this greatest master of political rhetoric was compelled to defend his "little dog Fala" against attacks by Republicans, who, knowing they could not possibly defeat Roosevelt in the upcoming election, had been reduced to this laughable insignificance as a national distraction. (Notice, particularly, Roosevelt's brilliant comedic timing.) The incident was just one of the many origins of the modern GOP, from Fala's canine innocence to Goldwater's "extremism in defense of liberty is no vice" to Trump's 2015 hydrophobia.
Added Roosevelt, "[Fala] hasn't been the same dog since."