The GOP convention is currently going on full blast in Cleveland despite the controversy and outright craziness that preceded it. Everybody expects it to be weird, really weird. And not only because Republicans are always strange creatures, but also because many in this year’s cast of characters would fit better in a nuthouse than in a political gathering where –perish the thought-- the future four years of the nation could be decided.

Everybody knows that Donald Trump is a racist and vulgar narcissist, whose ignorance in political matters is only matched by his penchant for bombastic yet empty declarations of the Make-America- Great kind. Just imagining that this vacuous showman could become President is enough to give you a very bad case of the creeps.

As if to make things even weirder, Trump chose Mike Pence, the governor of Indiana as his running mate, someone as widely hated as himself. Things did not get off on the right foot for the disgraceful couple, with a Trump/Pence logo that comically suggested a sexual act. Of course, social media had a field day.

Trump’s new lapdog is scheduled to speak on Wednesday, one day before his boss addresses the convention attempting to look “presidential,” and not as the pathological liar he is. Pence may be an all-around political disgrace, but at least he has one redeeming quality: he is sure to alienate many more Latino voters, shrinking Trump’s chances even more.

An ultra-rightist politician, his opposition to the rights of workers and the LGBT community is well known, not to mention his viciousness when dealing with issues related to immigration.

“Mike Pence has repeatedly voted to deprive undocumented immigrants, the LGBT community, women and the poor of their civil rights,” Kika Matos, of the Washington-based

Center for Community Change Action told La Opinión.

He certainly has. In 2009, Pence supported a bill –which didn’t prosper-- to deprive children born in this country to undocumented parents of the U.S. nationality.

Trump’s running mate also added Indiana to the federal lawsuit against Obama's November 2014 executive actions that stopped the application of DAPA-DACA and left 5 million immigrants in limbo.

While the Democratic platform is the most progressive in the history of the party, the Republican one is the exact opposite. It calls for building a wall between Mexico and the U.S., rejects every right earned by the LGBT community, supports deporting 11 million immigrants and even calls for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country.

Not surprisingly, a recent poll by Univisión revealed that Clinton holds a 48 point advantage over Trump with Hispanic voters, and that 73% of Latino voters who participated in the poll think the Republican standard bearer is “racist.”

Certainly not good news for the Trump/Pence ticket and the Republican Party, but wonderful for immigrants, Latinos, African-Americans, women, the LGBT community, working people and every sane person across the U.S.