esquire.com – CLEVELAND, OHIO—There are no available intellectual metrics to measure what was thrown across the stage in Cleveland Monday night.

I’m not talking about Scott Baio or whatever Duck Dynasty guy that was. I’m not talking about Marcus Luttrell, or the meretricious Benghazi video, or the two 13 Hours guys, whose account of the attack went on slightly longer than does the Iliad. Or even the rapturous ovation that greeted David Clarke, the gun-nutty Democratic sheriff from Milwaukee. (“I’d like to make something very clear. Blue Lives Matter in America!”) Or even the loud applause that greeted his invocation of the acquittal of another one of the Baltimore police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray. That’s the kind of thing that happens at every convention, at certain times louder than at others.