In this election, lots of things get said; no one’s opinion gets changed

Americans seem doggedly focused lately on things that matter.

Black lives matter. Blue lives matter. All lives matter.

After watching last week’s GOP convention in Cleveland and the first two days of this week’s Democratic convention in Philadelphia, after hearing crowds break into chants about black and blue and all lives mattering, after listening to former President Bill Clinton spend Tuesday night convincingly outline why his wife’s life story matters, I’m left wondering this: Does anything matter?

I ask that because, when all the scripted passion, outrage, shouting, speechifying, symbolism, exposition, prayer, pontification, exaggeration and prevarication is over, nobody seems to think much differently.

If you hate Hillary Clinton, if you couldn’t care less that she made history Tuesday by becoming America’s first female major-party presidential nominee, Bill Clinton’s meandering love-story-as-political speech didn’t do a thing to change your mind. You probably watched it and then sent out snarky tweets to Twitter followers who largely think the same way you do.

And if you view Donald Trump as a dangerous candidate, there was certainly nothing at last week’s GOP convention that would change your mind. So you probably watched it and sent out snarky tweets, as I did, to Twitter followers who largely think the same way you do.

I realize political conventions have never been good at swaying people from the opposing side. Perhaps there’s hope of piquing the interest of an independent or two, if such an exotic species still exists, but in an election featuring two wildly divisive candidates, kind words are largely spoken to the choirs.

So what are we doing here? Does anything matter? Are we in a place where even a master communicator like Bill Clinton can’t reach people outside his ideological orbit?

I’d say yes, which is a shame. We live in a time when every point has a counterpoint.

As the words “black lives matter” were first uttered, they were met with shouts of “blue lives matter” and “all lives matter.”

A television pundit praises Hillary Clinton and another is standing by to call Clinton a liar. Same with Trump; every pro met with a con, staged conflict masquerading as balance.

There’s The Huffington Post for the left and the Drudge Report for the right, Fox News and MSNBC, liberal Twitter hashtags and conservative Twitter hashtags.

I can say that Bill Clinton expertly detailed the wealth of his wife’s experience and showed the real woman behind what he called the “cartoon” her political foes have sketched. And people who don’t like Hillary Clinton will respond by calling me a shill for the Democratic Party, or worse.

That’s what happens in a world where people describe those who detail factual information as “liberal fact-checkers” or, as Trump described them during a Monday night speech in North Carolina, “these fact-checkers that are all on the very far left.” As if reality bends to the whims of ideological biases.

How can you convince anybody of anything if they don’t believe in things that are true?

The business of political persuasion is tough right now. It’s an age of hard-headedness – go ahead, point the finger at me, I’ve got it coming – a time when a guy who could charm the quills off an angry porcupine can’t convince people his wife is more than just some absurd caricature.

I thought Bill Clinton did an admirable job making the case for Hillary Clinton. But a lot of people last week thought Trump’s children did an admirable job making the case for him.

Which brings me back to my original question: When everyone thinks that what they believe – and only what they believe – matters, does anything matter at all?

Rex Huppke is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune.