When the books come out telling the inside story of the 2024 campaign, I will be very interested to learn who was the mastermind behind constructing the last four days of the Democratic Convention. I would not have thought the Democrats capable of it, but they seem finally to have left Identitarian Politics behind, and moved forward to embrace and celebrate an expansive new definition of what it means to be a proud, patriotic, "real American".
Clearly Kamala Harris played a significant role in it, and that alone signifies that she understands the moment and will be a shrewd, formidable president. I think she could very well be the reconfiguring President that I hoped Obama would be–and that we now truly need her to be. A lot depends on what happens down ballot.
The old Democrats seemed happy to celebrate diversity for the sake of diversity and to look down their noses at any flag waving as a form of crude jingoism. This week we saw a lot of flag waving, but it was a different kind. It was all about a renewed pride in what America could be at its best–not despite its diversity, but because of it. This was not diversity presented in a sanctimonious, ideological DEI idiom, but in a truly patriotic, proud-to-be-American idiom.
Hopefully some time in the future we can look at Trump and MAGA as the moment in our history that forced most Americans to realize that they have something that is really pretty good, and that they were in significant danger of losing it. The problem was that divided Democrats were united only in their saying No to MAGA without defining an alternative to which Americans could say Yes. This week Democrats finally figured out a way to show Americans a way to say Yes. Let's hope enough Americans were watching.
The new Democratic Party is perfectly embodied by the two people at the top of the ticket–a coastal, bi-racial daughter of immigrants and a white, gun-toting football coach from the heartland who both clearly like one another. That's the best thing about both of them–they are likable, normal, down-to-earth people–not their ideologies or their identities. They presented themselves as competent, level-headed normies who want to work together to solve real problems. And the convention did a remarkable job of stressing the humanity, the relatableness, the decency of the broad range of diverse Democrats who were on display these past four days. They stressed how our humanity unites us, not how our identities divide us.
That's maybe the greatest accomplishment of the last week. Because by comparison the Trump/Vance ticket seems deeply un-American, mean-spirited, and yes, just plain weird. The Democrats have in effect taken the American flag away from the Republicans, and left them either to fly one upside down or to choose the Stars and Bars as an alternative. And in taking hold of the flag in the way they did, Democrats pose the question to America: Whose side are you on?
It was really quite deft.
I didn't watch every moment of the the last four days of convention programming, but I watched a lot of it, and I was quite frankly gobsmacked by how interesting so much of it was. The writing in most speeches was very good. There were extremely few speakers who made me roll my eyes, cringe, or who annoyed me. There was little to no grandstanding or, with the exception of an overly long ramble by Bill Clinton, self-absorbed monologues. There were so many good moments, like the Steve Kerr and Raphael Warnock speeches.
The background videos were well written and well produced. The everyday American profiles and interviews of the wide range of diverse Americans were interesting and often quite moving. But clearly the two best moments were the build up to and delivery of Walz's speech on Wednesday and Harris's last night. What a contrast to the Vance and Trump speeches a month earlier. The whole week was so well put together, and so much of it felt organic and real. Sure, there were the predictable formulaic platitudes and talking points you expect to see while watching a political convention, but that was not where the main thrust of the week lay.
As others have pointed out, the GOP convention was more of a coronation than an attempt to persuade undecideds. One of the reasons I thought that the Republicans could not possibly win this cycle was because their convention was as delusional as their nominee. The Republicans participating in it genuinely believed that they were going to win in a landslide after putting on one of the strangest, most alienating displays of everything that makes Republicans so unlikable and unrelatable to Americans who have not joined the MAGA personality cult. It was clear that Republicans felt no need to persuade anybody, that they believed that most Americans were on board with their bizarre vision for what the country should be, and that the righteousness of their cause was so self-evident that all normal Americans would get in line and vote for their ticket. Really? And so many Liberals were afraid of these guys? And still are?
To win, all the Democrats have to do is present a positive alternative vision of American future possibility to contrast with the dark, cramped, mean-spirited insanity that Trump/Vance represents. I believed a Biden/Harris ticket would have found a way to do that, but from what I've seen this past week, if a Harris/Walz ticket doesn't beat them, I truly understand nothing about this country and should probably move to New Zealand.
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