Harold Meyerson, editor of The American Prospect and a prominent spokesman for the American left, explains here what he liked and did not like about the second day of the Democratic National (virtual) Convention.
I loved Bernie Sanders’ speech on the first night. I loved the roll call on the second night. In a usual convention, the roll call is a succession of politicians making political statements and announcing their state’s votes in a huge hall where people are milling around and no one is listening. This year, almost every state represented itself in an iconic setting, and the speakers were mostly regular people, not big-name politicians. The speaker in Kansas was a farmer in his fields, worried about the future. The speaker in Arizona was a teacher wearing a Red for Ed T-shirt, talking about the need to fund our schools. You really got a sense of the wonderful breadth and diversity of our country by watching the roll call. It was actually thrilling.
Meyerson wrote:
Unconventional: The Democrats, Day Two
If the first night of this year’s Democratic National Sort-Of Convention was all about Donald Trump’s disgraceful and aberrant presidency, night two was all about Joe Biden’s rooted normality.
Those roots were white working class—now a term almost interchangeable with Trump’s base, and tinged with assumptions of white tribalism and racism. Not so the Biden version of white working class-ness, however, and this more benign identity was a theme that was artfully woven through the night’s session.
The theme also expanded to include Biden’s embrace of the universal working class, with Joe talking with and sharing the concerns of a cross section of Americans fearful of losing their health insurance, which yet may prove his most potent point of contrast with Trump and the Republicans come November (as it was for Democrats in 2018). But looking at Hillary Clinton’s devastating and decisive failure to carry Bidenland in 2016—Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, home of a multiracial working class, of which the white section largely voted for Trump—Biden’s advisers made the obvious but still smart decision to plunk him down where he came from. On Tuesday night, he was the kid from Scranton who’s suffered more than his share of tragedy but always kept on punching (or as Jill Biden said, squaring his shoulders and going out to meet the world).
And it wasn’t just Biden. The roll call of the states, which was far better than its convention-hall predecessors, not only because of the visuals but because it wasn’t dominated by bloviating mid-level pols, featured more than a smattering of working-class Americans. There was the woman who worked in a Nebraska meatpacking plant who noted that she and her co-workers weren’t afforded paid sick leave, and asserted, “We’re human beings; we’re not robots; we’re not disposable.” There was the Missouri bricklayer and the Ohio worker wearing his IBEW union T-shirt who flatly declared, “Under Trump, working people end up getting screwed.”
The roll-call participants were anything but monochromatic; those from Maryland positioned themselves by an oversized bust of Frederick Douglass. But the contrast with Hillary Clinton’s 2016 convention couldn’t have been clearer. I remember noting it at the time but failed to realize how it portended her coming defeat, but that convention lacked any speakers who were working-class whites. Clinton’s convention showcased Democratic social liberalism; Biden’s, so far, has showcased a more class-based economic liberalism.
Yes, Monday’s session affirmed its support for Black Lives Matter, but both nights have highlighted the economic contrasts with contemporary Republicanism, of which Trump is merely the reductio ad absurdum. And it emphasized the access-to-health-care contrast, which runs along the race and class lines, and in a time of pandemic is the kind of contrast that can decide an election.
The foreign-policy section, with notables rightly pointing out that Trump’s policy, to the limited extent he has one, basically amounts to his expressions of admiration for leaders even more thuggish than he, was obligatory, but isn’t going to change many votes. What will change or solidify some votes is the image of Biden as a normal, decent, hard-working guy—three qualities no one has ever invoked to describe Donald Trump. What will change or solidify some votes is the knowledge that Biden respects and works within established democratic norms, as Trump does not. And these are all among the reasons that not only Republicans but also Bernie leftists are going to vote for Biden, because the left knows its vision depends on a functioning, and flourishing, democracy…
I’m fine with the airtime given to Republicans; I just wish there were more given to the left pole of the front. The millennials and Gen Zers who are transforming the Democratic Party into a more social democratic party have been underrepresented at this convention, and the 17 youngish keynoters who whizzed through the speed-dating version of a keynote address on Tuesday night lacked the time to establish their own generation’s politics, or, in fact, whether they actually identified with it. (As none of the keynoters had endorsed Bernie Sanders for president, there’s some question as to just how representative they are.) So the task of representing the new left fell to AOC and a dying Ady Barkan, but there are lots more where those two stalwarts come from, if the Biden folks just go looking. (The ever remarkable Barkan managed to endorse Medicare for All without actually saying the words.)
That said, the thematic emphasis the convention has put on matters of race and class is not only smart positioning but lays down markers that the young left and their elders should endeavor to hold Biden to, should he be elected. Biden’s long career has been marked by draconian crime legislation, solicitude to banks, and other normal political stances of the Reagan years, but Biden understands that those days are done, and the party’s ascendant left must ensure that they’re dead and buried. The Normal Joe persona is a valuable asset in this doctrinal transformation; it recasts the party’s newfound (or newly re-found) progressivism as Normal Joe’s concern for the average guy and gal.
I must close with my favorite moment of the night, a combination of convention hokum, the roll call’s remote locations, and, yes, average folks’ normality. It came when the roll call reached Rhode Island, and we were transported to a shot of two guys standing by the seashore, one of them holding a plate or dish of something tan with something red on top of it. The speaker, as is the custom, extolled the state and its Democratic governor and its favorite products, among which he mentioned calamari. At which point it became clear that what the other guy was holding was a platter of fried calamari topped with dip.
How better to symbolize a convention yearning for normality, marketing its nominee as Mr. Normal, than to promise us a bright future filled with fried calamari?
~ HAROLD MEYERSON
The American Prospect, Inc., 1225 I Street NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20005, United States
Fried calamari in every pot? LOL. Funny.
Fried calamari should never be put in a pot, Bob. It’ll get soggy, which defeats the whole purpose. Harold correctly noted “platter.” But I’d put the dip on the side, not on top. Nothing worse than mushy fried calamari. Well, maybe few things. Like the lard of the Idiot that we have to confront every freaking day. Or the loss of freedom, human rights and basic dignity. But badly prepared and served calamari is close. After all, we are not barbarians…yet.
Greg, You are right about fried calamari.
Having lived in New England for 25 years, Greg, I entirely concur.
The calamari line was funny, but seriously, the highlight of the night was not Rhode Island, but Dr Biden in her classroom talking about teaching. There’s something about the nation’s second lady —lady, lady teaching while her husband was Vice President that makes me proud and inspired.
I agree! Jill Biden demonstrated what is so wonderful about teachers. And it is revealing that she chose to talk from an empty classroom.
Agreed
I agree. The idea of her teaching 15 hours while she had other duties and responsibilities–I did not know about this until last night–really impressed me. I couldn’t do that in my insignificant life. Melanoma stripped and posed for pictures, made nebulous pacts to get citizenship for herself and her parents while marrying for money and faux privilege. Jill raised a family that was in crisis, maintained an honorable career, and was honorable and authentic throughout. Or as her detractors will say, com si com sa. I don’t agree with all that Joe has done in his life, but Jill confirms my deep impressions: he is not an ideologue, he listens, he may make mistakes, but he won’t do so because of cynical considerations, especially since he understands, like every president before the Idiot, the burdens and responsibilities of duty to the nation.
Great speeches last night by Kerry and Powell. I hope that these both get a lot of replay.
From Kerry’s remarks:
Donald Trump inherited a growing economy and a more peaceful world, and like everything else he inherited, he bankrupted it. When this president goes overseas, it isn’t a goodwill mission. It is a blooper reel. He breaks up with our allies and writes love letters to dictators. America deserves a president who is looked up to, not laughed at. Donald Trump pretends Russia did not attack our elections, and now he does nothing about Russia putting a bounty on our troops. He will not defend out country. He doesn’t know how to defend our troops. The only person he is interested in defending is himself.
Yeah, I get very inspired by the guy who lied to the UN to get us into Iraq. Makes my heart swell with pride in America.
I am not a fan of Kerry. I liked the speech.
Bob,
I think this comment reflects what I was trying to explain below.
There are people who will be upset that a “warmonger” like Colin Powell got speaking time, and say that it is the democrats who are “warmongers”, not Republicans. There are people who think that John Kerry’s boring delivery was one of the worst things of the night.
I personally didn’t find Kerry and Powell’s speech as great as you did, but that’s okay! That doesn’t give me the right to pronounce that they were terrible speeches that show how terrible the DNC is. But I have no doubt that there are some secret Trump supporters who are now repeating the meme started by right wing propagandists that Biden and the dems are “warmongers” because Kerry and Powell spoke.
The people who believe they are smarter than everyone else and know which speakers are evil and which ones are acceptable act enough like Trump supporters to make me think they are.
We don’t have to agree on which speakers were important or moving. We just have to agree that it was perfectly fine to have different speakers who appealed to different concerns that different Americans might prioritize.
That is democracy. And that is what this election is about.
^^^and, at 3:50pm, our regular Trump defender on here posted the right wing talking points calling Colin Powell a “warmonger”. Because Trump lackey Peter Navarro used it so it must be amplified by those who hate all Democrats and oddly, believe the Mueller report totally exonerated Trump. After all, if you believe Peter Navarro, you probably believe anything William Barr says, also.
Colin Powell is a Republican, but I take your point that judging the world and the actions of others through one narrow lens is less than constructive.
I thought AOC did a fine job seconding Bernie’s nomination. She was originally given one minute to speak, but progressives protested to what they considered a snub, and AOC was given enough time to praise Bernie’s inclusive agenda and all the work he has done for the working people.
I really don’t understand the nitpicking about the convention by people like Meyerson. I consider myself progressive, but I strongly disagree that whatever Meyerson decides offends his own (supposedly progressive white male) sensibilities is bad and everything that appeals to his own (progressive white male) sensibilities is good.
As long as people vote for the democrat because they share the same values as Bernie Sander and want to move the country in a progressive direction instead of moving it to a racist, autocratic anti-democratic future, why does it matter if the different PRIORITIES that all those people have are not exactly the same?
I don’t like Chuck Schumer, but so what? He isn’t evil and he got a few minutes to talk about things that OTHER people who also support a more progressive future might care about. Other people may not be fans of Bernie Sanders, but so what? He got time to talk about the things that different people who support a more progressive future care about.
Democracy is about recognizing that people who share the same values may have different ideas about how to achieve those values, but those people have a lot more in common with one another than people who believe they should be able to order “lesser” folks around because they are superior in thinking and know better. That is the Republican party. The few people on the left who also believe that they should be able to order “lesser” folks to do what they want have a lot in common with Trump, but fortunately, people like Bernie Sanders and AOC recognize that they share values with other democrats, even when they have differences of opinions on how to get there.
The democrats may seem to have diverse views because it has become the only party of democracy, while the Republicans are the neofascist party.
This election is about destroying a neo-fascist party that is now being viewed as so mainstream, that the regular old democracy offered by the democrats is considered “radical”.
I wish they’d let Amber Ruffin speak:
Brilliant! Thanks for posting!
I always forget to watch Seth Meyers. When I do, I think he comes closest to doing what Jon Stewart did (which I still think is the only reason Obama won) — calling out the hypocrisy of not just Trump and the far right Republicans, but also calling out the hypocrisy of the so-called “mainstream liberal media” which has done as much as Mitch McConnell has to normalize and kowtow to Trump and Barr.
Until the mainsteam media is shamed into stopping their “both siderism” that legitimizes the most fascist actions of Trump as simply something that “partisan democrats” don’t like, our country is in grave danger.
Seth’s “A Closer Look” segments are often as good or better than Jon’s commentaries. More understated, but still brilliant. They’re posted on YouTube every night (3-4 times a week, Mon-Thu) about 2 hours before the show.
GregB,
Thanks, I’ll look for those on youtube!
Now, that, Greg, is what I’m talking about.
This is from someone who, despite it all, is still planning to hold his nose and vote Biden (someone whom Diane has posted here before). At least he has the decency to not pretend that there is anything good about the Democrats or this election. Stop p*ssing on me and trying to tell me it’s raining.
https://jacobinmag.com/2020/08/joe-biden-dnc-trump-election-democratic-convention
OMG, are you really saying that there is not “anything good” about electing a president who will do something about climate change, about racism, about Supreme Court Justices, about health care, about science?
I can’t imagine what kind of privileged bubble someone who says “nothing good about the Democrats at all this election” lives in.
If Biden did nothing but repeat Obama’s policies exactly (and it is clear he is planning to be more progressive), including returning to the financial support that the Obama administration gave to charters, that would still be something good compared to what we have now.
It’s like saying “nothing good will come out of Hitler being deposed from German leadership”. That might be arguably true if you were an Aryan and the notion that 6 million Jews weren’t exterminated means “nothing good” to you.
If you are truly planning to hold your nose and vote for Biden, I’m glad. But there is no need for you to repeat right wing propaganda endlessly. Having a return to the Obama years is extremely good when the alternative — as Bernie Sanders made clear — is a country that might not make an iota of difference to privileged white folks who only think of themselves, but would be better for many, many people.
By the way, do you think it is “DECENT” to say “I felt good hearing Bernie Sanders talking about raising the minimum wage, but then I remember that Bernie give his stepson a $100,000/year job that he wasn’t qualified for and arranged for his wife to get a huge payout after she bankrupted her college, and I knew that Bernie Sanders was pissing on me and trying to tell me it was raining. Because when you try to tell me something good about Bernie Sanders, I will stick my fingers in my ear and say “na na na he took charitable money to pay his stepson $100,000 year, he’s just like Trump”.
We don’t think Joe Biden is perfect, just like we don’t think Bernie Sanders is perfect. The difference is that writers like David Sirota have jumped the shark and now mischaracterize the democrats as entirely evil and corrupt, and honest people who may not support Bernie don’t lie and pretend he is entirely evil and corrupt. The only people who lie and mischaracterize Bernie Sanders and AOC the way Sirota mischaracterizes the democrats are Trump and the Republicans.
Friends,
As in 2016, this election is between two people: Trump and Biden.
One of them will be our next president.
There are no third choices.
As much as a pain that I surely am–and I know I am and gladly accept the fact–never have I agreed with you more than now (and I agree the vast majority of the time). The existence of this country has never been more in question since the beginning of the Civil War; I would argue more so because it will not be apparent until it is too late, which it might well be already. And it is very much in question. Anyone who quibbles and minimizes the threat, who tinkers on the ideological edges, who does not understand what you just wrote, does not care about the American experiment no matter how much they do protesteth. It’s as simple and fundamental as can be. And should we lose this election and this nation with it, the naysaying equivocators will be the first to invoke, “I did not speak…therefore…” I’ll provide a short lecture on that topic if needed.
Real progressives aren’t spending their efforts repeating right wing talking points. I have never — even once — heard AOC or Bernie Sanders do so. Given that Biden’s first action was nominating as VP a progressive woman who racial justice advocates like Shaun King have certified has been working hard for them in the Senate, and given that Biden is old enough that the VP pick may very well end up president, I think the rantings and ravings of the very same people who insist the Mueller Report totally exonerated Trump should be marginalized. When they repeat the talking point of the white racists who support Trump, they should be called out as white racists because they are.
Michael Moore is excited about the Kamala Harris pick. It is clear that he has empathy that those who still think Trump did nothing to deserve impeachment sorely lack.
Do you really want to use the “Stop p*ssing on me and trying to tell me it’s raining.” line? You know your Dear Leader loves that stuff. Perhaps you do too?
I loved that state roll call, and the people who participated. It reminded me of what a great country we have, diverse, humorous, hard-working, and beautiful in so many different ways.
Agreed!
Same here. It was refreshing, less hoopla and more substance. It really felt like they tried to include regular folks in their narrative.
BTW Obama speaks tonight from Philly. I am sure there is a reason for him to make his case for Biden from this historic city.
White House’s Peter Navarro today on the DNC convention: “[Democrats] reached back in time to war mongers like Colin Powell … who got embroiled into dragging this country into the worst endless wars of its history… It’s almost like a gift to us.”
Thanks for Trump’s talking points.
You forgot to mention that he called on Americans to boycott Goodyear tires for not allowing employees to wear MAGA hats. First time in history, to my knowledge, that a president has asked the public to boycott an American employer. But then he also urged people to buy Goya products. A regular huckster.
Don’t you think it has to be more than a coincidence that dienne77 specializes in repeating Trump talking points?
All of Colin Powell’s life is summed up in a single word: “warmonger”. Does anyone really believe that Colin Powell’s entire life was only about killing as many innocent people as he could because he loved waging war? But yes, there are really white racists who dismiss Colin Powell as simply a “warmonger”.
No one is surprised that white racist Peter Navarro used the phrase “warmonger”. And I wish I could be surprised that the very same people who wanted to disenfranchise African American voters for not supporting Bernie Sanders in the primary would repeat that racist Trump talking point. But I’m not.
Remember, the racial justice issues that affect African Americans don’t amount to a hill of beans to white folks angry that they aren’t getting exactly what they want immediately (forcing all union members to trade their union health care benefits for Medicare for All) and are “only” getting a Biden administration committed to expanding health care for more Americans, and a public option for all (which is frankly the first step toward Medicare for all who want it.)
Peter “Jared found him on an Amazon search for national policy advice” Navarro. Peter “hydroxychloroquine forever” Navarro. Peter “I know more about medicine than Fauci” Navarro. Peter “every problem in the world can be traced back to communist China” Navarro. Peter “calling women ‘fat pigs,’ ‘dogs,’ ‘disgusting animals'” Navarro. Peter “tariffs über alles, screw the farmers” Navarro. I guess that’s what passes for gravitas these days by the pouting fringe.
Before Peter Navarro self-appointed as an expert (unqualified),
Reuters posted, “The Foot Soldiers in the Trump-Pence Religious Health Movement”. Included in the list, Roger Severino, who formerly worked at the Koch’s Heritage Foundation. He said, “same sex marriage is a threat to religious liberty”. Also included was, Maggie Wynne, who formerly worked for the Knights of Columbus. And, another “foot soldier” is associated with the opinion that “gay marriage is pagan territory”. Trump’s prized medical expert who said devils cause disease also post-dates Reuters’ article.
“same sex marriage is a threat to religious liberty”
As a card-carrying heterosexual who loves his gay friends and neighbors deeply, this hits me hard. The idea that anyone can judge the love of another is so repugnant, so infuriating. It is on this issue alone, there are others, but this one in particular makes me oppose Catholic–and every other so-called religious–doctrine.
An article in Steel Magnificat (8-3-2020) sheds light on Dr. Stella Immanuel’s views (and, the article mentions Steubenville).
Immanuel may be part of the Charismatic Renewal path of Catholicism- really screwed up and bizarre stuff. The author of the article herself learned through the movement and accepted that “fear is piety”- seems like perfect grounding to be a Trump/McConnell voter.
Reportedly, day one of the Republican convention will include the head of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, a group that is neither benign nor non-partisan.
“Working people get screwed”. There is a recent example of that at Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish Wire posted an article about N.D.’s lack of integrity for switching its 2020 football season to the ACC hoping to get a full schedule during the pandemic. The University schemes for greater opportunity to put people at Covid risk, the “working” players and their families and friends, the staff who work the games,… (Protecting life isn’t the goal of the pro-birth fanatics in the Catholic hierarchy, it’s controlling women.) The Wire article asks N.D. to “grow a conscience”.
It’s ironic that Notre Dame education “researchers” contrived a correlation supposedly establishing a link between self discipline and Catholic education. Father John Jenkins, Notre Dame’s President approved the ACC scheme which IMO reflects the opposite of self-discipline. I’m not aware of another example of a university that did what N.D. has done.
It’s (not so) funny. My wife and I watched a news report in the early summer with a rosy interview with ND prez and I remarked to her, this is not going to go well, he’s doing p.r., not paying attention to science or experience. Honestly, I must confess to having a bit of Schadenfreude right now.
Is there a word for the person who feels sorrow at the knowledge that he/she is in a vanguard of witnesses to widespread, impending/unrecognized ruination of society?
Swedes have hundreds of words describing snow, surely, there must be a descriptive word. There’s no consoling power to, “told you so”.
I don’t think there is a better word than Schadenfreude, which is very, very different from “I told you so”, which I find to be very juvenile and shallow. I asked a Swedish friend about your comment and he referred me to this: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/190251/best-etymological-calque-of-the-word-schadenfreude They also have their term for Schadenfreude (the original German is still better 😇). I so hope this is still funny in three months.
Watching Hillary as I write this. She is soooo much better in regretful hindsight.
That’s profound, Linda. Pretty tough to grab any schadenfreude in the pandemic. On the one hand it will be tempting to feel schadenfreude every time the grasping, uncaring Rev.’s at ND get a game cancelled. On the other, cancellation will be caused by community spread in IN or South Bend or right on campus/ in the team– needless illness caused by the opening of in-person classes and sports in a state whose new case ave is 4% higher today than 2 wks ago, & well above its previous peak in May… But stay tuned. ND went into a 2-wk lockdown yesterday after just a week of classes had predictable results. & may end up sending them home…
Then there’s the schadenfreude it’s hard to feel when mask-refusenik states get hit with uncontrolled viral spread. Even if you can manage to feel good about Trump-lovers getting deathly ill, you know that spread can end up in your own back yard.
Greg, nice link. There is an “English” equivalent– Greek-rooted, same meaning– epicaricacy. But it’s not better, just same. And it gets very little usage.
When a Republican voter dies for any. reason, the odds that my grandson can live in a democracy, increase. With Covid deaths, there is a direct link between the incompetence of Trump and their fate.
Have a good night’s ZZZZ, everyone. I know I will, ‘coz I have “My Pillow!”
Are those %#! libruls trying to confiscate our My Pillows? I will hang onto mine kicking & screaming.