I wasn’t expecting this much from the Democratic National Convention but I was as inspired as I was completely horrified by Donald Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention. So the Dems had a very low bar to hurdle and they did it in spades, cheering and shedding tears for President Joe Biden after the heartfelt introduction by his daughter. The voices of many from across this country chanted for Joe Biden and even gave former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a long-standing ovation — an ovation that lasted so long that she could hardly start her speech.
To see the difference between the two conventions, all one needed to do was to look at the
pictures of who was in attendance.
At the RNC, it was mostly White, mostly older people who came out to have a grudge match with Biden and the libs. It seemed like a replay of every past Trump rally you’ve ever tried not to watch. On the other hand, the DNC looked as if Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Push Coalition had taken over the Democratic party and partied as they did it. The progressive Dems have turned the party and perhaps Biden himself away from the neo-liberalism of the Ronald Reagan years of trickle-down economics that have dominated both politics and the economy ever since.
Columnist Thom Hartmann wrote after day one of the DNC:
As we stand at the edge of the end of the Reagan Revolution, an end signaled by one
particular phrase in President Biden’s speech early in his presidency he said, “We need to remember the government isn’t some foreign force in a distant capital. No, it’s us. All of us. We, the people.”
You will remember that Reagan was the antidote to all of the political unrest during the civil
rights movement and the Vietnam War. As Hartmann writes:
The Republican/Conservative “solution” to the “crisis” that these movements represented was put into place in 1981. The explicit goal of the so-called Reagan Revolution was to take the middle class down a peg and end the protests and social instability. And to fight the American unions, lowering the wages of the working classes.
Trumpism and the MAGA extremists are just attempting to continue the stalling of a future that was foretold in the 1960s but is now being carried on by the children and grandchildren of the baby boomers who are fed up with the decline of the American middle class, with the attack on labor unions and average working-class people. It’s a vision of We the People taking back the government from Wall Street bankers and right-wing corporations.
Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times wrote, “I can’t decide if it was AOC’s barnburner
speech, Shawn Fain’s lambasting Trump as a scab or the women who spoke so bravely about the anguish [on] Republican abortion bans inflicted on them,” that has impacted me the most. All of this and much more made the first night memorable. Especially as President Joe Biden took the stage. Contrary to all previous media reports saying he is not capable and is too frail, mentally impaired, or feeble, he stood up and gave one of his most memorable speeches which was both forceful and human.
Frankly, it was a courageous comeback from the so-called June debate. And it was an accurate attack on Trump that shows he’s still on top of his game and that it is the Trumpster who was not prepared for a reality TV show like this one.
Not only was he not prepared for this strong showing but the pivot from Biden to Kamala
seems to have disoriented the entire Republican game plan based on bashing Biden.
Even the electoral map seems to be turning in Vice President Kamala Harris’ favor with the
key northern battleground states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania favoring blue over red — just those three states get her to the 270-finish line to win. But wait! Nevada, Arizona and possibly Georgia are now toss-ups and the enthusiasm from Chicago just might last long enough for the Harris/Walz team to end up with over 300 electoral votes to crush any kind of Trump comeback.
Okay, this isn’t going to happen all by itself, but the wind blowing from the progressive forces behind Harris is filling the sails of the Democratic boat with only the protestors of the war in Gaza standing in the way. Which Sen. Bernie Sanders acknowledged this in his speech on the second night, calling for an end of the war in Gaza, a return of the hostages and an immediate cease fire. The audience roared their approval to him. This is of course why the Biden administration is pushing so hard for a cease-fire now and not after the election. If that were to happen and the Federal Reserve were to lower the interest rates before the election this just might be the trifecta of circumstances for a Harris/Walz landslide victory. We can only hope.
What’s the difference you might ask? Well if you look at both conventions, the Republicans
are full of grievance and fear messages and the Kamala campaign is selling hope and freedom. She says quite eloquently, “We aren’t going back” as she talks of women’s reproductive rights, and using the old union slogan, “When we fight, we win” is just the right message for the new rainbow coalition to get behind and work to accomplish.
In the final analysis, Joe Biden is far from finished as the elder statesman and current president of the United States of America, he has shown himself to be effective, courageous, capable and admired by the majority as a true patriot and not a twice impeached convicted felon who is just trying to stay out of jail.