Watching the Democratic National Convention last week, especially the speeches by Kamala Harris and Michelle Obama, I felt American politics and culture make more sense to me than they have in many years. I still can’t say I understand exactly why things have gone the way they have, why we have people in our country who think they can get away with saying and doing almost anything because they are inherently better than the rest of us by virtue of their skin color, religion, wealth, gender and inherited social status. But those people were nowhere to be seen at the DNC last week.
It is bountifully clear, however, that the beautifully diverse assembly of Americans in Chicago at the DNC did not choose as their presidential and vice-presidential candidates men who proudly proclaim their superiority as misogynists, racists, homophobes, con men, liars, science deniers and bullies. The assembled at the DNC did not choose weirdly self-indulgent men to lead them, men who are shockingly nasty, smart ass, uncivil and disrespectful, who have alienated themselves from millions and millions of Americans. A deep majority of us still believe that being rude, unkind, abusive, mean spirited and selfish goes against the core values that our parents and teachers instilled in each us every day of our childhoods. The delegates at the DNC did not choose as their leaders people who could level insanely cruel jokes and insinuations at the neurodivergent son of one of their political opponents, like some did aiming at the autistic son of vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz.
When I watched Kamala Harris’s and her longtime friend Michelle Obama’s speeches at the DNC, I realized that something wonderfully different was taking place in our country. As leaders of a cultural and political uprising, they both embody the heart and soul of the American conscience. As courageous and articulate champions of kindness, respect and social justice, they have spent their lives respectfully helping people in need.
What a triumphal contrast they make from the sordid Trumpism that has shamelessly taken over the Republican party. If Trumpists had had their way, these two eloquent and powerful stalwarts of human rights would have been consigned to the dust bins of racism and misogyny when they were little girls and we would never have had the opportunity to be inspired by them.
Vice President Kamala Harris’s acceptance speech performed something close to a political miracle, turning an albeit brilliant but marginal political person into a national image of sanity, empathy, tough-minded savvy, strength and a sense of service that left no doubt about her values and her view of government. I don’t think it’s idealistic to say that she is all about public service, as is President Biden, not about self-interest. When she spoke of her family, she said “they instilled in us the values they personified — community, faith and the importance of treating others as you would want to be treated, with kindness, respect and compassion.”
Her communitarian spirit was empowering and unrestrained. “As a prosecutor, when I had a case, I charged it not in the name of the victim but in the name of ‘The People’ for a simple reason: In our system of justice, a harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us.… And to be clear, my entire career, I have only had one client: ‘The People.’”
In emphasizing her allegiance to the middle class, she called for creating an “opportunity economy,” where “everyone has a chance to compete and a chance to succeed,” where the government will “provide access to capital for small business owners, entrepreneurs and founders.” She said her administration would, “end America’s housing shortage … lower the cost of everyday needs … and protect social security and Medicare,” while Trump would “in effect” enact “a national sales tax — call it a Trump Tax, that would raise prices on middle-class families by almost 4 thousand dollars a year.”
When she spoke of reproductive health, the ovation was deafening. Trump and his allies “would limit access to birth control, ban medication abortion and enact a nation-wide abortion ban with our without Congress. And get this, he plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator and force states to report on women’s miscarriages and abortions. Simply put, they are out of their minds.”
Michelle Obama set the tone early in the convention when she acknowledged that race-baiting and attack ads flogging old conspiracy theories were already being aimed in at Harris, the same vicious nonsense from Trump that plagued the Obamas. “For years, Donald Trump did everything in his power to try to make people fear us. His limited, narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hardworking, successful people who happen to be Black…. It’s his same old con: doubling down on ugly, misogynistic, racist lies as a substitute for real ideas and solutions that will actually make peoples’ lives better.”
Mrs. Obama said of her friend, Kamala Harris, that she “is one of the most qualified people ever to seek office of the presidency. And she is one of the most dignified — a tribute to her mother, to my mother, and probably to your mother too. [She is] the embodiment of the stories we tell ourselves about this country. Her story is your story. It’s my story. It’s the story of the vast majority of American’s trying to build a better life.”
Some people scoffed when she said that “something wonderfully magical is in the air … the exhilaration of once again being on the cusp of a brighter day,” but it rang true to many, many more of us at the DNC and watching it at home. “Kamala Harris is more than ready for this moment,” she said. “Kamala knows, like we do, that regardless of where you come from, what you look like, who you love, how you worship, or what’s in your bank account, we all deserve the opportunity to build a better life.”
Former President Trump, a man who has gone small with all the power he has ever had, is the unabashed stalker, predator and enemy of Kamela Harris and Michelle Obama, these champions of decency and compassion, and the deadly foe of all the people they stand up for and represent. Trump’s misogyny and racism are so vulgar and extreme they’d be a parody of bigotry if it wasn’t all so monstrously serious and dangerous.
A few quotes, as compiled by the International Business Times, will give us a flavor. He’s on record as saying about women, “You have to treat ‘em like shit.” And then there’s his remark about “26,000 unreported sexual assaults in the military — only 238 convictions. What did these geniuses expect when they put men & women together?” Of a political opponent, he said “Look at that face. Would anybody vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president? I mean, she’s a woman, and I’m not s’posedta say bad things, but really, folks, come on, are we serious?”
His racism is just as nauseating. When he began campaigning in 2015 he casually called Mexican immigrants “rapists” who “bring crime” and “ bring drugs” into the country. Later he called for banning all Muslims from crossing our borders. He started off right away in his campaign this year by trying to work another “birther” lie on Vice President Harris, like he did against then-candidate Barak Obama, who he routinely called “lazy,” “unqualified” and “unAmerican.” Those are just the merest crumbs of his racist bigotry.
J.D. Vance, Trump’s running mate, is a hysteric and hateful misogynist too. One quotation is enough. Vance actually said he believed that “the whole purpose of the postmenopausal female” is to raise their grandchildren, thus sweeping under the rug of irrelevancy virtually every politically experienced and powerful older woman in America including, of course, Harris and Obama.
I believe now more strongly than ever that men like Trump and Vance are anathemas to most Americans, women and men. And so it seems not at all unrealistic to expect that if people are paying attention to what’s going on, the diversity of the DNC will encourage more people than ever to vote, enough perhaps
to surpass President Biden’s 7 million vote landslide victory in 2020. And unless the media works a total blackout, or a complete Trump stink out, the nation can’t help but be focused on the optimism, joyous courage and unstoppable energy of Kamela Harris, especially after suffering almost a decade of the down and dirty dumps of the Trumpian national nightmare.
*Nullius in verba: take nobody’s word for it
This is a faithful and beautiful commentary on a Democratic National Convention that displayed more real diversity and intelligence than any convention in my memory. Despite it being skillfully scripted, Michelle Obama’s and Kamala Harris’s speeches offered important substance, as did many others. When compared with Trump’s Republican Party nightmare, it’s like comparing light and dark, promise and devastation. I fervently hope that enough of us will take heed and cast our vote for reason against fascism. For me, the only flaw in those four nights was the conspicuous absence of even one Palestinian voice, a single voice speaking out against one of the worst genocides of my lifetime. Of course the Democrats couldn’t allow that voice, since they have been financing Israel’s war against the Palestinian people for as long as they’ve been in office. Those who are as outraged as I am by this egregious foreign policy must realize that Trump would be much worse, in this and every other respect. We must vote for Harris/Walz and then push them to reevaluate US support of a genocide that would not be possible without our money and arms.
I am going to Europe in a few days, and among my destinations is Bern, Switzerland, the home of a beloved friend whom I haven’t seen in several years. In fact, it was the final year of Trump’s Presidency that I was last there and she gave a dinner party for me that included a wonderful mix of ambassadors, civil servants, animal welfare activists, and her gardener. They were very quiet about American politics and avoided any mention of our obvious dilemma. This was, quite possibly, Marianne’s first boring dinner party.
Finally, I said, “Let’s talk about Trump.” It was like throwing a firecracker onto the table and they all jumped in with remarks of dismay, expressions of sympathy, and troubled perplexity about how our wonderful country could have sunk to this purveyor of vulgarity and lunacy, and how our national impairment was seen as dangerous for Europe. They were surprisingly emotional and visibly upset, it seemed to me, contrary to the usual stereotype of the prudent, taciturn Swiss.
My friend called me last week and said that most people she knew had watched our Democratic convention, either live or on delay. She’s hosting another dinner party, with even some of the same guests as in 2019. I can’t wait to see them all, because they all seemed so genuinely distraught the last time. I hope I can tell them that all will be well in America…..
Thank you for your wonderful write up highlighting some of the great moments from the Democratic convention. I generally find following national politics too depressing, although I’d heard good things about the convention. Your succinct and impassioned write up was a welcome dose of some needed medicine.
WOW!Just wow! So very well said Mr Price. Thank you