One week ago we were treated to a never-ending litany of “WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!1!”, interspersed with “private server!” We could ask, who cares about some private server if we are all going to die? But hey, we didn’t need to ask questions, just shut up and be told about our imminent doom from this hellhole called America. It was dark, bloody, cynical, and very, very white and male.
Tonight?
The rhetoric was inspiration, soaring, inspiring, and hopeful. Corey Booker started dry, ended a powerhouse. Michelle Obama gave the best speech of her career, one full of amazing speeches. Elizabeth Warren was amazing, like always. Bernie Sanders was the constructively progressive champion so many of us hoped would transform into.
We crammed more big-time powerhouse surrogates in one day than the Republican convention managed in an entire week.
But it wasn’t just about the big names, it was about showcasing our party’s deep diversity, it was about not-famous champions, like little 11-year-old Karla Ortiz, pleading for an America in which her parents didn’t live under threat of deportation, and Anastasia Somoza, on her wheelchair, wondering how anyone could be as heartless and cruel as Donald Trump. It was Sarah Silverman, über Sanders supporter, lashing out at the boorish assholes doing Donald Trump’s work for him, inside the convention hall.
It was about a party that could stick to its theme, “Unity Together” tonight. Yes, those few assholes, reportedly from my state’s delegation (California), cast a pall on proceedings, giving the chattering class reason to talk about a “divided” party. But let them talk. A few overly privileged cranks don’t represent our party.
This is my party. This is our party. This is America’s party. We are everybody, and we were all represented in that hall tonight, and on stage. I am filled with pride and purpose. I can’t wait for what tomorrow will bring.
Tuesday, Jul 26, 2016 · 3:35:36 AM +00:00
·
Mark Sumner
The difference between this first night of the DNC and any night of the RNC was inestimable. Anyone watching saw speeches that were patriotic without being nationalist; heard not just problems, but solutions; saw people calling out again and again not for some return to a mythical greatness of the past, but to move from current greatness to an even more optimistic future. And they saw that unity doesn’t mean everyone lining up to mouth the same script, but a everyone working in their own way toward a shared vision.
Oh, and if we can’t find some way to keep MIchelle Obama in the public space where she can speak to us all again, it will be a huge loss to the nation. Just beautiful.