THE VIRTUAL 2020 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION: A RULE OF THREES

                               

Between August 17 and 20, Democrats improvised the nation’s first virtual national political convention. One journalist likened

it to building an airplane in flight. With the convention hall empty, no delegates in funny hats, and balloon drops unavailable, the party grabbed the nation’s attention with four nights of videos, speeches without live audiences, and innovations on time-honored traditions, like a roll call that nominated former Vice President Joe Biden from 57 locations. We don’t know yet if Biden got the “bounce” in the polls convention planners covet, but they set the bar high for Republicans who take their turn starting August 24.

The three of us sat on the sidelines and watched intently. We saw some other threes worth noting.

                                  

Three Messages

First, Democrats offered a big tent. In executing their presentation, the party defined its mission as making democracy available to all, from the most privileged to the most marginalized, and everyone in between. Establishment figures, including Republicans, played their part, as did union members, front-line health workers, and ordinary people with compelling stories of personal tragedy. The objective, admittedly not easily accomplished, was moving the nation forward as one.

                          

Second, we’ve known for a while whoever won the 2020 Democratic nomination would have restoring America’s place in the world as one of his or her most important jobs. Tuesday night, two former Secretaries of State vouched for Biden on that front.

Democrat John Kerry and Republican Colin Powell assured the nation Biden will stand up to America’s adversaries and stand with its allies. Cindy McCain narrated a film celebrating Biden’s long friendship with her late husband, John McCain, a Vietnam war hero and national security icon.

Third, through technology and the speeches, Democrats made clear the threat posed by another four years of President Donald Trump. No matter how much inclusion or how many progressive ideas the party promotes, none of it matters unless Americans vote and remove the clear and present danger continuation of the Trump presidency represents.

The Wednesday night contrast of Kamala Harris’s vice presidential acceptance speech and former President Barack Obama’s grave warning about Trump drove home that point. Her history-making moment as the first woman of color on a national ticket won’t mean much unless voters exorcise the Trump cancer.

          

Three Speeches

Political conventions are about nothing if not speeches. We saw plenty of them from our sideline perch - some really good, some ordinary, some mediocre. We saw three that potentially merited the label GREAT:

Michelle Obama showed Monday night why she is so impactful. Admitting she “hates politics,” the former First Lady of the United States delivered a masterful expose’ on what Americans must do in the face of Trump’s voter suppression campaign. Voting in this election may mean standing in line “all night if you have to,” so pack a lunch and breakfast too, she urged.

Barack Obama on Wednesday night framed the electoral choice in the starkest, gravest terms imaginable. No former president had ever expressed publicly such a dire view of a successor. But, in our view, the speech met the moment. We can’t say we haven’t been warned.

                                                                 

Joe Biden gave an acceptance speech for the ages. He promised he’d run as a “proud Democrat” but govern as an “American president.” Robbed of the cheering crowd, he seriously and soberly laid out his plans for the country and drew the starkest contrast possible with Trump. Any suggestion he’s not up to the task mentally melted away in a flurry of direct, succinct sentences, well-organized thoughts, and powerfully delivered phrases. 

Three Ordinary People; Three Special Moments

The virtual format made it easier showcasing ordinary people intersecting with national politics. Consider Kristin Urquiza, Jacquelyn Brittany, and Brayden Harrington. They’re famous now because of this convention.

*Kristin Urquiza of Arizona Monday night told of her father’s death from COVID -19. She boldly declared the 65-year old man’s “only pre-existing condition was  trusting Donald Trump.” He took the word of Trump and Arizona’s Republican governor that going to a bar in June was safe. He contracted the virus and died. His daughter now crusades against the president’s reckless, inept handling of the pandemic.

*Jacquelyn Asbie operates the elevator in

the building where The New York  Times editorial board meets with candidates. When Biden arrived in January for his interview, the candidate befriended her. He asked that she place his name in nomination for President of the United States, relegating high-powered members of Congress to seconding speeches. 

*Brayden Harrington is a teenager from Concord, New Hampshire. He stutters. Biden did too as a child. When they met, Biden

schooled him on things that helped him overcome his speech impediment. Before a national television audience, Brayden helped introduce Biden’s acceptance speech and went viral in the process.

Many of the talking heads on cable networks asked if political conventions will ever revert to what they were, even after the pandemic. It’s a fair question only time can answer. Whatever the answer, the 2020 Democratic convention will always stand as a first – a monument to innovation, an airplane built in mid-air, a seminal moment in the sea of

political history. Which metaphor proves best partly depends on what happens between now and November 3.  Regardless, it was quite a show, even if we did have to watch from the sidelines.  

 

BIDEN – HARRIS: A TICKET FOR THE AGES?

It’s done. Former Vice President Joe Biden

named California Senator Kamala Harris his vice presidential running mate. We tapped Harris as the favorite in our July 13 posting of odds on the contenders. Her selection didn’t come as a surprise, despite its historic nature. Now, she and Biden face two and a half months of campaigning in the weird world of a pandemic and resulting economic devastation against an unpopular, but cunning incumbent who’ll likely do anything to keep power.

The Person

The 55-year old Harris checks many boxes for a spot on a national ticket – elected three

times to statewide office in California, administrator of the second largest justice agency in America, experience on key senate committees (Judiciary and Intelligence). That experience and her education immunize her against tokenism charges. She ran for president in 2020 and acquitted herself well in the early debates, though she faded and dropped out before the primaries started. 

Harris represents several firsts. No black woman has been on a national ticket before nor has an Indian-American person of either gender. She’s the first graduate of a

historically black university (HBCU), Howard University, on a national ticket. Its alumni and former students include novelist Toni Morrison, civil rights leader Vernon Jordan, actors Phylicia Rashad and Chadwick Boseman, and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.  She’s the second black person nominated by a major party for national office. If she and Biden win, she’d become the first female vice president. 

The Biden Connection

A long-standing connection exists between Harris and the Biden family. In her campaign

memoir The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, Harris wrote glowingly  of her working relationship with Joe Biden’s now-deceased son, Beau, then attorney general of Delaware. While Harris held that position in California, they worked together on lawsuits against predatory mortgage lenders who precipitated the 2007 housing crisis. Harris called Beau Biden an “incredible friend and colleague” and “a man of principle and courage.” Joe Biden, in announcing he’d chosen Harris, alluded to his son’s high opinion of her.

Some thought her attack on Joe Biden in the first debate last summer might fray the relationship and keep him from picking her. She went after the former vice president over how he’d opposed busing in the 1970s. He demonstrated his political maturity by picking her anyway, noting recently that he doesn’t hold grudges.

The Politics

Much of the immediate discussion about Harris’s selection focused on what impact she might have on the race. Her graduation from

Howard and membership in the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority and connection to  similar sororities offered the possibility of a massive mobilization of professional black women, the acknowledged backbone of the Democratic Party.  Some thought she might benefit from the “exotic factor” of Jamaican and Asian parentage, something akin to Barack Obama’s Africa-Kansas heritage. Others cautioned that Harris isn’t at the top of the ticket like Obama and the thrill of a person of color on a national ticket might be gone.

Calculating the impact of Harris’s prosecutorial background also occupied a lot

of attention. Some  progressives, especially African  American ones, regard  many prosecutors

with skepticism. Some give Harris credit for reforms while she headed the San Francisco district attorney’s office, but others don’t.

One certainty exists. Trump will try demonizing Harris. Right after Biden announced her selection, Trump labeled her “nasty” and “mean.” His campaign ran an ad claiming she’s a radical leftist who’d abolish police forces, raise taxes, and destroy the oil and gas industry. Some thought her selection, potentially putting her a heartbeat away from the presidency, will motivate Trump’s base to vote in larger numbers. 

Harris embodies many things Trump and his backers love hating – a woman, black, daughter of immigrants, progressive, and an

advocate of the rule of law. She faces the challenges women face in American politics. She must thread the needle between aggression and passivity, the classic cognitive dissonance dilemma.

The Bottom Line

In our May 11 post, we suggested Biden first focus on “what, not who” in the matter of a running mate. We noted the importance of picking someone “ready to play,” selecting a candidate compatible with him (we asked “Are they on the same page?”), and the need for choosing someone who could help heal a fractured, divided nation left in shambles by a historically inept president. We called that “Restorative Capacity.”

Despite the political analysis concerning the pick, we think Biden might have selected Harris because she best met the criteria we laid out. She had the most positives, given her combination of executive and legislative experience in government.  She also had the fewest negatives. Most of the things we can pick at her about are small or fixable.

Biden and whoever he picked, if they win, will have a huge job, much of it about things other than political ideology. The pandemic will likely remain with us when they take office.

They must dig the nation out of the economic hole the pandemic and Trump’s ineptitude indealing with it have caused. They have to restore respect for the rule of law and our basic institutions. They face a massive chore in reclaiming America’s standing in the world, beginning with repairing our alliances. Then there’s the racial divide the George Floyd case exposed. The list goes on.

We suspect Biden probably believes Christopher Devine and Kyle Kopko when

they said in their book Do Running Mates Matter that vice presidential candidates don’t yield many votes. But, given his own experience as Barack Obama’s wingman, Biden also knows they can make a big difference in governing. Maybe that’s why he picked Kamala Harris.