DNC 2024 — packed and picturesque
By any measure, the Democratic Party’s four-day national convention (DNC) in Chicago, which concluded last night, successfully outdid last month’s Republican Party convention (RNC) in every way. For example, the DNC speakers, performers and attendees were full of enthusiasm and joy, while the RNC was a dark and dismal affair. Moreover, this DNC was all the more remarkable given that President Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 election campaign and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris only one month ago.
From a production standpoint, the DNC looked beautiful and sounded great. The stage set and background screens were bold and colorful, dominated by Democratic blue. The invited speakers, which included just about every Democratic Party luminary, were interspersed with musical performances from the likes of Stevie Wonder, Pink, Patti LaBelle, John Legend, Lil John, and a crowd-pumping deejay. According to some analysts, the DNC “made for great TV,” a highly desired description which rarely applies to political conventions. And the DNC television and online viewership ratings bore this out, smashing the rating for the RNC. To top things off, the Harris campaign collected an astounding $500 million in donations in its first month.
The Democrats also incorporated the overriding theme of “freedom” throughout the DNC, something we’ve been calling on them to do for many years, and it was extremely effective. This included freedom from government interference for women seeking reproductive care (including abortion and IVF treatments), freedom from gun violence for school children, freedom to join a labor union, freedom from interference with voting rights, freedom for the LBGTQ community to marry, and more.
Many of the DNC speakers (some of whom are Republicans and even Trump administration officials, such as former Trump White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham) also engaged in tough criticism and expert level trolling against Donald Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance. For instance, speakers made numerous references to Trump being a “convicted felon” running against “prosecutor” Harris. Some speakers talked about Trump’s obsession with enormous crowds that Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, have attracted on the campaign trail. Along those lines, Vice President Harris and Gov. Walz even traveled over to the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on Tuesday night to hold a simultaneous second rally which attracted more attendees, with more enthusiasm, than the RNC had achieved in the same building in July. Moreover, several DNC speakers, such as U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, even made “couch” jokes regarding Vance (once again, this reference to a popular meme can easily be looked up). The Democrats not only are a party, they threw a party.
President Barack Obama, however, added a word of caution during his inspiring DNC speech:
Now the torch has been passed. Now it’s up to all of us to fight for the America we believe in. And make no mistake: it will be a fight. For all the incredible energy we’ve been able to generate over the last few weeks, this will still be a tight race in a closely divided country – a country where too many Americans are still struggling, and don’t believe government can help.
What this means for Democrats is that parties and rallies and enthusiasm need to be converted directly into votes on Election Day (or shortly beforehand, for those able to vote early). Accordingly, Democratic voters and supporters must now engage in a vigorous “get out the vote” effort that includes making phone calls, knocking on doors, sending postcards, trying to convince family members and friends to vote the same way, using one’s platforms on social media and elsewhere, etc. Such efforts will need to continue until the last votes are cast and counted.
Photo by Lorie Shaull, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/4pOpXq
