Against all odds, the Dems, no longer in disarray, pulled off a terrific virtual convention with superb renditions of “The Star-Spangled Banner” (The “No Longer Dixie” Chicks, those kids on opening night); star wattage (Julia Louis-Dreyfus! Eva Longoria! Tracee Ellis Ross! Kerry Washington!); powerful speeches, particularly from the megawatt Obamas; and a clever roll call of the states that was part Olympic Parade of the Nations and part infomercial. (My sister Gina gives a shout out to Rhode Island, our smallest state, for plugging its fishing industries. “Little Rhody” has become “the calamari comeback state.”)
The four nights belonged, however, to so-called ordinary people, who illustrated movingly the failures of the Trump Administration. Thirteen-year-old Brayden Harrington had the guts to tell America that he and newly minted Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden are members of the stutterers’ club (along with three million other Americans). Brayden halted and stuttered his way through the speech — a metaphor for the United States itself, which now moves forward by fits and starts, and a reminder that President Donald J. Trump loves to make fun of what he sees as the cinders in other people’s eyes, ignoring the plank in his own.
My favorite speech, however, belonged to Kristin Urquiza, the social justice activist who lost her dad — Mark Anthony Urquiza, a Trump supporter — to Covid-19. (The senior Urquiza went to a bar to sing karaoke when the ban was lifted in his home state of Arizona in May. He would subsequently die in a hospital after five “agonizing” days on a ventilator, with only a nurse to hold his hand.)
“The coronavirus has made it clear that there are two Americas,” she said, her voice still seething with anger, “the America Donald Trump lives in and the America my father died in.”
Of course, repudiated Repubs like sullen “PBS Newshour” commentator and American Greatness publisher Chris Buskirk will tell you that this is all doom and gloom from the Democrats, that they have no policies, that it’s still the famous Reagan-esque “morning in America,” when we’re really mourning in America. President Donald J. Trump, Mr. “American Carnage,” even said the convention was “the gloomiest” affair. (Is that a case of the pot calling the Keurig black?)
Look, while Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders did a good job of outlining policies, this is really a referendum on Trump and how his incompetent, malignant narcissism has not only failed all but the 1-percenters but fallen short in a great crisis. The failure to meet a moment of crisis is the ultimate failure of leadership.
Even in seemingly noncontroversial aspects, the Trumps have been a disaster. Look at the Rose Garden, revamped by Jackie wannabe Melania, with its sterile borders. (The Trumps really have a thing for borders.) Gone are the burgeoning crabapples and tulips so beloved by President John F. Kennedy. (Who knew he loved flowers so much?) OK, we live with the past not in it. But the garden has lost its texture, its color, its life, a fitting metaphor for us under Trump. Or maybe Melania’s minimalism is just a counterpoint to her husband’s gilded, Early Mobster tastes?
Now it’s on to the Repubs and their four-night “festival of grievances” as Maureen Dowd called it — the real doom and gloom. Given that a narcissist’s flavor of the month changes by the minute as his insecurity knows no bounds, the convention is sure to be a sh— show with gun-toting citizens protecting themselves from black people, D-listers and, of course, Trump et al. (I understand former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, recently arrested on fraud charges, may not make it, which is too bad, given that his “fresh as a daisy” persona always inspires hope.)
With all the chaos Trump has wrought, he could still win, thanks to the dopey Electoral College and the endlessly aggrieved working class, for whom Trump has done nothing. (Goodyear, anyone?) As for the middle class, Trump sold its members out to tax cuts for the rich a long time ago. Really, why is anyone but the very wealthy still supporting him?
Oh, I know — fear, fear that Biden will go all AOC on everyone. But Biden and running mate Kamala Harris are centrists. They’ll govern from the middle, undoing everything Trump has done. And that’s good enough for me.