Paranoia strikes deep. Into your life it will creep. It starts when you’re always afraid. Step out of line, the man will come, and take you away Buffalo Springfield For What It’s Worth
For the moment, I just want to do a brief overview of tonight’s first night of the Democratic convention. That’s because I have something specific I want to go into, but maybe I’ll do a deeper dive tomorrow.
Personally, I was impressed, but then again, I half expected to be. The Democrats have been working on this for almost 6 months, will all the brain power and talent of Hollywood behind them. Just a few of my personal highlights before I get on to the main topic.
- My favorite non political speech moment. The National Anthem. The sound of all of those young voices, the incredible diversity of the faces on that screen were the symbol of everything this country is, and what the Democratic party strives to represent. It was powerful.
- The hardest shot. The young Latina woman whose healthy 65 year old father died in June of the coronavirus after trusting Trump and going to a karaoke bar. Her bitter, scathing, My father’s only preexisting condition was trusting Donald Trump, and it cost him his life is made to order 30 second ad fodder for the next 78 days.
- I was impressed with John Kasich. He knew going in that he was going to get shit dumped on his head, but spoke his piece. He clearly sees the era of Trump drawing to a close, and spoke to sane, moderate GOP voters to shine a beacon that there still is a moderate GOP out there.
- Hat’s off to Bernie Sanders. He became a statesman tonight. While praising Biden, he also spoke directly to his supporters, telling them it was not all in vain, and that their movement had forced the Democratic party to the left. And then he looked them straight in the eye through the camera lens and told them, I need you to vote for Joe Biden. The man can’t do any more than that.
- A second kudo to Bernie Sanders. In his speech he said that As long as I am here, I will fight to stop what so many of our heroes died to defeat! Call me stupid, but as Sanders is Jewish, it sure sounded to me like he found a very backhanded way to call Trump a fascist.
- But for night one of the convention, you only need to remember one word. Michelle. The former First Lady knocked it out of the park. She dumped load after load of shit on Trump’s head, but did it with a gold plated Hermes shovel. She didn’t insult Trump directly, instead pointing out his myriad insecurities and deficiencies. She sent out the clarion’s call to the faithful, especially African American women, encouraging them to one more time up the mountain. Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have their work ahead of them to top that barn burning speech tonight.
And now for the main event. Thank you Billy Porter! For days now, when writing about the upcoming conventions, I have picked and prodded, poked and pushed, desperately trying to make a point that I had in my head, and couldn’t quite put into words. But when you can’t quite get your shit together, who better than a Tony and Emmy award winning entertainer to put it into the right context for you? In discussing the first night of the convention with Brian Williams on MSNBC, Porter uttered the words, I found myself listening differently.
That’s it! Right fucking there! In my recent articles, I have been hammering away at the differences between these conventions, and any that came before them, and my belief that the Democrats held the edge, but I couldn’t close the deal. But Billy Porter did.
Conventions are by nature similar to Trump rallies, mass events. People who watch on television sit around, only half listening to the words, and waiting for a crowd reaction to tell them they just heard something special, which they then struggle to remember. And likewise, in the post convention media coverage, the producers and editors look for the major crowd reaction moments for fodder for their coverage. It’s basically a sound bite event.
And that was my whole point all along. There is no live audience. There are no crowd reactions to steer either the listener’s response, nor the producers search for analysis fodder. You have to fucking listen! The songs are great the homages and videos are slickly produced, but in any convention, it all comes down to the speeches. And suddenly, people don’t have a cheer track to tell them when to tune in. They actually have to listen. Tonight’s performance was slickly produced, the result of more than 5 months of dedicated effort from a Democratic party that already knew they could not have a mass event. There is no reason to believe that the next 3 nights will be any different.
This is the real problem for the GOP. They have only been working on a purely virtual convention for less than a month now, with Trump having persisted for so long on a mass revival service for his acceptance speech. There is no way that they can put out a product that successfully competes with the Democrats on content or presentation. After all, Trump walking through a fog machine on the deserted south lawn of the White House to give his speech just isn’t going to resonate.
But forget all of that shit. As I just said, it all comes down to the speeches. And without a laugh track, Trump supporters are going to have to listen! Trump’s numbers started dropping once he couldn’t hold mass Rocky Horror Picture Show rallies anymore, and people had to hear him scripted behind a podium. What kind of speeches can Trump supporters and surrogates possibly make? And how well can they be received when there is no mass crowd response to let anybody know when the speaker just scored a zinger? And how do they receive Trump’s speech when there are no Trombies live to tell them when he’s turning them on?
This was the point I was trying to make all along. These conventions are different because they’re virtual. But people will watch because nothing else is on. And when they’re actually forced to listen to the speeches, what kind of differences do they draw between the parties and the candidates themselves. Don’t touch that dial.
To know the future, look to the past.before the insanity of the 2020 election, relive the insanity of the 2016 GOP primary campaign, and the general election, to see how we got to where we are. Copies of President Evil, and the sequel, President Evil II, A Clodwork Orange are available as e-books on Amazon, at the links above. Catch up before the upcoming release of the third book in the trilogy, President Evil III: All The Presidents Fen
Follow me on Twitter at @RealMurfster35
Good point. Too, they take less time.
Nicely done article! I enjoy reading them. Time to get DJT the hell out of the White House!!! Looking forward to the next 3 nights of the convention! Kick ass, Dems!!!
I too was impressed. Maybe the darling of the Republican party, Putin, will send some high kicking dancers with tall beaver hats, some dancing bears with little hats, and the Joan Fontane dancers. Or, ask Frodo of Godfather fame to round up some girls. Since jeffrey’s murder in Barr’s secure facility, no need 2check ids. Let the vodka, adderall, & pee flow. Of course, Leningrad linsey graham will be offered time with the boys choir. Party time all around. It will be the yuuugest party, much much better than the socialist democrats.
So true Murf. I think this t.v. convention is a gold-plated gift tok democrats. I loved it. All they will have is hate and venom, who in the heck wants to watch that spewing out of their tv for days? ( mostly rhetorical, because some do, unfortunately) I think some people will be disgusted and turned off by all of the fear mongering and venom. There won’t be the distraction of a physical convention to allow them to look elsewhere. It’s like a clockwork oranges famous propaganda scene.
Let’s face it Joe, there’s at least 33%, (The # reported last wk of people who would refuse a vaccine), of people who would have drank the grape juice at jonestown. Even today, the neonazi movement is strong in germany, a country destroyed by that movement. That being said, the real solution rests in an overwhelming effort by US to stop this madness. If the 2million black folks show up with a large % of the 93 million overall who voluntarily gave up the most fundamental right, then we have a chance to gain back the power to pass bills & a President who will sign them into law.
Worth remembering: COVID don’t care about those idiots’ “pure” blood. It’ll cut ’em down just as surely as it would the folks they hate. So consider me unintimidated in the face of their vaccine refusal. Got a feeling the whole anti-vaxxer movement just took one hell of a setback this year, anyway.
What I seen on YouTube was this idiot saying that KamalaHarris isn’t an African American because her dad was from Jamaica. Well in my school they taught us that Jamaica was where the pirates sold the slaves to the traders that took them on to America. At any rate I am sure that her dads parents didn’t one day decide to vacation in a slave trade capital. Besides where does he think Jamaica is. Being off the coast of Florida puts it in some part of America the continents. Illiterate morons!
Indeed, if ever any one nation was emblematic of the black experience in the Western hemisphere, Jamaica would be it, though Haiti is a credible contender as well for that title as well.
Someone failed their US history, because they don’t understand the Triangle Trade, *or* how black people got to Jamaica in the first place.
The deplorables in the GOP pulled a version of that stunt with Obama by insisting that he wasn’t really black because his mother was white (as if they they forgot their one-drop rule) and he wasn’t quite African-American (read: not a descendant of an US slave) because his father was from Kenya. After the election, they settled back into “he’s black because he looks black” and the accompanying stereotypes.
It doesn’t matter whether Harris is technically part African-american or not. She “looks” black, and therefore growing up in the US, she experienced a similar black experience as her black peers. Deplorables do not take the time to inquire about precise ancestry.
I think there’s going to be a real contrast in content of speeches. tRump has nothing new to say. He will attempt to trash his opponent’s reputations, but otherwise it’s nothing new.
I don’t see a problem with the most memorable and powerful speech being delivered by someone who holds no office and is not running for any office. People who do hold elected and appointed office work for those who don’t. Listening to those who don’t is exactly what they should be doing.
Bernie, I’m over him. He was nothing more than a useful tool for the DNC to keep people like me from voting third-party. I don’t know of one thing he’s gotten from them. What have they “moved to the left” on?
You have to stop watching CNN and Fox news, if you want to find out. It’s not a secret. And you can always look at the campaign’s website.
For starters, who the f— cares about Bernie Sanders anyway? He is NOT A DEMOCRAT. He has NEVER BEEN A DEMOCRAT. Even when he was running in 2016 for the Democratic nomination, he NEVER JOINED THE PARTY.
The Democratic Party and REAL DEMOCRATS don’t owe Bernie Sanders a damned thing as long as he chooses to remain an Independent. The fact the Party has allowed him to hijack the Party for HIS own gain and benefit is despicable. (Giving him time for a speech at the convention is a completely different issue. The GOP has welcomed Democrats to their conventions in the past and the Dems gave Kasich an opportunity so that’s different. Letting Bernie have a say in HOW the Party operates was a mistake. As long as he refused to be a Party member, he shouldn’t have been allowed a second in making Party policies.)
A big problem in the US is binary partisanship that has evolved into tribal acrimony. I do not mind Bernie being an independent. America would probably be healthier with a number of viable parties that form policy-based governing coalitions instead of the destructive binary, only two teams on the field system we have now.
Yes, you can look at the campaign’s website. A number of Bernie’s positions have been incorporated as Bernie himself as said. Here’s the thing: As soon as a progressive position is adopted by the mainstream, it is not progressive anymore. Now it is mainstream.
Bernie seems satisfied at this point. So am I. Everything can’t happen overnight, especially undoing decades of indoctrination about the “evils” of socialism, etc.
I do not understand why you are being downrated. People should save downrates for truly objectionable material.
I agree, Murph; I watched the whole thing last night, and I was fully present during the whole thing. No distractions of cheering crowds every 15 minutes, no constant interruptions by the media “explaining” what was just said. To me, it seemed to be so PERSONAL! And Michelle Obama – WOW! From the kids singing the National Anthem to Billy Porter, the whole thing was so well done. Looking forward to tonight!
Thats what i thought too! It was personal, intimate, empathetic. I actually enjoyed it! Impressive.
I especially liked Michelle’s defense of staying on the high road no matter how low they go.
Agree,but I can’t help but agree with Julian Castro that the run the risk of losing, or at least, diluting the Latino vote through benign neglect. Eva Longoria and the opening prayer and the lady who lost her fathet to COVID-19 bu beliving the DUMPF were ok, but what else? Can’t simply stress BLM and women’s issues with the tragedy at the border staring us in the face.
There’s a couple more days left, so we’ll see.
Excellent piece, Joe. I always love reading your thoughts, but honestly, this was a very deep piece. Thank you for it. And yes, I couldn’t agree with you more on your two points about Bernie, whom as you know, I generally dislike highly. I find him an unrepentant self-hating Jew. But yeah, he finally said something right, that fascists are NOT a good thing. Good he finally found the correct bad guy. You are bang-on on so many points in this piece. Good job Joe. Thank you.