The Big Show

Didja see? Whajya think?

I mentioned the Democratic National Convention yesterday, and how I was starting to let myself watch. Well, I soaked a bunch of it up and saw Walz and Harris and a bunch else, too. I bet several of you did as well.

So let’s go straight the obvious prompt: What’s sticking in your mind about it?

Big takeaway for me is, Harris killed. I don’t want to get too deep into the political theater criticism angle but I will say her great achievement was to simultaneously embody empathy and righteousness — compassion for her fellow Americans and advocacy for their advancement as well as fierce, implacable opposition to those who would steal it from them. That strikes me as perfect for this moment of great danger and opportunity.

I forgive her for leaning on toughness because we know what a hard sell Lady Commander in Chief is in some districts; in fact I admire that she acknowledged the need and threw herself into the task. I know the Democrats suck in regard to Palestine. (Boy, she four-wheeled right through that, didn’t she?) But they’re situationally the best choice because, in this era, all third parties can do is fuck things up worse. (Get back to me when there’s a real worker’s party with a broad, genuine appeal to enlightened self-interest. Cornel West and RFK Jr. ain’t it.)

On that note: A lot of what struck me Thursday night was about the tension between the ideal and the necessary. I was laughing at Leon Panetta, the very definition of a time-serving Democratic operative, glowering and shaking his wattles about killing Bin Laden as if sending go codes were the heroic equivalent of putting one’s body in harm’s way. And he quoted Reagan, boo. But, in the course of doing the (necessary!) job of letting America know that this lady would be OK as CinC, Panetta said some needed things about Trump’s repulsive disdain for the people who do put their bodies on the line for their country, and especially this:

The role of the military is to defend America, it’s not to threaten Americans and it sure as hell isn’t to put immigrants in camps.

It’s one thing to hear Michael Moore or Bernie Sanders (two-time Roy Edroso vote-getter!) say things like this, but it’s another to have one of the old-time hacks come out of the vault to say, you know what, the hippies are right, this fucker IS a fascist and we better vote like it. That might be the general theme: This is a full-court press.

Other bits stick in my mind. The Chicks throwing a harmonic curveball at the end of the National Anthem. Colin Allred redeeming the jock candidacy concept, talking about “me” guys and “we” guys on the field and in politics. Victims of gun violence tearfully telling their stories. People who suffered from the terrible consequences of conservative fraud explaining why we can’t let it go on.

And I must say I’m juiced to have a President who, on her highest horse, sounds just a little bit like Wanda Sykes.

Your turn!