THE DEMOCRATS ARE HAVING A CONVENTION ABOUT NOTHING: PETER SAVODNIK
The Democratic convention in Chicago has been a huge success, I suppose. The party has rallied around Kamala Harris and “Coach Walz,” rebranded her as a tough-on-crime prosecutor, and connected the campaign with Barack Obama’s inspiring 2008 race for the White House.
On top of that, the anti-American, antisemitic flag-burners who promised to turn this city upside down haven’t materialized en masse. The hoped-for 1968 redux is more like a sad, echoing whimper.
In other words: The vibes have been spectacular!
And yet.
It’s unclear what these people are peddling.
Certainly not Harris’s proposal to cap the cost of groceries. The only speaker at the convention who has bothered to talk that up has been Bernie Sanders. Everyone else drones on about Harris being a dog lover and a fighter and, most importantly, Momala.
While (rightly) pummeling the GOP–Donald Trump cult of personality, Democrats have mythologized Harris and turned her into an alternate-Harris who would have been unrecognizable to Harris herself just a few weeks ago: tough, caring, super-smart, results-oriented. Hillary Clinton 2.0.
But no one has ventured to say what this alternate-Harris would do in office. Or, more broadly, what her party wants to accomplish over the next four years. There is no program.
To be fair, the Republican agenda is a mosh pit of confusions—a free-market, tariff-laden, stick-it-to-the-establishment, fuck-China, go-America mélange of half-baked, sort-of proposals.
But the idea behind that confusion is straightforward. It is America first. Americans first. And every bill, initiative, executive decision can be, should be, viewed through that lens. Whether that amounts to a coherent theory of government remains to be seen. (The Republicans seem to be trying to figure out in real time the how behind the what.) But there is a focal point.
No one says what the Democrats’ North Star is. They have wielded enormous power for most of the past two decades, and they insist they won’t “turn back,” but no one says where we’re going. Or what they want beyond the blandest of platitudes about “freedom” and “choice” and “identity.”
These people know how to throw a fantastic party, and it’s full of flashing lights and smiling delegates and Stevie Wonder and dancers and tears streaming down faces and wild roars of hope and love and drama. But for now, after three days of this four-day convention that is really just a supremely entertaining infomercial, no one can say whether the drama is a three-act play that takes us somewhere uncharted, or whether this is a gilded sitcom.
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And here is one more thought on the DNC from our man in the convention hall—we promise Peter will be allowed to rest soon—on the most moving moment of the week so far.
On Wednesday evening, the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin came to the Democratic convention, and for eight minutes and forty-four seconds, the politics stopped.
“This is a political convention, but needing our only son and all of the cherished hostages home is not a political issue,” Jon Polin, Hersh’s father, declared, eliciting sustained applause.
Both Polin and his wife, Rachel Goldberg-Polin, had attached a strip of masking tape to their shirts with the number 320 on it—indicating that the hostages have been in captivity for 320 days.
“We’re heartened that both Democratic and Republican leaders demonstrate their bipartisan support for our hostages being released,” Jon Polin said.
Rachel Goldberg-Polin talked about the “109 treasured human beings” being held hostage, adding, “They are Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists. They are from twenty-three different countries.”
Delegates wept and nodded along and murmured, “Oh, my God,” and “That poor, poor boy,” as images of Hersh, 23, appeared on the jumbo screen behind his parents—smiling and suntanned. In between bursts of applause, they chanted, “Bring them home! Bring them home!” Almost all of the tens of thousands of people crammed into the United Center stood silent.
There were no boos, no one waving any Palestinian flags. No one talked about “cease-fires.” If the left has been consumed by a mystifying moral relativism over the past few decades, there was none of that on Wednesday. There was just a tearful couple onstage doing what parents everywhere, anywhere, would do.
It was the most powerful moment, so far, of the week—and it echoed similar speeches given at last month’s Republican convention, in Milwaukee. It was also a reminder that the great bulk of Democrats are sympathetic to the plight of the Jews murdered and raped and taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, 2023—the antisemitism that seems to have engulfed much of the left notwithstanding.
As they were about to exit the stage, Rachel Goldberg-Polin leaned into the microphone and said: “Hersh, if you can hear us, we love you. Stay strong. Survive.”
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