The Democratic National Convention was a long march through the wilderness of Trump’s Amerika to remind us of what we could and should be as a country. It was an extended exercise in comparing and contrasting, building to a climax of Joe Biden as the person to bring us all back together as a country. The crowning moment was Biden’s acceptance speech. Obama has passed the torch to Biden, and you could see the fire burning in him last night.
Biden has passed through the fire before. He has lost so much — but it has tempered him like the steel in a sword, giving him the purpose to go on and face the challenges ahead. He doesn’t have to feel your pain to know what you are going through; he has had more than his share and he knows what feels like from his own experience. Biden has given a lifetime of service to others; he will restore meaning to the idea of serving as president.
Biden is the Anti-Reagan.
He is a human, with human flaws, but he is a decent human being always trying to do better. What does it say about America that we need that so badly? For all of Reagan’s supposed heart, his values ultimately celebrated the rugged individualism that is the smiling facade over selfishness and greed. He was the anti-intellectual who substituted wishful thinking for facts, rhetoric for reason. He was an actor reading from a script, the role of a lifetime. Biden is a real person coming from the real world. He doesn’t read from a script; he leads from the heart.
Trump is the true heir of Reagan.
It’s a direct line from Ronald to Donald. Reagan’s GOP war on government under Trump has turned into actual looting and sabotage. Reagan’s administration was the kinder, gentler face of Nixon’s paranoia, deceit, and authoritarian impulses. Where Nixon sabotaged the Paris Peace Talks and gave us Watergate, Reagan gave us the sham invasion of Grenada, the disaster in Lebanon, the empty saber-rattling of Star Wars, and the outright criminality of Iran-Contra. HIV exploded on his watch; remind you of anything? Betraying America to a foreign adversary, claiming to Not Be A Crook? It’s in GOP DNA going way back.
Reagan set the pattern for all of his successors. We are now in the End Game of the Reagan Revolution, where they don’t even try to hide it any more.
Biden reaches out to the best within us, for he knows nothing less will do in the face of the challenges confronting us. Trump reaches out only to grab what he can, while he can. He is a taker, a user who gives nothing back. He is a divider who thrives on chaos. The guest speaker list for the upcoming Republican National Convention, compared with the Democratic National Convention, says it all.
The following comment on a Facebook post about Biden’s speech last night summarizes what part of Amerika Trump appeals to:
i’ll take a guy with an ass hat personality who fills all of his campaign promises, achieves the greatest economic come back we’ve ever had in our history, reestablishes our position on the world stage, rebalances our trade agreements with the rest of the world, and finally does something to stop the flow of illegal immigrants across our borders, Over any smooth talking polished highly political insider like Joe Biden. He said 40 years to make an impact in the government and never made one bit of difference. Anybody that thinks that’s going to change at this point is just an idiot. Donald Trump is the real deal.
He could have stopped at “ass hat”; that’s all Trump has delivered at this point, and all this guy really wants. All of Reagan’s empty, pretty words about “Morning in America” and “the shining city on a hill” have boiled down to “owning the libs”.
Democrats have had to come in and clean up after every Republican administration — then Republicans come back and double down on all things that lead to disaster, and blame the Democrats for their sins. Meanwhile the rich get richer and the rest of us end up divided against each other while they laugh all the way to the bank. Lather, rinse, repeat.
The clip from last night featuring candidates Biden beat out for the nomination sharing their experiences of him was priceless. Trump went out of his way to humiliate his rivals, and still does at every opportunity. Biden’s opponents disagree with him on some things, but they affirmed that they have no problem with him, either as a person or as the nominee of the party. There’s a meme that seems to sum up the consensus they are aiming for:
Voting isn’t marriage.
It’s public transport.
You’re not waiting for “the one”.
You are getting on the bus.
And if there isn’t one going exactly to your destination, you don’t stay home and sulk.
You take the one that’s going closest to where you want to be.
The “Reagan Revolution” was all about overturning FDR’s New Deal and making conservatives a permanent majority. Biden needs something similar to give the counter-revolution a catchy label. “Build Back Better” with Biden doesn’t quite capture the full potential of what Biden will be trying to do, and maybe it needs to be bigger than one person. It needs to be something Democrats after Biden can unite around.
(American Reformation? American Restoration? American Reaffirmation? American Renaissance? The New Beginning? Feel free to make suggestions in comments.)
Biden hasn’t fully signed on to the “Green New Deal” or M4A, although he’s paying attention. “Big F•cking Deal” comes close, although it’s a bit problematic for advertising and signage. While calling Biden the Anti-Reagan makes a certain kind of sense, it’s also a limiting frame. We don’t just need to respond to Reaganism (which David Brooks claims has been dead for a while now). We need to take the initiative so that whatever is left of conservatism after Trump isn’t still setting the agenda. It’s time to put them on the defensive and keep them there the way FDR did.
Make no mistake. This time had better be different. This isn’t just about cleaning up the mess the Republicans have made yet again. This has to be about holding them accountable for the damage and driving the dead-enders into the political wilderness. This is about dismantling the power of money in our elections, and winning the messaging wars. We should be ready to accommodate Biden Republicans — but not at the expense of Biden Progressives, for they are the future of the party and the future American needs.
This is about crafting an agenda for the long term, and not just hanging our hopes around one president at a time. Call it building a brand with a compelling narrative, but it is something that needs to be done.
Forward momentum. (Joe-mentum?) 74 days…
ICYMI, Stephen Colbert has been following the convention with real time reactions. Last night’s show began with a monologue about the Convention Season Finale. He’s had an awesome Marvel spoof video at the start of each show this week that is great. It’s short, but it starts at 35 seconds in. If you didn’t have time to watch the whole convention, Colbert does a good job wrapping it up in about 14 minutes.
His guest last night was Hillary Clinton; the night before Bernie Sanders.