“President Joe Biden”: the Dems’ Final Night

For brief descriptions of and links to recent posts, click here. For an inverse-chronological list with links to all posts after January 23, 2017, click here. For a subject-matter index to posts before that date, click here.

The capstone on the Dems’ virtual convention fell into place last night. The edifice didn’t totter, as some had hoped it might. Instead, the capstone fit neatly and gracefully. It reflected the light that was Joe Biden’s chief metaphor for the night. It made it easy to imagine him sitting in the Oval Office come January and putting an abrupt end to our long national nightmare.

We live in a nation of license, not freedom. No one has to wear a mask, and many who don’t brag of their indifference to infecting others. Anything goes on our cable media, where so-called pundits make “points” like bullies or frat boys on a high-school playground. Anything goes on social media, where trolls, foreign spooks and paid political operatives post their disinformation right next to announcements of your friends’ and families’ weddings, births and graduations. Anything goes on Twitter, where a president who should be getting a good night’s sleep (so he can figure out how cause and effect impact real Americans) avenges real and imagined slights with insulting Tweets throughout the wee hours.

After four more years of this insanity, we all might have forgotten what a president looks and sounds like. Last night, Biden reminded us. He jogged our dim recollection that our president is supposed to work for us.

Accused of being full of gaffes, Biden served us a Lincolnesque blend of emotion, reason, empathy and policy. [Clich here for a transcript.] He hit all the buttons, from Trump’s catastrophic failure to handle the pandemic to reviving national research and development, from a raised minimum wage to creating millions of climate-saving jobs, from deeply held family values to the faith that conquers despair, from abiding trust in the dignity of every person to seizing this unique moment in history, when we have a chance to beat back the plague of racism and unite our people once and for all.

Yes, as Biden said so well [set the timer at 4:30], character, decency, science, democracy and who we want to be are all on the ballot. But we’re also supposed to vote for our president. By his demeanor and his example, not just his words, Biden reminded us what a president is supposed to be and do.

As a hedge against gaffes, Biden’s pre-speech bio reminded us poignantly that he has suffered from stuttering since childhood. So even if he had stumbled in speaking, that would show us nothing about his mind or his heart. He didn’t.

All in all, the capstone fit the edifice well. Trump may have mastered the art of using Twitter to distract, divide and delude. But the Dems seem to have mastered the newer art of using virtual gatherings to inform, unite, enlighten and inspire.

No in-person convention could ever have given remote viewers the chance to hear 287 speakers state their views and tell their stories. Nor could it have given the most important speakers the power to be heard in an intimate setting, to set their own pace and tone, without the distractions of applause, crowd reaction, interruptions and floor discussions. If nothing else, this tour de force of virtual media probably gave “real” in-person conventions the coup de grace.

Can the GOP match this masterpiece next week? It’s hard to see how. From the marvelous roll call of all states and territories, to last night’s friendly round robin among Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O’Rourke, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Andrew Yang, the Dems’ virtual convention was all about teamwork. It reminded us just how strong and deep the Dems’ bench is.

In contrast, Trump is a one-man show. As his presidency crumbles under the all-pervasive domination of a single, unintelligent, incurious, increasingly senile narcissist, so must his campaign. Sycophants and lackeys do not a deep bench make. So expect the GOP convention, like Trump’s White House, to miss the mark by a mile, making it all about him.

For once the Dems put aside their usual fractiousness in the exigency of the moment. They have created a new media animal: the virtual, major-party convention. It was a smashing success.

Expect the GOP and the president, weighed down by his barrage of scatterbrained Tweets for every occasion, to fall short. Just as the GOP has no plan to control the pandemic, no plan to revive our economy, no plan for health insurance, no plan to fight climate change, and no plan to restore our foreign prestige, it’s still, as of Thursday night, trying to figure out what to do on Monday. Caligula cannot manage, let alone lead. But we knew that two millennia ago.

Permalink to this post