‘I have to admit that even though I ain’t an American, I was one of those viewers moved to tears by speaker after speaker after speaker on that stage.’
AS we mark August 21 and the dual importance it has played in our contemporary history, I am still in seventh heaven after watching the first day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) currently being held in Chicago, Illinois.
Political parties in the United States organize party conventions every presidential election cycle, and it is during these conventions that the parties formally nominate their candidates for President and Vice President, and adopt the party platform on which their candidates will run.
In normal years, these conventions are simply formalities, because one candidate would have won the support of enough of the party delegates to win their nod. This support is earned during state primaries that are held in the early part of the election year — aspirants put their names on the ballot in state primaries and registered party members cast their votes in favor of the candidate they wish to see as their party nominee.
Of course, there are exceptions to the rule — such as when no one candidate has won enough of the delegates to win the nomination outright. This leads to horse trading and multiple ballots before a winner eventually emerges. (Yes, just like the Cardinals do it at times albeit behind the closed doors of the Sistine Chapel!).
Another exception is when a state party organization decides to have an “open” primary — meaning, any registered voter, irrespective of party affiliation, can actually cast a vote in the primary. You can imagine how this could lead to naughtiness if one party decides to mess up the choices of another!
This year’s Chicago DNC is not a contested convention, as one candidate has garnered enough delegate support to have won the nomination outright. What makes it unique, though, is that the candidate who contested the primaries to win the majority of delegates is no longer the candidate the convention is anointing as its nominee. And that’s because, after deciding to pull out, Joe Biden released his delegates after urging them to rally behind Kamala Harris. Which they did.
I’ve been watching party conventions since the DNC nominated George McGovern in 1972 to run against Richard Nixon. I watched the DNC in 1980 when Edward Kennedy ended his challenge to incumbent Jimmy Carter and delivered his “Dreams Shall Never Die” speech. I watched the 2008 and 2012 conventions which crowned Barack Obama, and the 2016 which crowned Hillary Clinton. The 2020 convention which nominated Biden was a pandemic-era convention so it was held on Zoom. This is the first time delegates have once again convened in an arena for a festive gathering.
Today, the first day, was Joe Biden’s day. It was the day of his political swan song, a day when he properly claimed his place under the sun that cemented his image as one who put his party (and country) above his own personal ambitions. It must have been a bittersweet moment for him to have been speaking on the first day of the convention that he was supposed to address on the last day, as the party nominee does. But then again, he was able to stand tall and proud before a party and a country he had served for over 50 years as faithfully as he could. And while he will soon step off the stage under circumstances that could have been far different, I am sure he is aware that he has done an act of “self-immolation” that only demonstrated what a statesman and patriot he has become.
I have to admit that even though I ain’t an American, I was one of those viewers moved to tears by speaker after speaker after speaker on that stage.
This is a political junkie’s heaven.
And this is just the first day!
