The most shameful moment at this year’s Democratic National Convention (DNC) came on Tuesday night. Political commentator and The View cohost Ana Navarro, whose father was part of the Contra death squads secretly funded by the Ronald Reagan administration, euphemistically portrayed her family having to leave Nicaragua as “fleeing communism” and got applause for comparing Donald Trump to “the communists.”
That was jaw-dropping. But most of the other bad moments were more predictable. Uncommitted delegates were frozen out of meaningful participation. Venture capitalist and former American Express CEO Ken Chenault was invited to talk about how saving democratic institutions from Trump is important because those institutions create such a favorable business environment. Illinois governor J. B. Pritzker, in an otherwise supremely forgettable speech, jabbed Trump for not being a “real” billionaire like himself. Barack Obama’s speech was a reminder of exactly why his brand of liberalism was so thoroughly mediocre. And the less said about Hillary Clinton, the better.
The Democratic Party is a mess of contradictory forces that would be in different parties in any normal parliamentary democracy. Consequently, there were good moments too. Bernie Sanders was great as usual, showing off once again that he has the tightest message discipline in contemporary American politics. Every time he opens his mouth, he talks about wages and inequality and health care. And much of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s speech was good, even if it was marred by her spurious claim that Kamala Harris is “tirelessly working” to achieve a cease-fire in Gaza. On Wednesday night, the proportion of January 6 relitigation to even remotely populist policy was dismal,…
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Auteur: Ben Burgis
