The Best and Worst of Day 1 at the Democratic National Convention

If nothing else, make sure to watch Hilary Clinton’s 17-minute speech

Last night at the United Center in Chicago, thronged with some 50,000 adoring Democratic Party faithfuls and fans, I witnessed the best and worst of the American presidential nominating system.

What touched the hearts of tens of thousands was the love and enthusiasm that filled the hall. Love cracked and soared for Kamala Harris & Tim Walz, Hilary Clinton, and Joe Biden, among dozens of other standard bearers of the party.

Most moving, and for me generative of a few tears in the corners of my eyes, were two moments in the more than five-hour pageantry. The first was when Hilary Clinton approached the podium. The applause and chanting was deafening. Secretary Clinton wished to speak, but loud cadences of rising and falling expressed love silenced her minute after passing minute.

The second moment that rocked the convention was, likewise, Biden standing at the podium, waiting a full four minutes to begin his speech. Once again, it was love and gratitude that electrified the hall.

These were the emotional highlights of Day 1 of the convention, but also the moments that left me pessimistically persuaded that neither party will likely ever give up these lovefests in exchange for conventions that actually restore checks and balances to the nomination of presidential candidates.

As I watched the breathtaking pageantry from the third level, I juxtaposed it in my mind with the Republican National Convention that took place in this same city in May of 1860.

The convention that elevated Lincoln to the presidential general election was a working convention. It was a nominating convention. It was rough-and-tumble democracy in action. It was not a tender show that made party faithfuls and fans, like me, weep.

I am divided in my mind. I love a happy party atmosphere as much as anyone. But, taking the long view, I wonder where the all-important checks against candidates dangerous to democracy are going to be reinserted into the nominating and electoral processes of both parties.

The electoral college? Ranked choice voting in primaries? Fervent prayers that the next time an authoritarian demagogue obtains the White House the Constitution’s powers of impeachment and conviction will be successfully exerted to remove him or her from office?

Something must be done. And, as my limbic system infers from last night, vital reform is not going to happen any time soon at these rapturous, fun-loving conventions.

Therefore, the search for reform solutions to the demagogue problem continues.

By the way, do watch Hilary Clinton’s 17-minute speech from last night. It represents the best of what the Democratic Party has to offer the nation today.

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