Democrats begin virtual convention, hailing Biden and denouncing Trump’s presidency

Washington: Democrats opened the most extraordinary presidential nominating convention in recent history Monday night with a programme that spanned the gamut from socialists to Republicans, from the relatives of George Floyd to family members of those killed by coronavirus, in a two-hour event that was a striking departure from the traditional summer pageant of American democracy.

Truncated and conducted virtually because of the coronavirus crisis, the presentation at times resembled an online awards show, and it offered a vivid illustration of how both the pandemic and widespread opposition to President Donald Trump have upended the country’s politics.

Capping the evening was an urgent plea from Michelle Obama, the former first lady, for voters to mobilise in overpowering force to turn Trump out of office and elect the Democratic nominee, Joe Biden.

Breaking through the stilted online format, Obama provided the emotional high point of the night as she confronted the president directly. “Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country,” she said. “He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, speaking before Obama, gave voice to what he described as the historic stakes this November, arguing that “this election is about preserving our democracy” and alluding to his own family’s experience with Nazi Germany.

“This is not normal,” he said, “and we must never treat it like it is.”

An eye on moderates

Kicking off a four-day conclave during which they hope to both win over moderates who are uneasy with Trump’s divisive leadership and energize liberals who are unenthusiastic about their own nominee, Democrats reached for the recent past.

They showcased Sanders, the leader of the left and their reigning presidential runner-up; a handful of Republican defectors, including former Gov. John R. Kasich of Ohio; and the most popular figure from the previous administration, Obama.

They hailed Biden, the former vice-president, who will formally accept his party’s nomination Thursday, and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, and made clear their deep apprehension about the country’s future if Trump were to win a second term.

Obama portrayed the Trump era as a gallery of social and political degradation: a government defined by “chaos, division and a total and utter lack of empathy” and guided by the ethos that “greed is good and winning is everything.”

She warned that children had seen the country’s leaders “emboldening torch-bearing white supremacists,” and faulted unnamed people for recoiling from the phrase “Black lives matter” - a description that plainly applies to the president.

Virtual convention

As unlikely as the eclectic lineup of political bedfellows was, stranger still was the spectacle of an entirely virtual convention. Trying to demonstrate more responsible leadership than the incumbent has during a national health emergency, Democrats had abandoned their plans to gather in Milwaukee and built their programme entirely online.

It was far from clear Monday night whether the Democrats’ makeshift alternative to a traditional convention would generate the kind of political energy that past conclaves provided with a live broadcast of remarks before crowds roaring with enthusiasm. Oddly absent from the evening were the basic staples of convention atmospherics: applause, laughter, chanting and jeering.

The speakers appeared from different cities across the country, delivering their remarks in the fashion of the opposition party response to the State of the Union: well-written and carefully rehearsed but without the sort of audience interaction that can enhance or diminish political oratory.

While in a traditional convention the presidential nominee does not speak until Thursday night, Biden made a recorded appearance Monday. He conducted a question-and-answer session - spanning just a few minutes - to discuss systemic racism with figures including Mayor Lori Lightfoot of Chicago and Derrick Johnson, the president of the NAACP.

Sanders and Kasich, in notably different tones and styles, delivered an overlapping message about setting aside political differences to defeat Trump.

Kasich, appearing outdoors in what appeared to be a prerecorded segment, spoke the longest of any of the Republicans and sought to assuage his fellow party members’ concerns about voting for a Democrat. “In normal times something like this probably would never happen, but these are not normal times,” he said before directly addressing the fears of some conservative voters. “They fear Joe may turn sharp left and leave them behind. I don’t believe that; no one pushes Joe around.”

Striking a valedictory note, and pointing the way forward for future battles over control of the Democratic Party, Sanders directly addressed supporters of his two presidential campaigns, urging them to back Biden.

At the same time, he continued to claim the upper hand in a long ideological struggle. “We have moved this country in a bold new direction,” Sanders said, “showing that all of us - Black and white, Latino, Native American, Asian American, gay and straight, native born and immigrant - yearn for a nation based on the principles of justice, love and compassion.”

Yet before Sanders appeared, in a reflection of Biden’s ungainly coalition, some speakers sought to nudge the former vice president in a different direction. Kasich argued that Biden would not be tugged to the left, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota said he was the candidate for voters who recoiled at the country’s political extremes.

Racial injustice

The programme devoted a lengthy segment to the protests against racial injustice. Appearing above the Black Lives Matter logo painted on the street across from the White House, the mayor of the District of Columbia, Muriel Bowser, recounted her anger over Trump’s deployment of federal troops against protesters this summer.

“I said ‘Enough’ for every Black and brown American who has experienced injustice,” Bowser said.

Bowser introduced an appearance by family members of George Floyd, the Black man whose death in the custody of the Minneapolis police this spring set off a national protest movement. Philonise Floyd, George Floyd’s brother, said it was “up to us to carry on the fight for justice,” naming a number of other Black men and women slain by police in recent years, including Eric Garner and Sandra Bland.

Rep. James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, the senior Black Democrat in Congress, struck the same theme of national reconciliation, promising Biden would be “a president who sees unifying people as a requirement of the job.”

Unique event

Since the dawn of the television age, the presidential conventions have been aimed at the millions of Americans watching the festivities from their homes, with each party using its gathering to offer an uplifting case for its nominee and to savage the opposition. Those who spoke on Biden’s behalf Monday made those same appeals - but almost everything else about the nature of this event was unique.

While the presentation had the unmistakable aura of life in a pandemic, the roster of speakers had a more vintage feel - less a vision of the Democratic Party’s future than a bridge to the 20th century. There were those nearing or in their 80s: Sanders and Clyburn; three Republicans who made their names in the 1990s, Kasich, former Gov. Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey and former Rep. Susan Molinari of New York; and a current governor whose name evokes conventions’ past, Andrew Cuomo of New York.

Cuomo’s remarks, however, were far less lofty than those delivered in 1984 by his father, Mario Cuomo, a rousing speech that earned him national recognition. On Monday night, Andrew Cuomo focused on New York’s response to the coronavirus crisis. “Only a strong body can fight off the virus, and America’s divisions weakened it,” said Cuomo, calling Trump’s response to the pandemic “dysfunctional and incompetent.”

Perhaps the most searing critique of Trump came not from an elected official but from Kristin Urquiza, a young woman whose father, a Trump supporter, died after contracting the coronavirus. Speaking briefly and in raw terms about her loss, Urquiza said of her father, “His only preexisting condition was trusting Donald Trump, and for that he paid with his life.”