Dear America,
When I was a kid, my father used to watch the party conventions every four years, which of course, thrilled me no end. But in his defense, there wasn't anything else on; we had six or seven channels to choose from, and the three major networks were all carrying the proceedings. I would watch too if I couldn't find anything else to do, but not with any particular interest. Now, as I leave middle-age for senior status...well, I still don't like to watch the conventions as a rule, but this year, I think that will be different. The Republican convention still doesn't mean anything to me, but the Democratic convention, that could affect the entire world. The main focus of my interest isn't who will be nominated. No matter what Bernie Sanders says, it's going to be Hillary in November. But the platform of the party, that's another story.
Sanders has done our polity an enormous favor by running. His campaign started out as an eccentricity being carried out by an eccentric senator from a second tier state. Vermont is beautiful, but no one ever said as Vermont goes, so goes the nation. I thought--and I imagine that many, if not most others thought--that Sanders would go the way of Eugene McCarthy in 1972 or Ralph Nader over and over again, but we were wrong. First, Sanders made a legitimate run for the nomination, and he almost got there. It is still the case that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, but Sanders was only a couple of hundred delegates behind when all those votes were counted, and in the course of getting all those votes, he made sure that Democrats everywhere heard him. His campaign was the first truly populist campaign I have ever witnessed regardless of how many times other candidates have tried to don the mantle of The People's Man. He pointed his crook of a finger at the banks and the financial industry as well as at corporate America and the avarice of those who run it, which they do, acquiring obscene amounts of wealth in the process, at the expense of the working people who actually create this country's wealth. He segregated the 1% from the rest of us in terms of virtue, and made it clear that being rich is not a get-into-heaven free pass, even in a somewhat distorted form of capitalism like that which this nation practices. In this convention, the platform is the thing, and I think I will be watching attentively just to see what eventuates. I think everyone should.
The quintessence of my interest is to see how the Democratic Party distinguishes itself from the other guys. Abortion is the avatar for women's issues in general, and the Republicans will almost certainly make a "right to life" plank prominent in their platform. The Democrats would probably prefer not to mention abortion, but in the end, I think they will have to, and while I doubt that I could have one if I were a woman, not being a woman, I don't think my intuition is at all authentic. I am strongly in favor of a woman's right to chose, and I always have been, but more importantly, the Democratic Party should be, and I think that a solid position will emerge from the convention platform debate. Then there's xenophobia, which anyone with Italian, Irish or Jewish immigrant parents will see as central to democratic and Democratic ideology. Donald Trump stands for a kind of fear and animus that is wholly un-American, and a large segment of the American voting public has taken a citizenship oath at some point in their lives. Trump is not what they took that oath to defend, and I have no doubt that the Democratic platform will emphasize inclusiveness and generosity of spirit in that regard. Of course, Trump will fight for a plank about his wall, though the party-elite will probably prevent it from being accepted, and he'll advocate for a plank on reducing taxes, which the Republicans will probably endorse enthusiastically, whereas the Democrats will most likely advocate a fairer division of tax liability to relieve the middle and working classes of some of their burden and impose the onus on the wealthiest of Americans instead. In short, the platforms will distinguish the ethos of the Democratic Party from that of the Republicans, but then comes the interesting part.
Once the parties as wholes take their ideological positions, how are they going to present them to the voting public? Will they come out swinging, or will they try to minimize the differences in areas where they are not quite sure of voter sentiment; that is the question that matters most, and that is where Bernie Sanders comes back in. When the campaigning starts, he will resume his advocacy on behalf of the American working people, and the Democratic Party will not be able to marginalize him. If they are smart, the Democrats will nominate Sanders for vice-president, which will give him license to be The Party's stalking horse. He can go out and make the pitch without the party as a whole taking a hit if the public is not on its side with regard to the more contentious issues. Bernie can put the wood to Trump without making the party as a whole seem too aggressive and unseemly, and he will never have to give Trump the chance to respond to the criticism. Hillary will debate Trump, but Sanders will never be at the same forum with him, and thus can speak with impunity in terms that the majority of the American people have demonstrably endorsed.
Yes, the conventions matter to me this year. But its effect on the campaign? That I'll really be watching for with interest.
Your friend,
Mike
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