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There have never been two campaign gatherings like this week’s US Democratic convention and next week’s Republican one. Stripped to their essentials by the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 conventions cannot match the energy of normal years. Yet the big speech by the presidential candidate at the convention remains a defining campaign moment, and this year is no different. The greater severity imposed by the virtual convention is also appropriate. For this is not a normal US election year. It is one in which the central contest between Donald Trump and Joe Biden will define the future of the United States and the world like few others.Because of the constraints, the Democratic convention lacked true razzmatazz. In that respect it was tailor-made for Mr Biden’s decent, stubborn but markedly unexciting political message. And yet the lack of glitz had certain advantages. It meant that the nightly coverage offered to American voters this week was more serious-minded. The televised broadcasts were full of ordinary people’s video accounts of what they are going through as a result of the pandemic, recession and racism. The format also meant that Mr Biden could use his acceptance speech to cut to the chase about the issues at stake in November’s election, rather than play up the rhetoric that would have been expected in a packed hall. In any case, Barack Obama had powerfully supplied that form of oratory the previous evening.Mr Biden nevertheless delivered an effective and successful speech. He did not mention Mr Trump by name at any point. Yet everything he said in his 25-minute address was completely explicit about the profound contrast between the two candidates. America was experiencing “too much anger, too much fear, too much division”, he said. In the heart of the speech, he zeroed in on four policy crises which together define the choice voters must confront – the worst pandemic in a century, the worst economic crisis since the 1930s, the biggest movement for racial justice since the 1960s, and the “undeniable” threat of climate change. Together, these crises faced America with a perfect storm, through which Mr Biden promised “a path of hope and light”. Such language can sound vacuous, but Mr Biden was absolutely right about the four great issues. He has also usefully cast himself as the candidate of optimism.The Democratic leader made much of his claims to be a unifier. His choice of Kamala Harris as his running mate has helped. The convention also went some way to unite this party for the task to come. There were significant speeches from defeated rivals, notably Bernie Sanders, who has rallied behind Mr Biden since the primary season ended and played his hand well during subsequent policymaking processes. Elizabeth Warren made a strong and humane contribution too. Mr Obama’s speech was a stirring reaffirmation of his belief in an American system of democracy and justice which Mr Trump has done so much to undermine and in which the faith of many natural Democrats has been deeply challenged by events including police killings. Although Mr Biden is a candidate from the heart of old Democratic politics, it is worth noting that this year’s convention had a watershed feel because it was the first for decades not dominated by the Clintons.Mr Biden will not be an inherently exciting Democratic candidate. There are good reasons for asking whether he has either the vision or the capacity to turn post-Trump America around successfully. He is instinctively happier reaching out to the middle ground than driving the new radical agenda that the times also demand. But he came through this week much better than some feared. His campaign, like his life, has shown resilience and judgment. His offer of hope and light is well crafted for such dark times. Now Mr Biden must also beat Mr Trump. Now it gets harder. The world is willing him on. More
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Democratic national convention 2020
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A unique Democratic national convention gave countless memorable moments, from Kamala Harris’s historic nomination as vice-president, to Michelle Obama’s harsh words for Donald Trump. Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and former president Barack Obama echoed her words by giving scathing reviews of the Trump administration. Others who showed their support for Harris and Joe Biden’s nomination included healthcare activist Ady Barkan, former US congresswoman and shooting survivor Gabby Giffords, comedian Sarah Cooper, actor Julia Louis-Dreyfus and singer Billie Eilish
Biden vows to end ‘season of darkness’ as he accepts Democratic presidential nomination
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Julia Louis-Dreyfus and former presidential candidate Andrew Yang open the final night of the 2020 Democratic National Convention with a not-so-subtle dig at Republicans mispronouncing vice-presidential nominee Kamala Harris’s first name
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Kamala Harris
Harris spoke about structural racism, injustice in healthcare and being a ‘proud black woman’ – fresh words for the presidential stage
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Kamala Harris reflects on vice-presidential nomination at DNC – video
The first note that Kamala Harris sounded in her first speech as the Democrats’ official vice-presidential nominee was not about Donald Trump, or Joe Biden, or the crossroads to which the country has arrived.
Instead Harris began her acceptance speech at the party’s national convention Wednesday by looking backwards, to the black women activists who fought historically for the right to vote and then for “a seat at the table”.
“We’re not often taught their stories,” Harris said. “But as Americans, we all stand on their shoulders.”
It was a powerful and graceful tribute to open a speech most often used for quickie biographical sketches to introduce candidates to the big convention audiences watching at home.
It also performed the magnificent trick, in turning the lens away from Harris, of underscoring for Democrats just how different the new vice-presidential nominee is from the party leaders of yore – and how well she might lead the party of tomorrow.
If Biden is elected president – which remains a significant if – the victory will be built on many shoulders. The question is who will be standing on them. The obvious answer, for a few years at least, would be Biden, the prospective Oval Office occupant.
But for some Democrats watching Harris’s acceptance speech at the national convention on Wednesday night, in which she spoke personally about racial justice, immigration and gender equality – exactly the key planks of the party platform – the identity of the new leader of the Democratic party was equally obvious, and it was not Biden.
“That I am here tonight is a testament to the dedication of generations before me,” said Harris, the first woman of color on a major-party presidential ticket. “Women and men who believed so fiercely in the promise of equality, liberty and justice for all.”
Just as Harris, the daughter of Jamaican and south Asian immigrants, embodies a future the Democratic party has aligned with – non-white, non-male, pluralistic, non-dynastic – her speech reached corners of the party identity that no one else in speeches to the convention, not even Barack Obama, could touch.
Harris’s acceptance speech had the familiar cadence of a political speech, but it was full of lines that were totally new in the mouth of an elected official on the presidential stage. Harris used the phrase “structural racism” to describe why black, Latino and indigenous people are “suffering and dying disproportionately” from Covid-19. She called out “the injustice in reproductive and maternal healthcare”.
Praising her mother, the potential future vice-president said: “She raised us to be proud, strong black women. And she raised us to know and be proud of our Indian heritage.”
The focus on Harris as the potential standard bearer for Democrats owes in part to Biden’s age. At 77, he would be the oldest person ever to be sworn in for a first term as president, and speculation has abounded that he would serve a single term if elected.
Setting aside the significant question of whether the vice-presidency automatically elevates a politician as the party’s leader – Biden himself might differ – Harris faces obstacles to capturing the heart of a party invigorated by calls for generational change.
She failed to attract significant Democratic support as a presidential candidate in her own right earlier this year. Her perceived coziness with law enforcement and perceived failure to challenge wrongful convictions as attorney general of California have drawn criticism from progressives, who harbor some skepticism about her incarnation on the campaign trail as a warrior for equal justice.
“Women of color, particularly progressives, might feel torn,” Guardian columnist Derecka Purnell wrote earlier this month. “Progressives will have to defend the California senator’s personal identity, while maneuvering against her political identity.”
At 55, Harris is two decades younger than Biden, and in something of a historic sweet spot age-wise for presidential candidates – but the intensity of the party’s progressive wing could focus an increasing amount of Democratic energy behind a younger leader, closer to Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s generation than Harris’s.
Whether Harris’s biggest moment is yet to come, she is in the middle of a moment now. In his speech on Wednesday night, Obama described her as a “friend” and “an ideal partner” for Biden “who’s more than prepared for the job”.
“We’re at an inflection point,” Harris said. She was talking about the promise of equal justice under the law, but she could have been talking about the future of Democratic party politics.
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