At last night’s Democratic National Convention, Hillary Clinton accepted her party’s nomination for President of the United States in a powerful, unapologetic speech at the end of one of the best pep rallies America has ever thrown for itself. It was, quite frankly, a shocking victory on multiple fronts. The nomination of a woman by a major political party for the first time in United States history. And not just any woman—Hillary Clinton, the country’s perpetual rorschach test for the past 30 years. And not just any party—a revamped party that promises Obama’s America is the Real America. The Democratic Party did a brilliant job reintroducing Hillary Clinton to the world this week, but it it also did a stunning and subversive job reintroducing itself.
To really understand the impact of both of those victories, you have to go back to that fateful night in 1992 when Hillary Clinton was challenged on Nightline about her role as a healthcare policy adviser in Bill Clinton’s campaign. Her response: “I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was fulfill my profession, which I entered before my husband was in public life.” The GOP went for her jugular. Here was a woman who hadn’t immediately dropped her maiden name when she married her husband, and now she was refusing to apologize for not staying in the kitchen. With the Cold War behind them, the Republican Party needed a new enemy. It became Hillary Clinton. It became Murphy Brown. It became Ellen DeGeneres. Nuclear war wasn’t a threat anymore, but powerful women sure were.
The whole thing started in 1980, when the Republican National Convention first adopted some of the Moral Majority and Christian Coalition’s ideas into its official platform. The deal was very simple: The GOP would push through legislation to make Jerry Falwell and James Dobson’s socio-political Christian ideology into law, and in return, Jerry Falwell and James Dobson would deliver the votes of white evangelical Christians to the Republican party. A few power-hungry men coming together to decide how to bend the message of the Bible to extort the most votes from it. It was a monumentally successful strategy, and when Fox News launched itself into the world in 1996 with the goal of amplifying their message, the unholy alliance was complete.
Over the next 20 years, Fox News, the GOP, and white evangelical Christianity became indistinguishable from each other, and every event that unfolded in the political arena was a chance for them to play that false dichotomy of Real God-Fearing Americans vs. everyone else. In one of the most effective propaganda campaigns in world history, they managed to isolate the core voters of a major political party from the rest of the world and convince them that no other news source could be trusted, and neither could math, and neither could science. It became God vs. gay people. God vs. women’s healthcare. God vs. immigrants. God vs. people of color. God vs. climate change. God vs. Hillary Clinton. With the blessing of the Republican party, Fox News made villains out of every minority in the country, and from that muck rose Donald Trump.
This week’s Democratic National Convention did the most shocking thing I have ever witnessed in my lifetime: Over the course of four nights, the Democratic Party asserted that it is actually the party of faith, that it is actually the party of family values, that it is actually the party of Real America, and that Real America includes — and always has included — gay people, trans people, people of color, disabled people, Muslims, Hindus, atheists, Methodists, Baptists, Catholics, the old and the young, progressives and moderates, citizens and those on the path to citizenship and undocumented people too. Khizar Khan, the father of a Muslim Army captain who gave his life to save his fellow soldiers, whipped his copy of the Constitution out of his jacket pocket last night and offered to let Donald Trump borrow it.
The Democratic National Convention assured Americans that real faith actually aligns with liberal values. They made that statement when Mothers of the Movement took the stage. They made that statement when the survivors of Charleston did the same. They did it with Michelle and Barack Obama. Real America isn’t only white, and neither is real Christianity.
In four days, the DNC eviscerated 30 years of GOP messaging. And last night, the woman the Republican Party forced into an apron walked out onto a stage in a glowing white pantsuit to the cheers of thousands of people and said, “With humility, determination, and boundless confidence in America’s promise, I accept your nomination for President of the United States.”
All of this. I never would have thought I would have seen the DNC be MORE patriotic and talk about military MORE than the RNC, but do it in a way that brought people together and without instilling fear and hopelessness in people. Well done, democrats.
Yeah exactly! I was watching from the UK and was so happy to see this liberal patriotism fest. I’d never heard so many USA chants at the DNC, and in sharp contrast to the GOP, chants sparked by people saying they were immigrants who had become senators etc etc.
Having the three newly naturalised US citizens do the opening pledge of allegiance on day 4 was amazing.
The GOP has spent the last 20 years conditioning America to believe their nonsense and with a few days and a conference perfectly planned to counteract and destroy that ridiculous notion the Democrats gave me hope in our future for the first time in my life. The folks who planned the DNC deserve an award for the psychological structure that was damn near perfect.
I’ve never been one to declare sides in politics but hot damn #ImWithHer
This is a gorgeous write-up and almost makes up for the fact that I’ve been so poisoned by and am so anxious about this election cycle that I haven’t even been able to watch the DNC, even as it looks historic and important and interesting and sometimes wonderful. Thank you for the recaps, Heather, so I could at least participate that way.
I’m both really encouraged with the direction of the Democratic party at this convention – for the first time since I was a kid, based solely on party values, I want to ID as a Democrat (I mean the whole DNC email thing aside, that’s a whole bowl of bananas we can get into in various ways) – even as I’m convinced that the two-party system will be evolving beyond itself very soon, because the GOP is going to make itself extinct with its strict adherence to its platform of hate. I guess that’s the gamble when a party goes extremist – there’s like a tipping point where either you can scare enough of the country that the majority becomes radicalized with you, or you don’t succeed in scaring enough people and you start to look like that creepy guy in the trenchcoat on Main Street who’s always saying the world’s about to end – the guy nobody wants to stop and talk to. I AM SO HOPING that what is happening in our country is the latter, and not the former.
At the very least, we’re all VOTING FOR A WOMAN in November. Holy ovaries, I wondered when this day would come!
ah yes… ovaries… the true symbol of womanhood :/
No, not at all
I was just gonna say “holy shitballs” or but then I decided ovaries were a more positive image than…shitballs :-)
But no, my comment was not meant to say that ovaries are required for womanhood, they are absolutely 100% not
Woah, off topic but another Hazel!!!
All of this. I’d be hard pressed to find a time that I felt more patriotic or proud of America than I did after watching the DNC.
When you’ve got even arch conservative pundits agreeing that the DNC knocked it out of the park over the RNC…yeah.
Where has this Democratic Party been all my life?!
This moment:
Khizar Khan, the father of a Muslim Army captain who gave his life to save his fellow soldiers, whipped his copy of the Constitution out of his jacket pocket last night and offered to let Donald Trump borrow it.
I’m gonna carry that one in my heart. Next to “We’re not here because He isn’t good, we’re here because He’s great.”
I am insanely proud of what the DNC accomplished this week. They were not fucking around. From Morgan Freeman narrating, to some of the best speeches in history, to the theme song from Beyonce, to real billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg straight up going “game recognize game, Trump ain’t shit,” all the stops were pulled out this week.
Bravo! Excellent piece of writing and so true!
It’s a victory for War Mongering Wallstreet democrats who want to see an end to Progressivism.
Yep, I voted for Bernie in the primary and still agree with his message but after this week #imwithher.