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Unity was the key concept at the start of the Democratic National Convention. The unity, not only of a party weighed down by four years of fratricidal struggles, but of a country split in two by a polarizing president. The first of the four days of the pre-electoral conclave of the party, exiled by the coronavirus to cyberspace, was an experiment of conjugating the first person of the plural in an entirely virtual way. There was inspiration, courtesy of Michelle Obama. And there was a display of the broad spectrum of support for moderate Joe Biden, ranging from disenchanted Republicans to the socialist hosts of Bernie Sanders. This Tuesday night, the second day will feature, among others, the long-awaited speeches by the popular congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and whom the Democrats hope will become the next first lady, Jill Biden.
"We, the people," read the motto of the evening. But these people were a succession of images of confined individuals, addressing cameras in the solitude of their living rooms. If Joe Biden's candidacy promises a return to normalcy, the staging of his message could not be less normal. But the strange spectacle, within its limitations, worked. There was emotion, there were surprises, there was a message. And the Democratic candidacy was able to showcase the capacity for innovation and adaptation that will be necessary to face the devastating effects of the pandemic and the other challenges that await the Administration that comes out of the elections on November 3.
Inspiration was provided by Michelle Obama, the evening's star speaker. The last Democratic first lady perfectly verbalized the sense of urgency that Biden's candidacy wants to convey, and she openly made a harsh judgment of Donald Trump. "When we look at this White House for leadership, compassion or any semblance of assertiveness, what we have is chaos, division and a total lack of empathy," he said. “Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country. You've had more than enough time to show you can get the job done, but it's clearly over your head. He cannot face this moment. "
The format of her speech, intimate in tone, short shot, looking directly at the camera, sitting on a sofa, worked better than that of other speakers who chose to reproduce a conventional political discourse. Something that was cold stripped of the interaction and encouragement of the public.
Proof of the effectiveness of her speech was the fact that Donald Trump came out to attack her on Twitter. "Someone please explain to Michelle Obama that Donald Trump wouldn't be here in the beautiful White House if it weren't for the work her husband Barack Obama did," she wrote.
Obama targeted two constituencies of voters whose mobilization is vital to Democratic strategy. The African American electorate, activated by the racial justice protests that swept the country after George Floyd's death at the hands of the police, and suburban women, who were an unexpected pillar of Trump's victory four years ago. Wearing a gold necklace with the word "vote", he winked at the suffrage movement, in the week that commemorates the centenary of the approval of the 19th amendment to the Constitution that prohibits denying the vote to women.
In order to demonstrate the unifying capacity of the candidacy of Biden and Harris, the Democrats dedicated the first day of their debut to show the broad ideological spectrum that agglutinates their proposal. Voters and former Republican officials spoke, such as former Ohio Governor John Kasich, whom a career dedicated to fighting abortion rights and public spending does not prevent now from supporting Biden. "In normal times this probably never would have happened, but these are not normal times," he said. “Many [Republicans] fear he will take a sharp left turn and leave them behind. I don't think so, nobody manipulates Joe ”.
That turn to the left is precisely what the veteran senator Bernie Sanders sought with his candidacy for the primaries, who was another of the stars of the night, in charge of ensuring that, in the battle against Trump, candidate Joe Biden will also have powerful allies on the left. More forcefully than ever, Sanders confirmed his willingness to put aside his political agenda to put his followers to row in favor of Biden. ”Nero fiddled as Rome burned. Trump plays golf, ”said the veteran senator. "My friends, the price of failure is simply too great to imagine," he warned.
There was hardly any political talk during the two-hour television show. More people were talked about. From the empathy of the Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, in contrast to the inability of his rival, President Trump, to face the challenges that the United States faces.
With less than 80 days to go before the election, Biden has a solid poll lead over a President Trump who, with polarizing leadership shaken by the health crisis and its impact on an economy that was confident of riding like a winning horse, has been unable to expand the voter base that brought him to the White House. But Biden's crunch time will come Thursday, when he delivers his acceptance speech and becomes an official candidate for president.
Since the primaries were decided five months ago and lockdown began, Biden has kept a low profile that has worked in his favor. Fearful of the face-to-face between a gaffed candidate and an overwhelming president, Biden's team rubbed their hands as he watched Donald Trump single-handedly destroy his options with disastrous handling of the health crisis. But his speech Thursday, at the closing of a convention that the coronavirus has stripped of cheers and colored balloons, will inevitably mark the end of that comfortable passivity. And the true beginning of a race to the White House that, as this virtual meeting of the candidate team has demonstrated, will be different from all those that have preceded it.