Biden’s capstone and thesis at the DNC
For nearly an hour at the opening of the 2024 Democratic National Convention (DNC) this week, the incumbent president of the United States applied a capstone and thesis to his remarkable career in politics—part memory, part reflection, all an inflection point in American history. Toward the end of the speech, there was an Othello-like farewell when the president asked, “What shall our legacy be? What will our children say? Let me know in my heart when my days are through. America, America, I gave my best to you.”
Some of President Joe Biden’s best, most recently, has been devoted to assuring the continuance of democracy and fending off the proto-fascist aims of Donald Trump, whom he mentioned more than two dozen times, none of them flattering. After shuffling on stage at the convention to embrace his daughter, Ashley, he eased into his soliloquy with words about why he sought the presidency.
“We’re in the battle for the very soul of America,” Biden began. “I ran for president in 2020 because of what I saw at Charlottesville in August of 2017—extremists coming out of the woods, carrying torches, their veins bulging from their necks, carrying Nazi swastikas, and chanting the same exact antisemitic bile that was heard in Germany in the early ’30s…old ghosts, and new garments, stirring up the oldest divisions, stoking the oldest fears, giving oxygen to the oldest forces that they long sought to tear apart America.
“In the process, a young woman was killed. When I contacted her mother to ask about what happened, she told me. When the president was asked what he thought had happened, Donald Trump said, and I quote, ‘There were very fine people on both sides.’ My god. That’s what he said. That is what he said and what he meant.”
Biden didn’t have to say anything more about Trump because the elephant at the event, and certainly part of Biden’s thesis, had been properly nailed by Shawn Fain, head of the UAW, who called Trump a “scab,” the words emblazoned on his T-shirt, and Sen. Raphael Warnock, who declared Trump a “plague” on America.
There were the expected speeches celebrating and elevating Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, but few were as electrifying as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the first of the speakers to mention Gaza and the turmoil in the Middle East. Her outrage toned down considerably, with a nod to Harris, Ocasio-Cortez said, “And she is working tirelessly to secure a cease-fire in Gaza and bring the hostages home,” to cheers from the crowd.
One of the networks gave a quick glimpse of the Rev. Jesse Jackson seated at the convention.
Biden did not miss this crucial point about Gaza. He devoted several moments to the situation. “We’ll keep working to bring hostages home, end the war in Gaza, and bring peace and security to the Middle East,” Biden said. “As you know, I wrote a peace treaty for Gaza. A few days ago, I put forward a proposal that brought us closer to that goal than we”ve been since October 7. We’re working around the clock, my Secretary of State and I, to prevent a wider war; reunite hostages with their families; and surge humanitarian aid, health services, and food assistance into Gaza now; to end the civilian suffering of the Palestinian people, and finally, finally, finally deliver a ceasefire in this war.”
Referring to protests being held near the convention, Biden said, “Those protesters out in the street, they have a point. A lot of innocent people are being killed on both sides. Just as we worked around the clock to bring home wrongfully detained Americans and others from Russia, in one of the most complicated swaps in history, but they’re home, Kamala and I are going to keep working to bring all Americans wrongfully detained around the world home. I mean it.”
It was well into the second day of the convention when Biden ended his remarks, but he set the stage for what could be an increasingly intensified meeting and unification event. “I can honestly say, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, giving my word as a Biden—I can honestly say I’m more optimistic about the future than I was when I was elected as a 29-year-old United States senator. I mean it,” he said again. “Folks, we just have to remember who we are. We’re the United States of America. And there’s nothing we cannot do when we do it together.”
Harris provided a portent of things to come when she suddenly appeared on stage in the middle of the proceedings, as if to create added momentum. It was just a sample of what the delegates had already experienced and what they can expect as they move toward her official nomination.
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