About Last Night...

Equal parts uplifting and disappointing, the night was saved by Kamala Harris giving the speech of her lifetime.

Night Four of the Democratic National Convention was largely in service of trying to attract every last centrist flag-waving white American possible. Democrats in Congress that served in the military all took the stage for one piece. A Michigan sheriff in his regalia gave a speech, as did former Secretary of Defense/CIA Director/White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta and former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger. The word freedom was declared in every way, emblazoned on every screen, video, and in every song played. Flags that grew in size waved throughout the crowd over the course of the night. Some speeches simply saw delegates holding signs reading USA. You couldn’t baseball and apple pie this thing harder if you tried.

There were some endearing moments alongside these, such as Kerry Washington with Kamala Harris’s young nieces teaching the crowd how to properly pronounce her name. Pink’s acoustic performance with her daughter Willow (she’s got Mom’s singing genes). Maya Harris speaking of her sister with enthusiasm and love. Gabrielle Giffords, thirteen years and seven months removed from a bullet in her brain, gave a speech that was as much a love letter to her husband, Senator Mark Kelly, as it was to promoting Harris. One thing that can be said, consistently, about this week is that the DNC showed very normal, happy people living normal, happy lives. Governors Gretchen Whitmer and Gavin Newsom went on podcasts and talked like regular people, telling jokes and uttering a swear or three. Black culture was out front and celebrated, from Lil’ Jon, John Legend with Sheila E & Ari O’Neal, and the aforementioned Ms. Washington to Beyonce, Stevie Wonder and Amanda Gorman. My wife casually mentioned last night that she’d never seen a convention night that went so long without a single white person on stage—that’s change right there.

The speech itself, though, was remarkable. It made up for the dull moments and the questionable booking choices. Kamala Harris went out and simultaneously gave one of the shortest and one of the best acceptance speeches of all time (it also drew more television viewers and streams than Trump’s, which will likely set him off again). She told her story well, and then shifted into high gear to prosecute the case against Trump. Harris became forceful, the prosecutor in her coming out and absolutely dissecting Trump’s attitudes, behavior, and yes, his crimes. Crimes he was convicted for. The tax fraud and business fraud and the civil liability for sexual assault, and the ones the Supreme Trump Court has protected him from as well. She then pivoted straight into abortion, culminating in the line of the night.

Over the past two years, I have traveled across our country. And women have told me their stories. Husbands and fathers have shared theirs. Stories of: Women miscarrying in a parking lot…Getting sepsis…Losing the ability to ever have children again…

All—because doctors are afraid of going to jail for caring for their patients. Couples just trying to grow their family…cut off in the middle of IVF treatments.Children who have survived sexual assault, potentially forced to carry the pregnancy to term.

This is what is happening in our country. Because of Donald Trump. And understand, ---he is not done. As a part of his agenda, he and his allies would: Limit access to birth control, Ban medication abortion, and enact a nation-wide abortion ban with or without Congress [JD Vance and Project 2025’s love affair with the 19th-century Comstock Act].

And get this, he plans to create a National. Anti-Abortion. Coordinator, and force states to report on women’s miscarriages and abortions. Simply put, They Are. Out. Of. Their. Minds.

It was the perfect distillation of the modern GOP. Out of their minds. Absolute fucking weirdos. But she wasn’t done yet. She then pivoted to foreign policy, and did two things: She said she wants to end the war so that the hostages are brought home, Israel is safe, and Palestinians can realize their right to dignity (such an important distinction, a word that matters given how Israel’s right-wing has worked so hard to strip them of all of it), security, freedom, and self-determination. Not just “a Palestinian state,” but dignity and self-determination. Those were deliberately chosen words, and they need to be followed with action. I hope she can further explain, and hopefully pull away from, Biden’s existing “strongly worded conversations with Bibi Netanyahu” while continuing to arm his government that is committing daily war crimes. She then delivered two other very, very memorable lines. After saying how the world’s dictators are rooting for Trump to win, she said “Because, in the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny, I know where I stand—and where the United States of America belongs.” A few minutes later, she closed with a hell of a statement.

It is now our turn to do what generations before us have done. Guided by optimism and faith, to fight for this country we love. To fight for the ideals we cherish, and to uphold the awesome responsibility that comes with the greatest privilege on Earth: The privilege and pride of being an American.

We don’t hear our leaders talk enough about the fact that we do have enormous privilege just by virtue of being American, and while many of us, myself included, aren’t proud of America most days because we aren’t as good or virtuous as we like to claim we are, I would be a liar if I didn’t appreciate my privilege of American citizenship.

I would be remiss, especially after what I wrote Wednesday night, to not mention the lack of a Palestinian speaker. This is exactly one of those things that I’m not proud of, that I really am disgusted by. The DNC’s refusal to even accept elected Palestinian American Democratic officials like Ruwa Romman or Rashida Tlaib go on stage with vetted speeches for five minutes, when they made time for cops and Republicans is shameful. Beady-eyed shit-for-brains Charlie Kirk of fascist training camp Turning Point USA was credentialed for the DNC, while pillow salesman and coup bankroller Mike Lindell shaved his mustache, snuck into the United Center, and harangued a 12-year-old kid about the 2020 election on camera. Those two clowns were allowed inside, but we couldn’t have a Palestinian speak to the importance of the Gaza Genocide to Americans on a moral and personal level? That’s a political failure that could well cost Democrats crucial votes in Michigan this November, and a moral failure that echoes that of Britain’s Labour Party in their own election. The level of distrust of party members that are of a certain ethnicity, by black leadership no less, is a terrible look. It makes it even more necessary for Harris to put distance between Biden’s policies on Israel and her own, in my opinion, so she doesn’t lose those most enthusiastic about her.

Those issues aside, it was one of the great convention speeches, the best since Barack Obama’s in 2008, and it may prove to be one of the defining moments in the election of our first female president. I definitely feel far more hope than I did 45 days ago, with someone attempting to kill Trump and Joe Biden in full doom and gloom mode. It was a recipe for disaster, and somehow, a miracle has happened. There is hope, and joy, on one ticket, while the other struggles to not be weird. I’m so glad the hope and joy is on our side.