Democrats kicked off their 2020 convention with a surprising bid to appropriate many of the American symbols that they have spent the past three months trashing, including recitations of the preamble to the Constitution, the Pledge of Allegiance and the national anthem.
A choir performs the National Anthem virtually, with singers representing all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Cherokee Nation and five territories at the start of the 2020 #DemConvention. https://t.co/U4wuWUc53u pic.twitter.com/K3KX6mCeMy
— ABC News (@ABC) August 18, 2020
While paying lip service to party diversity, including a prayer by a Latino preacher, the tone made clear that the target audience will be middle America and not the radical socialist wing of the party.
Here we go! Check it out tonight to learn and be inspired for the future of our country! ??https://t.co/GIf7neWRVo pic.twitter.com/be1QAYktsu
— Eva Longoria Baston (@EvaLongoria) August 18, 2020
In fact, they appeared to pay a disproportionate amount of attention to clearly courting potential “crossover” voters such as small-business owners, farmers and suburban moms.
In the first segment, emcee Eva Longoria asked a Zoom panel of four “typical” Americans the question “How are you doing?”
Pennsylvania business owner Scott Richardson complained that they had been hit harshly by the trade war with China.
“I don’t understand how we got here we are the greatest nation in the world and it just seems to me that maybe if we just came together… we could overcome it,” he said.
Farmer Rich Telesz, also of Pennsylvania, seemed clearly to be one of many hesitant Biden supporters who felt ambivalent about the presumptive Democrat nominee but seemed determined to change courses.
“My biggest concern is, you know if these trends continue with this type of leadership, I will be the last generation,” he said.
It would not be the last time that the script veered toward fearmongering.
Immediately afterward, Texas schoolteacher Michelle Beebe laid it on thick for women voters who feared Trump was trying too quickly to reopen the schools.
“Honestly right now, all I can think about is keeping my kiddo safe… and it’s a little scary with all the uprise in COVID cases,” she said.
Longoria reiterated the message for any who were busy readjusting their masks the first time.
“There’s nothing more difficult for us as moms than to see our children suffer,” she said.
She then asked the panel, “Do you believe that change is coming? do you believe that better days are ahead?”
But true to form in the Biden era, she allowed no opportunity for them to elaborate other than a one-word “Yes.”
The DNC didn’t stop there. It made it explicit playing not one but two Bruce Springsteen songs that appealed to citizens to “rise up” and then trotted out a former Trump voter, now a registered Democrat.
“I’m fairly ashamed to say it but I’m one of many who voted for the current president, Donald Trump,” he said.
“It’s also really difficult to vote for someone who essentially has zero platform,” he continued. “…We have a chance right now to look ourselves in the mirror.”
But many others were to follow, including the daughter of a Trump-supporting coronavirus victim who claimed, that the president had killed her father.
Kirstin Urquiza speaks at DNC online convention about her father who died from COVID: “His only preexisting condition was trusting Donald Trump.”
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) August 18, 2020
Even while dwelling on some of the more radical issues, they tended to downplay agenda items like the “defund the police” movement.
“Most cops are good but the fact is that the bad ones have to be identified and prosecuted, period,” said Biden himself in a round-table Zoom panel.
The panel promised later in the evening to bring out other NeverTrump Republicans including former Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
Former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman; former Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman and former Rep. Susan Molinari, R-NY introduced Kasich, who claimed the country was at a “crossroads.”
“I’m a lifelong Republican but that attachment holds second place to my responsibility,” he claimed. “…Many of us can’t imagine four more years going down this path.”
If the idea was a tightly controlled opening with few fireworks, they succeeded.
The format—much like a spliced-together fundraising telethon—seemed to struggle with transitions or any clear focus, and it was likely to see a massive drop over past DNC conventions.
A choir performs the National Anthem virtually, with singers representing all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Cherokee Nation and five territories at the start of the 2020 #DemConvention. https://t.co/U4wuWUc53u pic.twitter.com/K3KX6mCeMy
— ABC News (@ABC) August 18, 2020
