OPINION:
Political party conventions, like the incoming tide, bring a surge of energy that has dissipated since the last quadrennial gathering. With crowds of loyalists, balloons, confetti and, most of all, the rock-star-like ascendance of the party’s chosen champion, the confab launches the presidential campaign season designed to capture the White House. It’s gone like a shattered dream, though, in the year of the coronavirus. Democrats have settled for a virtual convention, with all the sensation of a texted birthday wish.
Billed as “Uniting America,” the 2020 Democratic National Convention kicked off Sunday night with an interfaith service, giving God a nod before proceeding with a four-day worship of Big Government. Little hoopla is heard in Milwaukee as originally planned –- the program is channeling in from party faithful keeping a safe social distance. “The message we aim to deliver is simple,” writes convention program executive Stephanie Cutter. “Joe Biden is the steady, compassionate and experienced leader America needs right now to bring us together and steer our nation out of Trump’s crises and constant chaos and build a better future for all.”
More accurate she would have been to proudly say: “And steer our nation out of the crises and constant chaos we Democrats have created in an effort to defeat The Donald and build a better future for ourselves.” From Russia-gate to Ukraine-gate to impeachment, from COVID-19 lockdowns to hydroxychloroquine bans to a block of the most recent virus relief bill, the Democrats’ singular objective for nearly four years has been to boot President Trump from office.
A dizzying assortment of meet-ups — the Rural Caucus, Seniors Council, LGTBQ Caucus among them — are scheduled for virtual face time in support of Tuesday’s “Leadership matters” livestream theme. The evening program features the likes of former Acting Attorney General and Trump critic Sally Yates, former Secretary of State and Iran nuclear dealmaker John Kerry, and former President and almost-First Husband Bill Clinton. They share a common ax to grind: Each suffered a dinged reputation when Mr. Trump surprised the world with his election in 2016.
Some left-fielders who have considered themselves high in the pantheon of Democratic Party politics have discovered they’re not as essential to the ideological messaging as they thought. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York didn’t disguise her unhappiness last week at being only allowed to present a brief pre-recorded message during Tuesday’s evening program. “I only have a minute,” she tweeted. That’s 60 seconds more than her fellow “Squad” members are allotted.
Themes of “A More Perfect Union” and “America’s Promise” shape the virtual proceedings on successive days, with additional organizations holding Zoom-type chat-fests with like-minded Democrats. Evening speakers escalate in stature as the convention wears on, progressing from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to former President Obama to Kamala Harris, the party’s first Black vice-presidential candidate.
Finally, Joe Biden is scheduled to accept his party’s nomination for president — remotely from his home state of Delaware — on Thursday at 10 p.m., if it’s not past his bedtime. Assuredly, Americans want Mr. Biden to explain how he plans to fulfill his campaign slogan to “Build Back Better.”
There is the matter of his vow to raise taxes — an additional $4 trillion over 10 years, according to the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. While he has promised to spare families earning less than $400,000 annually, hiking the corporate income tax rate from the current 21% to 28% would hinder job creation in the best of economies. During the current economy-crushing pandemic, the proposal that the Trump campaign calls “the biggest tax increase in history” would add insult to an injured electorate.
The Biden proposal to make an additional 4.9 million residents eligible for premium-free health care while simultaneously granting citizenship to 11 million illegals would add trillions in government expenditures. His infrastructure and clean energy plan would cost another $2 trillion that Uncle Sam doesn’t have. That’s pocket change, though, compared to the $93 trillion Green New Deal that Ms. Harris admires enough to sponsor in the Senate.
Voters are waiting to see whether Mr. Biden will doff his face mask long enough to condemn the radical hellions who are ravaging the nation’s cities. If Democrats’ only strategy for defeating Mr. Trump is razing their communities, Americans are likely to “build back elsewhere.”
The odds that the Biden-Harris ticket can succeed at “Uniting America” from a distance with a virtual convention look remote.
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