The Democratic National Committee hosted the second night of its convention — themed “A Bold Vision for America’s Future” — on Tuesday.
A good chunk of the messaging was focused on policy — and specifically, the elements of the progressive agenda implemented by the Biden administration that Donald Trump intends to dismantle — and introducing voters to a more personal side of Vice President Kamala Harris.
But Democratic speakers from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to both Michelle and Barack Obama also shared a message of urgency, warning that time is not on Democrats’ side given the historically short sprint that this campaign cycle has been and will be for the Harris-Walz ticket.
“If we each do our part over the next 77 days, if we knock on doors, if we make phone calls, if we talk to our friends, if we listen to our neighbors, if we work like we never worked before, if we hold firm to our convictions, we will elect Kamala Harris as the next President of the United States and Tim Walz as the next Vice President of the United States,” former President Barack Obama said.
More on some of the standout themes from the second night of the convention:
Republicans Have Regrets
Several Republicans, including former Trump staffer Stephanie Grisham, Mesa, Arizona Mayor John Giles and a former Trump voter, took the stage on night two, calling on the Republican voters out there, who are not happy with the current state of the GOP or with where the party is heading, to join them in supporting the Harris-Walz ticket.
“I have a confession to make. I’m a lifelong Republican. But I feel more at home here than in today’s Republican Party,” Giles told the audience. “The Grand Old Party has been kidnapped by extremists and devolved into a cult. The cult of Donald Trump.”
“I have an urgent message for the majority of Americans who, like me, are in the political middle,” Giles later added. “John McCain’s Republican Party is gone and we don’t owe a damn thing to what’s been left behind. So let’s turn the page. Let’s put country first.”
Giles: "I have an urgent message for the majority of Americans who like me are in the political middle. John McCain's Republican Party is gone and we don't owe a damn thing to what's been left behind. So let's turn the page. Let's put country first." pic.twitter.com/PKggA9bZEf
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 21, 2024
Protecting IVF
Building off of Monday night’s reproductive freedoms theme, Democrats delivered a clear message on Republican plans to go after access to in vitro fertilization in a second Trump term. While Republicans and Trump himself have made plenty of empty promises about their support for the procedure in the wake of an Alabama Supreme Court ruling that declared embryos “children,” Democratic speakers ran the tapes, pointing out all the times Republican lawmakers have voted against federal protections for IVF in the two years since Roe’s overturning.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), who sponsored the Senate bill that would have secured nationwide access to IVF if Senate Republicans hadn’t blocked it from advancing to a vote twice since June 24, 2022, was the most qualified speaker to address the issue.
“How dare a convicted felon like Donald Trump treat women seeking health care like they’re the ones breaking the law,” Duckworth said. “How dare JD Vance criticize childless women on cable news then vote against legislation that would’ve actually helped Americans to start families. How dare the GOP endanger the dreams of countless veterans who’s combat wounds prevent them from having kids without IVF.”
“It’s simple,” she added. “Every American deserves the right to be called ‘mommy’ or ‘daddy’ without being treated like a criminal.”
Duckworth: "How dare a convicted felon like Donald Trump treat women seeking health care like they're the ones breaking the law. How dare JD Vance criticize childless women on cable news then vote against legislation that would've actually helped Americans to start families." pic.twitter.com/eYqrMwjuSw
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 21, 2024
Mothers And Grandmothers
Mothers and grandmothers, in person and in spirit, have been constantly invoked over the past couple days. Monday night, Hillary Clinton said she wished that her and Harris’ mothers were alive to witness the latter’s candidacy. Harris’ mother has been a main character in the video interludes. Angela Alsobrooks opened her story with her mother teaching herself to type. Michelle Obama said that she’d decided to speak tonight to honor the memory of her mother, who recently died. Barack Obama held up his mother-in-law and grandmother as espousing the “better angels” of American life.
The female candidates for president, all two of them that we’ve had in recent years, have had to walk a tightrope about the historic nature of their candidacies. As it is, Republicans immediately stamped Harris a “DEI candidate.”
This roundabout way to get at its import has been very poignant — the idea that Harris, and all of the women who support her, are standing on the shoulders of women who got less recognition, less pay, less respect, less safety. It’s the classic American dream story, that the sacrifice and endurance of the women who came before built a world where a President Harris is a possibility.
Hope
Both Michelle and Barack Obama shaped their speeches around hope, the slogan of the former president’s 2008 campaign.
”America, hope is making a comeback!” Michelle Obama said as she opened up her speech.
But hope is not enough, both Obamas pressed.
“As we embrace this renewed sense of hope, let us not forget the despair we have felt. Let us not forget what we are up against,” Michelle Obama said. “Folks are energized. We’re feeling good. But remember there are still so many people desperate for a different outcome.”
“No matter how good we feel tonight, or tomorrow or the next day, this is going to be an uphill battle. So folks, we cannot be our own worst enemies,” she added. “The minute something goes wrong, the minute a lie takes hold, folks, we cannot start ringing our hands. We cannot get a goldilocks complex about whether everything is just right. We cannot indulge our anxieties about whether this country will elect someone like Kamala instead of doing everything we can to get someone like Kamala elected.”
Michelle Obama is fantastic: "We cannot be our own worst enemies. The minute something goes wrong, the minute a lie takes hold, folks, we cannot start ringing our hands. We cannot get a goldilocks complex about whether everything is just right. We cannot indulge our anxieties." pic.twitter.com/wrOy2wJqon
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 21, 2024
Obama joined in on the message of urgency, saying Democrats need to get to work to make sure Harris and Walz are elected.
“If we each do our part over the next 77 days, if we knock on doors, if we make phone calls, if we talk to our friends, if we listen to our neighbors, if we work like we never worked before, if we hold firm to our convictions, we will elect Kamala Harris as the next President of the United States and Tim Walz as the next Vice President of the United States,” Obama said.
“And together we too will build a country that is more secure and more just, more equal and more free. So, let’s get to work!” he added, as an energized crowd cheered on.
Obama closes night 2 of the DNC: "Let's get to work!" pic.twitter.com/aIoGODlueU
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 21, 2024
Let’s get to work, people. We’ve been punching fascists for more than 80 years — we can do it in 3 months, too. Get out every single vote. Overwhelm all the GOP shenanigans so all their efforts at vote suppression don’t matter. Let’s go, baby!
That is all.
They should use that when they put him on a stamp.
I got to the original thread too late to add this, glad I can put it here. Both my beloved parents (RIP) were born and raised in the Twin Cities (St. Paul/M’pls), so all the stuff about Walz, MN dad jokes, humility, humor, simple plain liberalism, is familiar and close to my heart. Something about tonight reminded me of this piece by Garrison Keillor, old but never forgotten, finally found via the Archive. “Democratic bedrock.” I wanted to gift it to the convention somehow, but this will have to do. From 2004.
“There is a message here: if lower taxes are your priority over human life, then we know what sort of person you are. The response to a cry for help says a lot about us as human beings…A Democrat knows that the leaf turns and in the human comedy we are one day spectators and the next day performers.” Difficult in spots, passionate, lovely, spot-on.
The media always wants a horserace, but is this race as close as everyone says it is? Everyone I know is looking for a brighter future. People I knew to be MAGA fanatics are sick and tired of Trumps antics.
I say this late at night right after the Democrats sold out two arenas in different cities in the middle of one of the best conventions I have ever witnessed.
In the morning when I wake up I will go back to believing this is a close race but right now I am excited by hope and joy.