Day 1 of the DNC: recap with vids and my thoughts. [View all]

[auntpurl]

Well, that was...quite something, wasn't it?

I started the day (well, evening in my case, 4:00pm there is 9:00pm here) quite optimistic. The AME church choir, the beautiful film about Philadelphia (my hometown), and Boyz II Men, Philly natives and all around good guys from everything I know. They rocked the house!

We then had our first moment of disunity and disrespect. The Rev. Dr Cynthia Hale, an AA woman pastor, was giving an uplifting invocation, and people chanted "BERNIE BERNIE BERNIE" all over the prayer, drowning her out and actually forcing her to stop speaking for a moment. Uh oh.

The National Anthem sung by the young Bobby Hill gave me chills.

Barney Frank got some scattered boos, but spoke well.

Marcia Fudge seems very much like the kind of woman you do NOT want to mess with. I like that in a woman.

Then came what I hope we can all agree was the nadir of the night. Rep Elijah Cummings, a hero of the civil rights movement, gave a moving, wonderful speech about his father, a sharecropper who picked cotton in South Carolina, his heritage, his pride, the BLM movement, and women's rights. For no discernible or acceptable reason, people screamed "NO TPP" over the top of nearly the entirety of it. A civil rights icon screamed at, booed, and chanted over by DEMOCRATS. That was when I really lost it. I cried for a long time. All I could think was how the media would spin this, how the Republicans will use this in attack ad after attack ad, and how this disunity could and still might lose us the election.

Fortunately, things started to improve the tiniest bit after that. Three of the Labor leaders who spoke really knocked it out of the park. Very rousing. It's clear they address (rowdy?) crowds regularly and with success.

I was incredibly moved by the strong emphasis placed on substance abuse recovery and mental health, and I will always be grateful Hillary is talking about these things very publicly and with passion. It was one of the issues listed on her website that really surprised me when I first read it. I am so grateful.

Bless little Karla Ortiz, who might have been the most uplifting speaker there last night. I think an entire nation held its breath thinking "If they boo this little girl, I am coming through my TV/computer screen". But fortunately they managed to find some measure of self-control and it was a really nice moment. For ANY fence sitters that might remain, I suggest sitting and watching this video on repeat until you maybe start to recognise what's at stake in this election:

Astrid Silva was also wonderful in this section. What a great speaker she is.

Al Franken killed it for the first of TWO times of the evening. We'll get back to him.

Anastasia Somoza, the disability rights advocate, I don't think is getting her dues for what was a really wonderful speech. Watch it again here if you missed it:

Then it was Al Franken and Sarah Silverman, up to kill time, make jokes as well as some extremely insightful remarks, before introducing Paul Simon. I really started to feel the crowd pushing back against the protestors now. I really started to feel the mood change. Paul Simon might be a little wavery, but his soul still shines through his voice like it always has. Couldn't find a vid but if i find one later today I'll insert it.

Eva Longoria was smart and fiery. I've always liked her. She, and the Latino speakers of the evening in general, probably did the best to skewer Trump's bigotry and the direct impact of this election. Short but impactful speech:

Then came one of the huge highlights of the evening, at least for me. Cory Booker gave a soaring, wonderful, inspirational speech that reached the heights of oratory last seen at the DNC by Barack Obama. His inclusion of the Maya Angelou poem "I Rise" just made it even more beautiful. He was on my VP shortlist and I still think he would have made a fantastic candidate, although I really adore Tim Kaine. This is not the last of Cory Booker we'll see on the national stage, I can bet you that. Chants of "WAR HAWK" over his speech, but drowned out quickly by applause and cheers.

I expected Michelle Obama's speech to be good. I did not expect to spend the entire speech with tears running down my face, hands clasped, saying "Bless her" and "YES GIRL" over and over again. I did not expect to stand up in my empty living room alone at the end of it and clap for her. I did not expect to think at one point, "This might be better than whatever Barack pulls out". I did not expect her to, through her sheer force of beauty, grace, poise, class and brilliance inside and out, turn the whole evening around. People knew better than to boo Michelle Obama. She is beloved by everyone. She showed why tonight. Speech of the evening by a country mile. I watched it again this morning and cried again just as passionately as I did the first time. This is why I am a Democrat:

The cute redheaded young Kennedy had to follow that up, bless him. Luckily he only had to introduce Elizabeth Warren, who basically took a giant pair of scissors to Donald Trump and proceeded to snip little pieces off him until he was left as a pile of Cheeto-colored confetti on the floor. She also gave an impassioned and heartfelt defense of Hillary. Chants of "WE TRUSTED YOU" marred the moment, but were drowned out by cheers.

After all that, it was sad to see Keith Ellison got hammered by chants of "NO TRUST NO UNITY" which took a while to subside. He gave a great endorsement of Hillary and introduced the final speaker, Bernie Sanders.

I'm not sure why they put Bernie last. It was originally supposed to be Michelle Obama last, and I certainly think that would have ended the evening on a more purely uplifting note, but I think your mileage of whether you felt Bernie's speech was uplifting or not very much depends on whether you were/are a supporter of his. I freely admit that I found it difficult to "feel" him and really get into his message because of the behavior of a MINORITY of his supporters up to that point in the evening. I think he could have done MUCH more to communicate to his supporters that this behavior was unacceptable BEFORE his speech, for the past several days and weeks (and really throughout the campaign), but as for the speech itself, he probably did everything he could to try to bring people together. He certainly said the magic words, "Hillary Clinton MUST be the next president of the United States", and for that I thank him very much.

So. That was the night. I got my first two hides on DU EVER, can't really tell if they were deserved or not, because I was so angry and sad and frightened and appalled at different points in the evening that I may have crossed the line. I cried in sadness and in happiness. I thought at different points "Oh my god, we are going to lose this election" and "We are DEFINITELY going to win this election". I have never been more passionate about being a true-blue, lifelong Democrat.

I'd like to finish by giving a special thank you to the VAST MAJORITY of Bernie supporters who COMPLETELY get it, understand what's at stake in this election and are generous, intelligent, and selfless enough to find common cause and promote unity. That's here on DU, in that convention center, and out in the world. THANK YOU. You are SO appreciated by me and I think I can speak for every other DUer. I know my remarks last night may not have been as careful to specify "SOME Bernie supporters/delegates" as I should have been, and for that I deeply apologise. I was more emotional than I've ever been on DU last night watching that. So please, if I made you feel unwelcome in any way, I apologise and I hope you can forgive me. You are more appreciated than you know.

Thanks for reading. What did you guys think?