2020 DNC thread (starts at 9pm ET)

[Heebie Jeebie]

Everybody keeps saying 2020 is the most important election of our lifetimes, but we all know it was 2016.

[Heebie Jeebie]

I'm no Sanders fan, but this is a good speech and I appreciate what he's doing.

[Heebie Jeebie]

Now, imagine of Sanders gave a speech like that four years ago.

Oh God.  I agree, but let's not open that can of worms.

[Heebie Jeebie]

I like how a whole wing of the democratic party has kind of created this alternate history where Bernie Sanders campaigned against Hilary until election day or something, as if he didn't do 39 events for her and there weren't multiple media personalities (and Hilary herself!) praising Bernie at the time for how hard he was working for Hilary. Sure you can say he wasn't urgent enough in his tone or underestimated the chances of Trump winning, but that wasn't exactly unique to him!

https://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/bernie-sanderss-hard-fight-for-hillary-clinton

Those who paid attention know this, but there's a segment of Democrats unwilling to accept any responsibility for their loss four years ago. It's long past time to move on and focus on current elections. I'm glad that the speakers at the DNC aren't stuck in this firing-squad mentality.

As someone who was paying attention, I'm disappointed that so many remove Sanders's late efforts from the broader context.  Did he do rallies for Clinton?  Sure. Did Clinton praise his efforts?  Of course. What else was she going to do?  But all this was only after weeks if not months of sulking, of sitting idly by while his followers disrupted the convention, of drawing the campaign out for weeks longer than necessary so he could keep pounding the message that Clinton was corrupt/untrustworthy.   But blah blah blah we've argued this to death. Bygones are bygones, and Sanders has acted much more responsibly and reasonably this cycle. And his speech last night seemed effective and sincere. Good on him for learning his lessons four years ago.

[Heebie Jeebie]

I can't believe we went from someone as incredible as Obama to this orange clown

It’s a pendulum. Bush was a redneck idiot who couldn’t string a sentence together and only got anywhere because of his family name. We elected his total opposite, an incredibly smart and eloquent, well-spoken black man who earned his success. Now in reaction we’ve got a racist idiot even more incoherent than Bush and even less deserving of his “success.”

Worth reminding everyone that Republicans lost the popular vote in seven of the last eight elections.  Without a system rigged in their favor, these idiots wouldn't be making it to the White House.

[Heebie Jeebie]

No balloon drop?

[Heebie Jeebie]

dude kamala's speech was hella good!! like the call to action? impeccable. resplendent. exactly what she needed to say.

Democrats are really good at politics!  To echo a point I made earlier, they have to be, given how the system is rigged against them.  If Democrats weren't significantly more capable politicians than Republicans, they'd never win.

[Heebie Jeebie]

Biden should de-emphasize gun control.

This country is not in the mood for it, especially with the defunding of police.

People will defend themselves more when the local government can't serve the people effectively.

Gun control, abortion shouldn't be discussed tonight.

Jobs, economy, race relations, Afghanistan pullout should be the only things he addresses.

I agree.  And they could stop harping on Biden's decency so much.  We know!  He's not a scumbag like Trump.  Just, tell us how you're going to stop the rich from stealing our public wealth.  Give us some class warfare.

[Heebie Jeebie]

More “lifelong Republicans”....oh joy.

They are entirely critical to building a winning coalition. These are sensible Americans who want a change.

Okay, but Kasich, Powell, or a Republican veteran aren’t going to be the reasons why suburban Republicans vote for Biden. The fact that he’s not Trump is good enough for them. imo you may as well use this convention to give more time to people like Yang or AOC, who are actually Democrats and can energize the base to turnout.

I think the risk is they wouldn't vote at all.

[Heebie Jeebie]

So which clips from Biden's speech will make the evening news?

[Heebie Jeebie]

Was his speech *that* good?
Genuinely curious, I am not able to watch today (of all days)

I cried for the first time during a political speech that wasn't sad from hope.

No joke, I had tears too.  And I'm about as jaded as it gets--this moment just feels consequential.