Friday August 21, 2020; 9:25 AM EDT
- Last night's DNC went by quickly. Julia Louis-Dreyfus was funny. The speakers spoke warmly of Joe Biden, including Bernie Sanders. Everything was great until the moment Biden stepped up to speak. His first few sentences were awkward, the words were vague and muffled. I started to get up from the chair, not wanting to listen. I thought I'd clean up and go to bed, but I decided that I have to sit through this, so I did, and I was quickly riveted and glad to hear him touch on all the important points, ones that no one had made through the week. #
- Until that point I thought Michelle Obama's speech was the best. I thought Barack Obama's was weak. I don't think the Constitution is the strongest appeal, it's the lack of leadership, we're all left to fend for ourselves against a virus that's killing huge numbers of Americans. We could deal with a little authoritarianism, I feel, if it was in the cause of saving our lives. The fear isn't rooted in the 170K Americans who have already died, it's the next 170K and the ones after that. We all want to survive this. With Trump in for four more years, our chances of not being destroyed by the virus are zero. I think that is by far the strongest appeal. And until Biden, amazingly, in four days of the DNC, no one had made it. He didn't quite make it explicitly either, but he came pretty close. #
I often feel there's this divide between our leaders and the people. And I don't kid myself, the divide is there between Biden and us too. All the stories about how he gave people his phone number, or sat down and talked for hours with a random person, those are touching for sure, and even if they are real, I know he'll never call me. It was the equivalent of having a beer with Bush or shooting hoops with Obama. I wish one of these politicians had a practical vision -- of a political social network that mobilized us 365 days a year, every year, not just when there's an election. Biden is not that person, nor is Kamala Harris. When they're elected they will govern like Obama did, and will be vulnerable to the same Republican sabotage that he was. But. Biden was not awkward. His speech was more a fireside chat than a DNC acceptance speech. Yes, I am convinced he is on our side, relative to the current president. A low bar for sure, but it grabs me emotionally, also physically, cheering, sobbing. It would be such a relief, on Election Day, to find we had come together and elected Biden and Harris in such large numbers that everyone will see what a fool Trump is, even his most vocal supporters, and we'll tell him to STFU, with one voice, and just retire in disgrace to his bunker in Russia. It's a dream I allow myself to have. And it was supported by Biden's speech last night. That's political speech at its best. It was a good thing I sat my butt back down and listened. #