Letters from an American - August 19, 2024

Episode Date: August 20, 2024

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August 19, 2024. The Democratic National Committee today released a platform that lays out the history of the last four years and explains how and why the Biden-Harris administration has oriented the United States government toward ordinary Americans. It is, in many ways, a snapshot of the United States of America in this moment. At the most basic level, it shows how rapidly the political world is changing. Approved on July 16, five days before President Joe Biden announced he would not accept the nomination, it refers to Biden and not to Vice President Kamala Harris as the party's nominee. At a grander scale, though, the platform suggests the country is entering a new political alignment. In its length and scope, it recalls the 1980 Republican

platform that launched the Reagan Revolution and the modern Republican Party. Unlike that platform, which laid out what the Republicans hoped to accomplish if voters put them into power, today's Democratic platform recounts almost four years of work on which to base the Democrats' future plans. As the Republican Party that coalesced under Reagan has crumbled into a Christian nationalist authoritarianism, the Democrats have come together into a pro-democracy coalition. That coalition includes Republicans eager to stop Trump and his allies. They have signed on to elect Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz in order to preserve democracy, but are clear they are not embracing the Democratic Party's policies. The Harris-Walz campaign has welcomed them. The Republicans' platform is heavy on slogans, many of which are in all caps, saying things like we will defeat inflation, tackle the cost of living crisis, improve fiscal

sanity, restore price stability, and quickly bring down prices, without any suggestion of how they will bring about such sweeping changes. In contrast, the Democrats laid out their policies today in a detailed 90-page platform that places the accomplishments of the Biden-Harris administration in a larger framework of protecting American democracy. and explains how they designed those measures to address both economic inequality and the historic racial and gender discrimination that has held back women as well as racial and gender minorities. The central theme of the platform is fairness. Some version of that word appears in the document 58 times. The nation's government and the globe have been skewed toward a few rich people. The Democratic platform says that they should pay their fair share and that those Americans who have been held back by systemic discrimination

should have a fair shot at success. Our nation is at an inflection point, Our nation is at an inflection point, the platform's preamble reads. What kind of America will we be? A land of more freedom or less freedom? More rights or fewer? An economy rigged for the rich and powerful? Or where everyone has a fair shot at getting ahead? Taking office in the midst of a crisis, Democrats proved once again that democracy can deliver and made tremendous progress turning the country around. But Trump will destroy

those victories, focusing not on opportunity and optimism, but on revenge and retribution. but on revenge and retribution. He and his extreme MAGA allies are ripping away our bedrock personal freedoms, dictating what health care decisions women can make, banning books, and telling people who they can love. They're rigging our economy for their rich friends and big corporations, pushing more trickle-down tax cuts for the wealthy and powerful. They are eroding our democracy with lies and threats, have refused to denounce political violence, and are making it harder to vote. And, given the chance, they'll keep stacking our courts, locking in their extreme agenda for decades. History has shown that nothing about democracy is guaranteed, the platform reads. Every generation has to protect it, preserve it, choose it. We must stand together to choose what we want America to be. The Democratic platform was the backdrop today for the opening of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois.

Today's theme was for the people. And today's speakers hit that goal, aiming directly at voters by telling two compelling stories of America. by telling two compelling stories of America. While the evening was designed to honor President Joe Biden, it did that not so much by focusing on his administration's achievements, although they were there, as by emphasizing how his qualities, his initiatives, and his faith in America have restored the nation's better qualities,

setting it on a positive path. Speakers told a wide range of stories about the many kindnesses of Biden, Harris, and Walls. Representative Jasmine Crockett, a Democrat of Texas, teared up when she recounted Harris's kindness to her as a new lawmaker. Golden State Warriors and U.S. National Basketball team coach Steve Kerr noted that Harris and Walsh have spent their careers serving other people. Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan talked of how, as Walsh does the work for Minnesota, he brings along a bottomless bag of snacks, nutter butters, cheese curds, and diet dew. Speakers talked about how the Democrats are getting things done. Representative Joyce Beatty, a Democrat of Ohio, said that J.D. Vance and Trump like to talk about states like Ohio, but Kamala and Joe actually get stuff done for us.

Kamala and Joe actually get stuff done for us. United Auto Workers Union President Sean Fain and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat of New York, emphasized the support of Biden, Harris, and Walz for unions and other working Americans, noting that they come from a middle-class background themselves. And they talked about what patriotism means. Representative Robert Garcia, a Democrat of California, said, my mom taught me to love this country. She taught me that real American patriotism is not about screaming and yelling America first. Real American patriotism is loving your country so much that you want to help the people in your country. That is American patriotism. Senator Raphael Warnock, a Democrat of Georgia, brought the crowd to its feet when he offered the Democrats underlying moral doctrine.

I need my neighbor's children to be OK so that my children will be okay, he said. I need all of my neighbor's children to be okay. Poor inner city children in Atlanta and poor children of Appalachia. I need the poor children of Israel and the poor children of Gaza. I need Israelis and Palestinians. I need those in the Congo, those in Haiti, those in Ukraine. I need Israelis and Palestinians. I need those in the Congo, those in Haiti, those in Ukraine. I need American children on both sides of the track to be okay. Because we are all God's children. And so let's stand together. Let's work together.

Let's organize together. Let's pray together. Let's stand together. Let's pray together. Let's stand together. Let's heal the land. In contrast to this forward-looking community vision, the speakers made clear, often with memorable humor, that the future Trump offers is as dark as his own vows of retribution and revenge. They spoke of how he cares only about himself and how Trump has vowed to be a dictator. Several people mentioned Project 2025, which South Carolina Representative James Clyburn called Jim Crow 2.0.

Flanagan told the crowd that her brother was the second person in Tennessee to die of COVID. Flanagan told the crowd that her brother was the second person in Tennessee to die of COVID. Garcia said his mother and stepfather both died of it. The DNC showed a video of Trump downplaying the disease. Individuals affected by the abortion bans enacted after the Supreme Court overturned the right to abortion care told their heart-wrenching stories. And they talked about Trump's crimes. Representative Crockett asked voters which of the two candidates they would hire. Kamala Harris has a resume, she said. Donald Trump has a rap sheet. Representative Jamie Raskin, a Democrat of Maryland, noted that Trump's Vice President Mike Pence is the first

Vice President in more than 200 years not to support the President he served with in a general election. Someone should have told Donald Trump that the President's job under Article 2 of the Constitution is to take care that the laws are faithfully executed, not that the vice president is executed. J.D. Vance, do you understand why there was a sudden job opening for running mate on the Republican ticket? They tried to kill your predecessor. Senator LaFonza Butler, a Democrat of California, told the crowd, We deserve a president who shatters the boundaries of what's possible, not the boundaries of what's legal. The Democrats tonight wove the past into their story of the future, creating a new history in which the present moment is part of a longer trajectory.

the present moment is part of a longer trajectory. Civil rights leader Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., who worked alongside the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., received a standing ovation tonight. And when former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took the stage, the crowd roared. Something is happening in America, she said. You can feel it. Something we've worked for and dreamed of for a long time. She recalled the history of women's suffrage in the United States, noting that her mother was born before the ratification of the 19th Amendment, and she remembered the path-breaking leadership of New York Representative Shirley Chisholm, the first woman to run for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, and Representative Geraldine Ferraro, also of New York, who ran for vice president in 1984.

Then she spoke of her own nomination for president in 2016. Nearly 66 million Americans voted for a future where there are no ceilings on our dreams. And afterward, we refused to give up on America. Millions marched, many ran for office. We kept our eyes on the future. Well, my friends, she said, the future is here. She urged everyone to keep going. Kamala has the character, experience, and vision to lead us forward. When Biden took the stage at the end of the night, he was greeted with a longstanding ovation and chants of, we love Joe. He reiterated the deep importance of family and thanked his own before recounting the accomplishments of his administration in rebuilding the damaged country that he inherited in January 2021. And then he turned to democracy. The vote each of us casts this year will determine

whether democracy and freedom will prevail. It's that simple. It's that serious, he said. And the power is literally in your hands. History is in your hands. America's future is in your hands. Nowhere else in the world could a kid with a stutter and modest beginnings in Scranton, Pennsylvania and Claymont, Delaware, grow up to sit behind the resolute desk in the Oval Office. the resolute desk in the Oval Office. That's because America is, and always has been, a nation of possibilities. And we must never lose that. Each of us has a part in the American story. For me and my family, there's a song that means a lot to us that captures the best of who we are as a nation. The song is called American Anthem. There's one verse that stands out. The work and prayers of centuries have brought us to this day.

What shall our legacy be? What will our children say? Let me know in my heart when my days are through, America, America, I gave my best to you. For 50 years, I have given my heart and soul to our nation, and I have been blessed a million times in return with the support of the American people. I hope you know how grateful I am to all of you. I can honestly say I'm more optimistic about the future than I was when I was elected as a 29-year-old United States Senator. We just need to remember who we are. We're the United States of America. There is nothing we cannot do when we do it together. Letters from an American was produced at Soundscape Productions, Denham, Massachusetts. Recorded with music composed by

Michael Moss.