Today, Explained - Unconventional

Episode Date: August 21, 2020

The Democrats proved a virtual convention doesn't have to be a downer. Especially when Rhode Island brings calamari. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. The Democrats held the first ever virtual convention of a major American political party this week. It was four nights of programming that looked a lot like the Zooms and WebExes we've become accustomed to during this pandemic. Or, as President Obama put it when he spoke on Wednesday night,

As you've seen by now, this isn't a normal convention. It's not a normal time. Instead of having a big convention hall stage, we had celebrity hosts in TV studios. I first met Joe Biden when I was doing my show, Veep. I played the vice president, and he was, in fact, the vice president, and we hit it off immediately.

Instead of music piped in through speakers or live performances, we got glossy music videos from Billie Eilish and John Legend and the constant, unrelenting use of Bruce Springsteen's My City of Ruins to pad every last transition from speaker to speaker to video to video to video. Come on, rise up. Come on, rise up. But the virtual thing occasionally worked in the Democrats' favor. Convention roll call is typically one of the longest slogs of the week. And now we go to the delegation from Utah.

La-di-da-di-da. This time around, in a time where many of us are grounded, we got to go to every last state and territory from North Carolina. I've been doing this for a long time, so let me just be plain. Black people, especially black women, are the backbone of this party.

And if we don't show up, Democrats don't get elected. I'm putting on my mask and we're going to every corner in North Carolina to help organize. To American Samoa... On behalf of the Governor Lolo Matalasi-Molina and the American Samoa Democratic Party, we proudly cast 11 votes

for our next president of the United States of America, Joe Biden. To exotic Rhode Island? The calamari comeback state of Rhode Island casts one vote for Bernie Sanders and 34 votes for the next president, Joe Biden. And the boss was with us for the entire journey. COVID forced the DNC to reimagine what a political convention looks like, and COVID was also a theme that ran throughout the week.

Ellen Nilsson was watching and reporting for Vox. Right off the bat, they talked to a local businessman who, you know, just runs a small business and said that he had lost 40% of his revenue because of COVID. We've literally had to reinvent our business several times since the beginning of the year just to stay afloat. So there was a lot of discussion with small business owners, with first responders, a school nurse in Texas wearing her Cookie Monster scrubs who had just gone back to school. It's a little scary with all the uprising and COVID cases. Democrats kept hitting on this thing over and over again, which was it didn't have to be this bad that Donald Trump and the current federal government had mismanaged the crisis so that it had gotten that bad. Bernie Sanders on Monday night gave his speech and uttered this famous phrase.

Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Trump golfs. Also on the first night, you know, one of the most poignant speeches was not made by a politician, but it was made by this woman named Kristen Urquiza, who is a woman from Arizona whose dad died of COVID after that state's reopening. My dad, Mark Anthony Urquiza, should be here today, but he isn't. And, you know, she very calmly but angrily basically said, you know, the federal government's response is the reason that my dad died. My dad was a healthy 65-year-old. His only pre-existing condition was trusting Donald Trump, and for that, he paid with his life.

The thing that killed him basically was listening to Donald Trump, essentially. There were so many moments where people like Kristen sort of stole the show from the headliners, but I suppose we have to talk about some of those people at the top of the bill. Michelle Obama was the first to really leave an impression by my accounting. Yeah, she was the first sort of real keynote on Monday night. And it was interesting. There was kind of this incredible contrast between Monday night when she gave her speech and 2016. And I was actually in Philadelphia in 2016.

Oh! And I remember just this incredible just roar from the crowd when she walked on stage. Thank you so much. And this was when she sort of delivered her very famous when they go low, we go high line. When someone is cruel or acts like a bully, you don't stoop to their level. No, our motto is when they go low, we go high. And the energy in that room was just so raw and so palpable. And of course, on Monday

night, there was none of that. She was sitting in a room by herself. It was a pre-taped speech, so it had already been taped. But it still was extremely powerful, even though she didn't have that crowd there cheering her on. Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is. Building on her 2016, when they go low, we go high speech, she kind of hit that again and said, going high is the only thing that works. Because when we go low, when we use those same tactics of degrading and dehumanizing others, we just become part of the ugly noise that's drowning out everything else. She was, you know, saying we still need to appeal to our better selves, basically, and also was really urging people to go vote in November

to make it a critical part of their civic duty and not to let it pass them by. Come on, rise up. Come on, rise up. And then Barack Obama and Kamala Harris had to speak on the same night. And no disrespect to Kamala, but it felt like Barack Obama

maybe gave the more memorable speech. It was memorable because Barack Obama, like, pulled no punches. He was not quiet at all and made no bones about how he felt about the Trump presidency. For close to four years now, he has shown no interest

in putting in the work. No interest in finding common ground. No interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends. No interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves. Donald Trump hasn't grown into the job because he can't. And the consequences of that failure are severe. Like speakers before him, he really hammered home the point.

They are counting on your cynicism. That voting this year is critical. That's how a democracy withers, until it's no democracy at all. And we cannot let that happen. Do not let them take away your power. Do not let them take away your democracy. And he also spoke, you know, very glowingly and warmly about his partnership with Biden when Biden was his vice president. Twelve years ago, when I began my search for a vice president, I didn't know I'd

end up finding a brother. They are very close personally. It's, you know, one of the closest relationships between a president and a vice president, probably in modern history. Joe is a man who learned early on to treat every person he meets with respect and dignity, living by the words his parents taught him. No one's better than you, Joe, but you're better than nobody. And so Obama was able to speak about Biden not just as somebody who has worked with him for eight years, but also on a personal level as a friend. Come on, rise up. Come on, rise up. So I guess that brings us to the main event, Joe Biden's speech on Thursday night.

Yeah, so you've basically had all of these people making arguments for why Joe Biden should be chosen, but now Joe Biden essentially had to make that argument himself. Character is on the ballot.. Character is on the ballot. Compassion is on the ballot. Decency, science, democracy, they're all on the ballot. Who we are as a nation, what we stand for, most importantly, who we want to be, that's all on the ballot.

And the choice could not be more clear. It was a vintage Joe Biden speech. It was appealing to, you know, America's better nature and, you know, trying to write its moral compass in the age of Trump. And he also presented a strong contrast in terms of leadership around the world. I'll be a president who will stand with our allies and friends and make it clear to our adversaries. The days of cozying up to dictators is over. The message that came through over and over again is, if you elect me president, I will do the things that need to be done to keep you and your family safe. I will do the things that need to be done to keep you and your family having a steady paycheck. It was very much like if I am elected president, you won't have to constantly be worrying about what I'm going to do

or say or tweet next. Our current president has failed in his most basic duty to the nation. He's failed to protect us. He's failed to protect America. And my fellow Americans, that is unforgivable. And this is a moment where Biden can very effectively make that speech. Just judge this president on the facts. Five million Americans infected by COVID-19. More than 170,000 Americans have died. By far the worst performance of any nation on earth. He showed a real difference between Trump, and there were no slip-ups, really, to speak of. There were no gaffes, and that's what he needed to do.

You ready for the next one? I hear there's another convention next week. I mean, it's going to be another four nights. I think it's going to be tonally a lot different from the Democrats. It always is. But I mean, the thing that I'm sort of looking for is if there's really any messaging on, you know, economic populism or any of the things that sort of spurred voters to elect Trump in 2016, or if it has just sort of become this kind of cult of personality around Trump himself. But the other thing, too, is it's worth keeping in mind that these two hours of really tight television, Monday through Thursday, that was months of work leading up to that. I mean,

Democrats had started to prepare for the scenario that there would be just an all-virtual convention back in April. And Republicans, from what I've heard, haven't necessarily put in that amount of time into it. They were still talking about having an in-person convention up until July. And so if you have one month left to prepare, that's not a lot of time. So I think people are just going to be looking to see like if the Republicans virtual convention is going to be as clean as the Democrats was. Well, Ella, we'll probably have you on to talk about it at the end of next week. Thanks so much. Sounds good. Thank you. Less Bruce, more Ezra after a break. Thank you. digital photo frame by Wirecutter. Aura frames make it easy to share unlimited photos and videos directly from your phone to the frame.

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That's A-U-R-A-Frames.com promo code EXPLAINED. This deal is exclusive to listeners and available just in time for the holidays. Terms and conditions do apply. Bruce, enough already, my word. Ezra Klein-Vox, sorry about that. What did the Democrats need to accomplish this week beyond the technical feat of an all-virtual convention? What did they need to deliver in substance? So convention is about a party presenting the version of itself that it wants the public to see. And what Joe Biden believes the party should be at this moment in this campaign and what the public wants is an answer

to the problem of Donald Trump. And an answer to the problem of Donald Trump. And an answer to the problem of Donald Trump, no matter whether you don't like Trump because you're a moderate Republican who feels that he's betrayed the party you stand for, a party that was once respectable, that had a moral core, that believed in policies and values, or if you're a social Democrat who thinks we both need a more progressive America, but also Donald Trump is going to push us into fascism. And what they were trying to create in this convention was a campaign coalition, a coalition big enough to decisively destroy Donald Trump in November. And it ultimately came together with much more power than I anticipated in Joe Biden's acceptance

speech. So what you're saying here is that the Democrats may not have unified their ideology this week in any real way, but they did unify the message as the Democrats need to defeat Donald Trump and Joe Biden is very much the person to do that, whether you're AOC or John Kasich or some other Republican who spoke this week. Yeah, and I would go even a little bit further than that. The Democratic convention, and this is particularly true in the speeches of Barack Obama and then Joe Biden, wasn't just about the idea of defeating Trump. It was very much about the idea of what is America? What is the story of America? And both Obama and Biden, in somewhat different ways, but with a really cohesive approach, they tried to tell a story about who we are as Americans, what we are,

what makes us great, what has defined our history, in which Donald Trump is actually the villain of that story. And I think it's actually important, right? This is contesting the very fundamental narrative of the country. This administration has shown it will tear our democracy down if that's what it takes for them to win. So we have to get busy building it up by pouring all our efforts into these 76 days and by voting like never before for Joe and Kamala and candidates up and down the ticket so that we leave no doubt about what this country that we love stands for today and for all our days to come and then joe biden came out and i was struck by the first words of his speech good evening ella baker a giant of the civil rights movement left us with this wisdom give people light and they will find the way. Give people light.

Those are words for our time. The current president has cloaked American darkness for much too long. Too much anger, too much fear, too much division. Here and now, I give you my word. If you entrust me with the presidency, I will draw on the best of us, not the worst. I'll be an ally of the light, not the darkness. It's time for us, for we the people, to come together and make no mistake, united we can and will overcome this season of darkness in America. I mean, he spoke about this like it was Lord of the Rings. And for a moment, I was taken aback a bit. I mean, it's much blunter than political rhetoric normally is. But then as it sat with me and he went through it, I thought, yeah, actually, it is simply that blunt.

This moment in American politics, what is represented by the two candidates is that blunt. I mean, Biden's message is fundamentally that he likes you, that he respects you, that even if you don't agree with him, you are still part of his beloved community. And Trump's message is the opposite. I guess a question I have, though, is like, who is that message for at this point? Anyone watching that convention. But my sense is that the people watching this convention, the people who are tuning in for eight hours of DNC propaganda, they agree with that message.

Well, nobody tunes in for 8 hours. It was only us. It was like 46 journalists had to watch the whole thing. And my mom, apparently. And your mom. But I'd say two things on that. One, it does reach further, particularly through in like modern media, clips and distribution. I mean, Fox News said Joe Biden's speech was excellent.

Oh, I thought it was an enormously effective speech. Remember, Donald Trump has been talking for months about Joe Biden as mentally shot, a captive of the left. And yes, Biden was reading from a teleprompter and a prepared speech, but I thought that he blew a hole, a big hole in that characterization. Right. So those are people who probably were not watching the DNC, but they got some version of Joe Biden's speech. And kind of shockingly, they got it with good reviews. But it is always a case that politicians speak to a narrower slice of the country than they would like, but they kind of have to act as if that's not true. But in terms of who they want to speak to, who they frame this for, it was not just Democratic Party diehards. They made an argument that was made to the whole country in the hopes that more

people than they could imagine would somehow or another hear it or hear parts of it. What they were trying to say is that there is an America. Donald Trump doesn't represent it. And if you don't want it to feel like this, if you don't want it to feel like we are at each other's throats, that we don't like each other, that we are a country on the verge of some kind of spiritual dissolution, vote Democratic. What comes next in the Joe and Kamala show? Is it just perform well at the debates and then there's an election?

Well, look, they're going to have to build structures right now that are pretty unprecedented. What does get out the vote mean this year? It's maybe not going to mean the kinds of massive busing to the polling operations that you see in previous cycles because maybe they'll be unsafe. So is it get out the mail vote? I think so. cycles, because maybe they'll be unsafe. So is it get out the mail vote? I think so. That was certainly something running through the convention and making sure that doesn't feel toxic or dangerous to people, making sure that vote will be counted. They have to raise money. There's going to be a massive air war, right? Advertising doesn't do much this far away from the election, but as you get closer to it, it really can matter. So they're raising a lot of money to make sure they can have airwave dominance. I have to assume this far away from the election. But as you get closer to it, it really can matter.

So they're raising a lot of money to make sure they can have airwave dominance. I have to assume the reason Mike Bloomberg got a prime time speaking slot on the prime night of the election. Good evening. I've never been much for partisan politics. Is because they are hoping he keeps that promise to spend a billion bucks between now and Election Day.

Wait, you don't think it's because he's a super compelling speaker? I mean, the raw animal charisma of Mike Bloomberg is not to be underestimated. Donald says we should vote for him because the economy was great before the virus. Huh? Recognizing that was almost too hot for TV, that long profile shot. But yes, I think there might be some ulterior motives here too.

Ezra, thank you. All right, cheers. That's it, Bruce. Go to your room. You're grounded for the weekend.