Convention Takeaways

To cleave or not to cleave, that is the question. Answer yes and you can’t go wrong.

The MAGAnites preach cleaving as in dividing, with their threats and insults. Their rhetoric is punitive regarding dissent, heedless to the water we drink and air we breathe, restrictive to what we read, and reckless by inciting acts of violence.  

The Democrats have emerged from their convention with a message that has the feel of a movement. The forward vision is of a nation cleaving as in bonding. Their tent, already inclusive, is now even broader as they are reaching out to centrist independents and former Republicans repulsed by Donald Trump.

Trump’s bluster smells stale. His complaints are being heard as whining. His indecency is contrasted with Walz’s reference to neighborliness and the lessons of a winning football team. Where Trump has delusions of a country in the throes of an apocalypse, Democrats hear America singing.

As former Republican speechwriter David Frum put it, this election pits an arsonist who sees America burning against the firefighters.

Listening to politicians is generally hard on my ears. Where others get aroused, my ears go numb. Their words feel limp from exhaustion after a few minutes. Oratory reaches for poetry but settles for heightened rhetoric. However, Pete Buttigieg stood out for me. Without slogans or whipping the delegates into a frenzy he seemed to transcend the moment.

Tim Walz had a similar grasp with his language attuned to the heartland. It wasn’t the Gettysburg Address, but his message and delivery had the feel of alignment with the entire hall and beyond. Rather than political bloviating he spoke plain talk and common sense. 

Who knows why people vote as they do? As an aggregate they seem more persuaded by subliminal factors than by issues. A herd instinct stampedes logic. May it be that the vitality of the newly constituted Democrats be a gentle wave riding us to prevail in November.