Democrats’ day of unity didn’t go according to script
IF anyone was expecting peace and Democratic unity at the Democratic Convention this week, in contrast to days of GOP turbulence in Cleveland last week, they were surprised upon arriving in Philadelphia. The Democrats’ theme on day one of their convention was unity, but it was a hope that got no further than the rhetoric and was certainly not manifest in the mood at the convention arena.
Within minutes of the gavel falling, Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, repeated the Democrats’ daydream that their party convention would be nothing like the Republican one.
“We are going to have a different kind of convention than the one we saw in Cleveland last week,” she boasted, to cheers. “Because Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine want to build an economy that works for everyone.”
And that was the trigger for a chorus of boos. They were unmistakable and loud. On this particular occasion they appeared to be aimed at Kaine’s support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a massive trade deal that Bernie Sanders’ supporters hate. Plenty of anti-TPP signs were waved by the booing delegates.
But the jeering continued throughout the rest of Fudge’s speech, until she could take the provocation no longer and angrily chastised the Sanders supporters, shouting, “I am going to be respectful of you, and I want you to be respectful of me.”
Later in the day, the public signs of discontent became more muted after Sanders sent emails to his list of supporters warning them, “Our credibility as a movement will be damaged by booing, turning of backs, walking out or other similar displays.” That didn’t stop them from chanting “No TPP!” over the speech of a visibly frustrated Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md. It also didn’t stop them from jeering at Elizabeth Warren, as she wholeheartedly endorsed Clinton, “We trusted you!”
But even before the gavel had fallen, it was evident that Democrats are as unhappy and disunited about the direction of their party as Republicans are about theirs — in some ways perhaps more so.
A leak of internal DNC emails blew up the convention before it began, prompting Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s announcement that she would resign as chairwoman of the DNC. This was not enough to mollify Sanders’ angry army, which stormed the arena where the convention was being held in the afternoon.
His supporters, volunteers and delegates at several state events Monday morning heckled Wasserman Schultz, justifiably accusing her of putting her finger heavily on the scale for Hillary Clinton’s nomination.
When she addressed a breakfast for the California delegation, it erupted in chants of “Lock her up!”, the same thing Republican delegates had chanted when Clinton’s name had come up in their convention last week. Nancy Pelosi’s speech was drowned out by jeering from Sanders’ supporters.
When Sanders himself spoke downtown, he elicited raucous cheering throughout most of his speech, right up until he urged his supporters to get behind Clinton. At that point, they erupted into boos, and chanted, “Never her!” and “Take it back!”
Although it pales in comparison to anger over party machinations against Sanders, Democrats also expressed disappointment at Clinton’s choice of Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine as her running mate, instead of a more exciting Hispanic up-and-comer. “Someday,” said Pennsylvania state Rep. Angel Cruz, “we need to have Latinos in high ranking positions.”
Most rank-and-file Democratic voters are likely to get over their disappointment. The first day of the convention, with a highly progressive speaker schedule, was designed to normalize Clinton for the left. But the level of anger and the lack of unity at this convention were the most striking thing about it.