Dems’ slams deliver true reality show
The Democratic National Convention Wednesday was an antidote to Donald Trump’s tired act, to the man who now makes me almost physically ill each and every time I see him bloviate: Joe Biden, who with fierce passion tore apart Trump’s demagoguery; Michael Bloomberg, who in his own flat and nerdy way decimated his fellow businessman, urging the election of “a sane, competent person;” and Barack Obama, who with grace and clarity tried to summon the better angels of our nature to take down Captain Chaos.
Obama’s speech was no masterpiece. Many of the lines felt familiar. Particularly at the end, however, it was the most cogent statement yet of why Trumpism feels so foreign to so much of what we value in American politics.
Trump, presenting the nation as a place far, far bleaker than it is, offers himself as the answer to every problem. Not because he has good or workable ideas, but just because.
Maybe you think it’s rich of someone praising Obama to cite another politician’s messianic zeal — but actually the President’s ambition is something entirely different from Trump’s.
When he ran, Obama had the essential humility and decency to offer detailed plans of what he intended to do when he got into office. He tried honestly and respectfully to persuade others of his point of view. He didn’t promise the world with no clue how to deliver. He didn’t descend to cheap attacks. He shares a lot with Hillary Clinton in this way — and with every other decent Republican ever to seek the presidency.
Wednesday night, Barack Obama reminded Americans that the nation has made great progress over the past eight years. Not through one heroic strongman, but through a series of tough choices. He told us that we don’t need to choose the simple path of bitterness and resentment and grievance.
Hillary Clinton is not a very good saleswoman. But the sane and competent product she’s offering is many times better than the cheaply constructed, fancily packaged piece of dreck being hawked by Donald Trump.