● Heart and soul: Michelle Obama showed a contrast between a caring, reassuring, uplifting mom and Trump.
The former first lady showed a contrast between a caring, reassuring, uplifting mom and Trump as our nation’s hopeless deadbeat dad.
Michelle Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention was the speech our nation needed, given by the only person who could give it, delivered in the best way to meet this moment. I suspect it will go down in history as one of the best political convention speeches ever given. I also suspect it will play a significant role in defeating President Donald Trump and catapulting Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to victory.
So few leaders are able to do what the former first lady did – speak to us in a way that is profoundly, passionately political without being intensely partisan. Her speech wasn’t about left or right or red or blue, but she didn’t do that thing politicians do where they say it isn’t about left or right or red or blue because they want to tell you they’re being transcendent. No, she actually transcended. Obama described the hopeful, moral fiber of our nation and pleaded, with a twinkle in her eye that often verged on tears, that those values are indeed still central to our common fabric.
Michelle Obama is the empathy contrasted with Trump’s emptiness ... the compassion contrasted with Trump’s callousness.
For instance, she said that like all of us, she is trying to instill “a strong moral foundation” in her children. But then she questioned whether all of us are practicing what we preach: “Right now, kids in this country are seeing what happens when we stop requiring empathy of one another. They’re looking around wondering if we’ve been lying to them this whole time about who we are and what we truly value.”
And indeed, her speech had the tone of a self-reflective yet scolding mom, wondering how we got here but also reprimanding us as voters in this stillyoung nation for going down such a dangerous path. Her central theme of empathy carried two meanings: one, that we should have empathy for each other, especially for those most at the margins and those facing hardship and pain, instead of letting a lack of empathy become “outright disdain”; and two, that we should have empathy for ourselves, whether we voted for Trump, didn’t vote or simply didn’t do all we could have done to stop Trump’s rise.
We must “add our voices and our votes to the course of history,” she said, and described “the truest form of empathy” as “not just feeling, but doing; not just for ourselves or our kids, but for everyone, for all of our kids.”
In this short speech, she reminded all Americans what America is supposed to stand for, challenged us all to live up to those values and made clear her disappointment in Trump.
Michelle Obama is the only person I can think of who could deliver that speech, not only testifying to the rigors of the presidency but also tearing (gently) into our failures to protect the presidency, and thus our nation and ourselves. As a mom who during this unending pandemic realizes the challenges of motherhood more intensely than ever, I don’t say it lightly nor remotely condescendingly when I say that Obama cast herself in this speech as our collective mother, who inherited the promises and imperfections of our nation’s legacy.
And that mom is disappointed in us. She believes in us and knows we can do better: “I know the goodness and the grace that is out there in households and neighborhoods all across this nation. And I know that regardless of our race, age, religion, or politics, when we close out the noise and the fear and truly open our hearts, we know that what’s going on in this country is just not right. This is not who we want to be.”
Obama reminded us that four years ago, she told us, “When they go low, we go high.” She added Monday night that going high doesn’t mean going easy. It’s as though our nation took a test in 2016 and we failed. We got the most important answers wrong. But mom knows we can do better, if we try: “Going high means taking the harder path. It means scraping and clawing our way to that mountain top. Going high means standing fierce against hatred while remembering that we are one nation under God, and if we want to survive, we’ve got to find a way to live together and work together across our differences.”
All is not lost. That promise is still possible. Michelle Obama stands in for the brightest part of our souls, and the soul of our nation, challenging us to actually be best.
Her historically epic speech was delivered at an epic juncture – on the first night of the first-ever virtual political convention in the midst of a pandemic. And her remarks were perfectly tailored to not just the political moment but also to the virtual venue. Other political figures stood at podiums and gave what seemed like the same speech they would have delivered on a stage in front of a packed stadium. She sat in her living room, forging a connection directly to the American people. It barely felt like a speech at all. It was a heart-to-heart, Michelle Obama baring her soul, oneon-one, to each and every person listening as she plaintively tried to resuscitate the soul of our nation.
The most powerful moment came when, her voice slowing down and almost cracking with emotion, Obama said, “Let me be as honest and clear as I possibly can. Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country. He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us.” And then, after slight pause, added, “It is what it is.”
She turned Trump’s dismissive, insensitive remark about America’s 170,000-plus coronavirus deaths – “It is what it is” – into a motherly tsk, without a hint of sarcasm or meanness, just honesty. Because that’s who she is. Michelle Obama is the empathy contrasted with Trump’s emptiness. She is the compassion contrasted with Trump’s callousness. And in this moment, in this speech, she is the caring, reassuring, uplifting mom contrasted with Trump as our nation’s irreconcilably hopeless deadbeat dad. Mom says we can do better. We should believe her.
There are at least 561,000 Latinos registered to vote, and another 430,000 eligible but not registered, according to Mi Familia Vota.
Latinos could make the difference in tight races such as the Senate battle between Democrat Mark Kelly and Republican Sen. Martha McSally. Trump won Arizona in 2016 by just 3.5%. Biden has a fighting chance here, and his campaign has made key hires reflecting that prospect.
Yes, voting is a personal responsibility. It’s a civic duty that many carry out without any encouragement. But the reality is too many need that extra push, including Latinos.
Yes, Trump has vilified Latinos, and McSally is a devout Trump supporter. Both will have a difficult time getting their vote.
But Democrats shouldn’t expect to get the Latino vote automatically. Hispanics may not vote for Trump or McSally, but too many of them may simply stay at home.
And that would be disastrous.