Kamala's Convention
Added 2024-08-23 22:54:39 +0000 UTCFour days in Chicago, dozens of speeches by Democratic luminaries and backbenchers, and a spotlight on Kamala Harris, who reintroduced herself to America — your favorite podcast co-hosts endured watching the Democratic National Convention and are here to report on what they saw.
It was, in many ways, a highly successful convention: massive crowds, palpable energy for the Harris-Walz ticket, and orations met with pundits' plaudits. But the Democrats' refusal to feature a speaker from the Uncommitted delegates, and the general lack of evident concern for Palestinian suffering, was profoundly disappointing — and morally grotesque. As were the choices to feature cops and ex-CIA agents on the convention stage, and the broad affirmation, from Democrats, of the right's positions on crime and the border. What to make of it all? We discuss how Kamala tried to define her career and candidacy, what we make of Tim Walz (so far), how Democrats talked about Trump (including the shifts from how they've done so in the past), and the state of the presidential race now that both conventions are, blessedly, over.
Sources:
Watch Kamala Harris's full DNC speech (YouTube)
Watch Tim Walz's full DNC speech (YouTube)
Watch Michelle Obama's full DNC speech (YouTube)
Liliana Segura, "Democrats Abandoned Their Anti-Death Penalty Stance. Those on Federal Death Row May Pay the Price," The Intercept, Aug 23, 2024.
Josh Leifer and Waleed Shahid, "The Uncommitted Movement Is the Floor of What’s Possible,” Dissent, Aug 16, 2024
Noah Lanard, "Here Is the Speech That the Uncommitted Movement Wants to Give at the DNC," Mother Jones, Aug 23, 2024
Comments
I love this podcast so very much. Thank you KYE team for yet another gem!! (Hunting hats or no!)
Where there’s a Wills there’s a Way
2024-09-01 02:52:17 +0000 UTCI’m not comfortable with the centrist / right wing language coming out of the campaign. We’re being told by the insiders and the Pod Save boys that it’s all a show to appeal to constituencies Harris needs and that she’ll come back to the progressive but that doesn’t ring true to me. Trump will say anything to win and not feel any obligations from it. I find it hard to believe Harris won’t be looking to 2028 and keeping a coalition.
DJM
2024-08-31 20:25:51 +0000 UTCEnjoyed the ep as always! I would love to hear the two of your thoughts on Harris' "most lethal military in the world" line at some point!! I really enjoyed the episode you did with Sam Moyn about the role of never trump republicans in preserving neoliberal foreign policy in the Democratic Party . In light of Biden's strong NATO expansionism, genocide in Gaza, and military discourse at the DNC its hard to shake the feeling that the neocons are winning in the Democratic Party (at least on foreign policy, though Afghanistan is a counterexample I guess). The Bulwark ghouls at least seem ecstatic!
Dallas Jokic
2024-08-28 21:06:30 +0000 UTCMatt, you kinda skipped right over why Obama’s speech was so grating. Curious if you’ll expand on that at some point?
Joe Henderson
2024-08-27 11:51:56 +0000 UTCSorry if this is in the wrong place, but Know Your Enemy should put If We Burn on your reading list and discuss how the dynamic of the enemy, and the people, and the street protests...
his eyes just tell him lies
2024-08-26 23:35:00 +0000 UTCI'd be very excited to hear a more in-depth discussion about the Uncommitted movement with people who were involved, really hope that comes together!
Donnie Smith
2024-08-26 23:11:15 +0000 UTCTheir charismatic truth-telling invariably, however clarion, is anchored to the deadweight of contrary neoliberal offerings. Their rhetoric is vague enough to pronounce the contradictions of capital at the heart of liberalism, and so seamless that it appears to resolve what it has only reified. They are master simulators because of their trained authenticity.
Benjamin Pletcher
2024-08-26 19:01:39 +0000 UTCReally appreciate the discussion of how Dems' attacks on Trump have changed from "he is so dangerous" to "he is a small, selfish, pathetic man". This also helps explain one of the reasons why early veepstakes frontrunner Andy Beshear ultimately wasn't selected. multiple DNC speakers, most eloquently Michelle Obama, hit Trump on never working for anything he's gotten in life; and Beshear, whatever his political talents, well.....
Matthew Dargay
2024-08-26 18:45:28 +0000 UTCAgreed. I don’t know why this isn’t more generally accepted. I wasn’t born yesterday. I knew the Middle East wasn’t going to get solved at the convention.
Preston Crawford
2024-08-26 17:33:22 +0000 UTCI was really struck by the insight that neoliberalism tends to speak in images of motion and systems (bridge to the 21st century, connecting communities to opportunity . . .) whereas the kind of populism Walz channels names substantive goods and goals (we feed hungry children). I don't think I've ever heard this before. I work a little bit with bike and public-transportation advocacy, and we end up using the former sort of language a lot because we are literally talking about the infrastructure that moves people around. At some level this might be advantageous, since often the people we are trying to convince are Chamber of Commerce types. But I wonder what it might mean for us, in our outreach beyond City Council, to speak a more Walzian language. Not, "light rail creates access to job and educational opportunities" but rather "rail gets poor kids to school" or even "rail helps the kid who will one day perform brain surgery on you get to school."
Sebastian Lecourt
2024-08-26 13:24:47 +0000 UTCBased on your comment, maybe you can afford to be a single issue voter because your vote will not count, at least at the Presidential level. But not everyone is in your situation. Not everyone can afford to refuse to be in coalition with the Democrats because a Trump administration will negatively impact their lives in direct and meaningful ways. The Democrats are not far to the left and may never be but they are different than the Republicans in substantive ways that impact people.
Paul Smolinsky
2024-08-26 13:08:36 +0000 UTCGood analysis but I must nitpick (I know it's a sickness). Totally agree wire the ire about death penalty abolition. What I need to comment on is that it wasn't acknowledged how symbolic (i.e. useless) the party platform is. Candidates don't run on it, they are not committed to implement it. It is probably rare that any candidate actually mentions it (too much inside baseball). What is typical in political systems almost everywhere else (to varying degree) is that platforms are influential if not binding documents. Why the difference? I think concern about this connects with my earlier comment about the shortcomings of the parties that the 2 two party system produces (due in part to the anti-proportional/anti-majoritarian features of government and elections, for the poli-sci nerds: FPTP, bi-camerality, strength of executive, etc). This is not an academic concern, there is a long research history about proportionality in party systems and its association with left-tenure in government (which I would argue is a good proxy for work class mobilization). In short, it is quite plausible that the existing political system (electoral anti-proportionality and anti-majoritarian guardrails) cannot support social democracy (due to limits on mobilization of the left's base constituencies). That this gets little attention is no failing of KYE, since elision of the structural issues is pervasive on the left, though there exists much wider understanding of how notoriously slow in relative terms the pace of reform in US history has consistently been. The long term ambitions of reformers (socialist, liberals, progressives) hinges on the structural questions.
Paul Meyer
2024-08-26 11:23:06 +0000 UTCAppreciated the nuanced discussion here even if I really don’t get the fawning over such obvious DNC sycophants.
Behold 666
2024-08-26 04:56:02 +0000 UTCIf I may say, Trump is no Hitler. Hitler loved his country.
David Gillman
2024-08-26 04:00:50 +0000 UTCYou guys nailed the difference between delegates from blue/red states in the beginning, btw. I was in Chicago for an event on youth/college voters, and was able to crash some DNC events. It was remarkable seeing the lobbyists/staffers/donors from blue states compared to the earnest idealists from red states. For some people the Democratic party is a career, and for others it is a passion.
james marcucci
2024-08-26 02:06:24 +0000 UTCI didn't mind your comment at all, it's a subject very worthy of outrage. But I didn't want you to think I'd be casually wearing a Harris Walz hat around. Thanks for the gracious reply. (Matt)
Know Your Enemy
2024-08-26 01:53:27 +0000 UTCThanks for your comment Matt. The main reason to care whether or not Kamala nailed her speech is because that seems relevant to evaluating her chances as a candidate for the presidency, which is one reason we do these episodes. Admittedly, that means we care about "electoral politics" in a way not everyone on the left does, which is fine. We also tried to convey how much this convention conceded to the forces of reaction. Maybe that combination of criticism and analysis is inherently unsatisfying, or the balance was off—but I don't think the very idea of discussing how Harris performed at the convention, a convention taking place after an unprecedented few weeks in American politics, is inherently worthless. (Matt)
Know Your Enemy
2024-08-26 01:48:51 +0000 UTCGotcha, Matt. My family is blessedly full of left-liberals (we try to avoid talking about my fascist uncle), but I'm a big fan of lovingly trolling them too.
Sam Schaefer
2024-08-26 01:39:45 +0000 UTCThanks for your comment Sam. I just wanted to clarify that I'm not actually going to be wearing around a Harris-Walz camo hat—I thought saying I'd wear it while hunting with my father to upset him indicated it wasn't a serious comment. The only political attire I wear is my "Mavis for President" shirt. (Matt)
Know Your Enemy
2024-08-26 01:34:19 +0000 UTCThis episode was full of sharp commentary, as usual. But I simply cannot understand an ability to compartmentalize a genocide to the point that you'd proudly wear a Harris/Walz hat, Matt. They are, right now, providing weapons meant to slaughter children. They are smearing and ignoring people who are desperate for this madness to stop. You guys obviously know this — you talk about it a lot. I live in Tennessee where Trump will win no matter what, so I am relieved of the burden of having to decide if a politically preferable outcome is worth the moral stain of voting for aiders and abetters of genocide. I would probably vote for Harriz/Walz if I still lived in North Carolina. Still, voting is one thing, campaigning is another. I cannot comprehend how anyone who understands what is happening in Gaza could see themselves in coalition with these monsters. Wearing a hat is a small thing, but I feel prospects for the future are bleak if people as informed and concerned with the morality of politics as you both could see yourselves actively as part of a Harris/Walz coalition. The Democrats' utter contempt for the uncommitted movement is not only a political blunder and morally monstrous, it forces hard questions about the utility of center-left politics in the heart of empire. How much can this project become our own when this is how it behaves when asked to rise to the level of morality and political risk of Ronald Reagan during the 1982 Lebanon War?
Sam Schaefer
2024-08-26 00:31:09 +0000 UTCYou rightly condemned Harris and the Democratic leadership for not allowing someone from the UncommittedNational Movement to speak at the convention. It was a moral failure and showed a lack of political courage. That said, I don’t believe it was a political mistake as you two rankly opined. The conflict between Palestinians and Israel is a polarizing issue. Ever since I began following the conflict in the mid-1980s as a tween, the space for nuanced public discussion has been relatively small and has grown ever smaller over time (particularly for Palestinians and their supporters). Social media, the public square now, for better or worse, not only makes nuance difficult, it is aggressively hostile to it. So, no matter how measured the speech was, the blowback would have been fierce simply because the party allowed someone, a Palestinian no less, to speak in support of the Palestinian cause. That blowback would likely have been the story that we all talked about during and following the convention rather than the positive story we have been talking about. Harris and the leadership might have decided that was politically too costly.
Paul Smolinsky
2024-08-25 17:12:36 +0000 UTCIt seems pretty clear to me that this DNC told us we are going to get more of the same from the Dems. They'll tack as hard right as they can, continue to privatize our collective infrastructure, smear and left/collectivist/peaceful solutions, and use emotional arguments to demonize opposition within the ranks. LEON PANETTA, guys. Who cares if Kamala "nailed it"?
PBear
2024-08-25 16:54:57 +0000 UTCThere’s a new biography of Burnham about to come out (or maybe just did), I bet we get to it before tooooo long. (Matt)
mjs
2024-08-24 18:56:15 +0000 UTCIf willing, please release this in front of the paywall. Activists and the exhausted/disenfranchised public can both benefit from your candor and clarity on these issues.
Aaron Breetwor
2024-08-24 18:48:16 +0000 UTCThank you for condemning the wingnuts who mocked Gus Walz. Of all the awful things they do, this has been the worst. I am sure they will manage to go beyond that soon, too.
Karen Cox
2024-08-24 18:44:54 +0000 UTCOne of the most interesting things in the “Trump Era” is watching the political landscape bend and adapt around him. Now the Dems seem significantly more adept at messaging against Trump than they were 9 years ago. He’s now old news.
Ryeman
2024-08-24 18:05:39 +0000 UTCI work with asylum seekers/organizers in Washington state and I can acutely detect the tired out-fash-the-fascists scheme. We have an "illegal" and de facto refugee camp where we must hustle for baby formula so that a one month old baby can survive. Democrats have a bipartisan consensus on exploiting and abusing the global south. I look forward to the uncommitted episode and hope that Matt and Sam can cover the two parties' collaboration in terms of tacitly genocidal immigration policies.
Lauren Kay
2024-08-24 17:53:29 +0000 UTCThis really was great, but when are we getting a James Burnham episode?
Joe Bruemmer
2024-08-24 17:21:10 +0000 UTCGreat bit on Walz, I hope they use this positive masculinity and have him do a speech on loneliness and social isolation with a big focus on young men because Trump-Vance speak to that demo in a way that radicalizes.
Adam Swift
2024-08-24 16:58:29 +0000 UTCEven when y'all are doing punditry there is a human and compassionate quality to how you do it. I think this comes through in your discussions of the death penalty, Palestine, and Gus Walz. Thanks guys!
Samuel McCann
2024-08-24 15:42:37 +0000 UTCIt’s not just the bipartisan bill- it’s the rhetoric. Harris’s rhetoric was aggressive and quite a few notches to the right of where democrats have been and still a few more notches right of the KYE audience. I assume my audience understands my hyperbole.
Kevin Trant
2024-08-24 15:18:15 +0000 UTCThe experience of the past five or so weeks legitimately raise the question of whether the "primary process" that both parties have adopted serves the country and small-d democratic government well. The brokenness of that process has been compounded by the brokenness of the fourth estate and the way it covers politics—including its role in the so-called "debate" process. No significant policy question can be adequately "debated" in a couple of minutes: all that can be done in that amount of time is to spew meaningless sound-bites. The Democratic Convention showed what's important: not a nerdy debate over the fine points of policy — sorry Bill and Barak and Hillary. What's important are: the "vision thing" — the kind of society that the party wants to cultivate; showing which parts of the citizenry the party and candidates recognize—and which they don't; and showing the character of the people who are running for office.
Henry Bachofer
2024-08-24 14:25:22 +0000 UTCIf Kamala is doing anything, she is running an extremely tight, disciplined and focused campaign- impressively so, and necessarily so, given the time frame. I honestly can't see her giving any inch of that control up over the messaging on such a volatile subject as the Middle East. I don't see this as a matter of oppression, it's her need to be the sole messenger on this subject , and not allow anyone else to be seen as standing in for that.
Sam D.
2024-08-24 11:37:41 +0000 UTCI work as a barista right across from the hotel that many delegates and congressmen were staying this week and the entire experience was pretty disheartening. I and many of the people I know who protested this week would love to be able to support Kamala/dems if there was any indication that we weren’t voting for genocide. I know you say that this DNC wasn’t for the left but I don’t feel hopeful that democrats will do anything about the things that me and my friends (20-something Midwest dykes) care about
Rae Scarbrough
2024-08-24 02:13:30 +0000 UTCAnd don't get me started on fellow Hoosier Shawn Fain 😤
Brian Swoveland
2024-08-24 01:47:41 +0000 UTCIt was good television. Even as a cynic I admit to being charmed by the wholesome Americana of the roll call votes. I texted my family in Indiana "did you see, Rudy (you know, from the movie!) cast our votes" 😂
Brian Swoveland
2024-08-24 01:46:40 +0000 UTCThe "glass ceiling" is as you termed it Davos talk (neoliberal boardroom aspirations). Kamala's sister, mother, niece, step-daughter, god-daughter, grand-nieces -- it rang clear and true and tugged at the heartstrings.
H K
2024-08-24 01:35:21 +0000 UTCI have been rank-punditted and I love it!
Mark K
2024-08-24 01:18:38 +0000 UTCYes, if you are a Democrat from a rural red state with a Republican supermajority being a Democrat really means something to you.
erik w bjorke
2024-08-24 01:04:57 +0000 UTCI would totally have chosen Melissa, Amy, and Emily over the DNC. Plus a chance to pick Sam's mom's brain for stories of little Sam? Take all my money.
James Talley
2024-08-24 00:46:42 +0000 UTCDoesn't the name suggest an RNC trip?
Ben Thelen
2024-08-24 00:35:17 +0000 UTCGreat commentary as always! I gotta say I was pretty disgusted by the apotheosis of “equitable” neoliberalism at this convention all the while Palestinian voices were being oppressed and Kamala was out trumping Trump on the border.
Kevin Trant
2024-08-24 00:27:53 +0000 UTCI laughed out loud at Sam’s “schlubby Jewish guy punching above his weight.” But you never got into why the Obamas don’t do it for Matt—maybe cover it during the next punditry ep?
Sophia Cornell
2024-08-24 00:13:18 +0000 UTCThe good Doctor would have a field day at the 41st minute
Lou Guberti Ng
2024-08-24 00:03:59 +0000 UTCPlease do a full episode on the uncommitted movement and their treatment at the convention! I am still mad that in Ohio you can’t vote uncommitted. I had to vote for Dean Phillips 🙄
Camille Tinnin
2024-08-23 23:50:40 +0000 UTCSam confirmed, #1 son.
David
2024-08-23 23:38:49 +0000 UTC1999!
Rick Perlstein
2024-08-23 23:04:34 +0000 UTCCoach Walz took his queer students to an Indigo Girls concert in 100
Rick Perlstein
2024-08-23 23:04:18 +0000 UTC
