The Democratic Convention: Not Virtual Reality—But Virtually Unreal.

Joe Biden hopes that you’ll forget what his party has become.

Like so much of what we’ve experienced during this coronavirus pandemic, the Democratic National Convention is not so much virtual reality as it is virtually unreal. Amid the mind-boggling public health measures, during which lockdown authoritarians have kept the liquor stores open and the gyms closed, and have looked the other way when “peaceful protests” ran amok over whole city blocks, while insisting that singing in church poses a clear and present danger to our health, Democrats had a sort of convention in Milwaukee this week. It celebrated not only just how left-wing the party has become, but also, how difficult it is for the party leadership to be honest with the American public.

Michelle herself surely seemed to as she no doubt recalled the former Vice President’s cognitive decline…

Former First Lady Michelle Obama set the tone for the event on Monday. She lectured Americans, from her sprawling mansion in Martha’s Vineyard, about the terrible racial divide that allegedly continues to plague the country. (It was almost as if husband Barack Obama had not enjoyed two successive terms as President in this so-called racist country.)

Those same (so-called) racist voters also elected President Donald Trump, whom she proclaimed unworthy of the presidency and deemed the man responsible for all the suffering in America—the suffering that people living in wealth and splendor, like Michelle Obama, don’t have to experience. “So 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. It is what it is.”

Of course, if you don’t concur with Michelle, that’s just proof positive for the Democrats that you’re unwilling to relinquish your white privilege or acknowledge systemic racism. Clearly, a cognitive deficit of some sort, the kind that prevents you from accepting someone’s words as gospel just because of the color of their skin:

“Now, I understand that my message won’t be heard by some people. We live in a nation that is deeply divided, and I am a Black woman speaking at the Democratic Convention. But enough of you know me by now. You know that I tell you exactly what I’m feeling. You know I hate politics. But you also know that I care about this nation. You know how much I care about all of our children.”

“You know I hate politics.” The absurdity of such a statement while giving a highly politicized speech at the Democratic National Convention, of all places, is in keeping with almost all of Michelle Obama’s public remarks since the Trumps replaced her and her family in the White House. Even more fascinating was when she finally got around to endorsing Joe Biden’s presidential candidacy. Here, though her voice didn’t falter, Michelle herself surely seemed to as she no doubt recalled the former Vice President’s cognitive decline (his difficulty in recalling exact geographic location and putting a coherent sentence together), as well as well as a life-long political career that is at odds with both his current platform and most progressive politician on the planet.

“Now, Joe is not perfect. And he’d be the first to tell you that. But there is no perfect candidate, no perfect president. And his ability to learn and grow—we find in that the kind of humility and maturity that so many of us yearn for right now. Because Joe Biden has served this nation his entire life without ever losing sight of who he is; but more than that, he has never lost sight of who we are, all of us.”

Now, that’s a stirring endorsement! The Democrats, it seems, have left themselves with no alternative but to send such an ‘imperfect’ man to the debate podium. And the party leaders, right down to their queen in all but name, recognize this. What Michelle Obama was really saying with her speech, however, was that Joe might not be perfect, but there are plenty of real socialists surrounding him who would be willing to step in if Biden’s health is suspect and really deliver the goods.

Michelle Obama.

THE CIRCUS (AND ITS CLOWNS)

The unreality of the convention, a parody of itself, continued throughout the evening of the 18th. The line-up included a former Republican governor of Ohio singing the praises of (now) progressive (but imperfect) Joe. Seeing John Kasich prostrate himself before a party that advocates the end of capitalism with its Green New Deal, and refuses to tolerate any opposition to abortion, was pathetic. “I’m a lifelong Republican, but that attachment holds second place to my responsibility to my country,” Kasich declared, in a tone that suggested an implicit ‘believe it or not.’ “That’s why I’ve chosen to appear at this convention. In normal times, something like this would probably never happen. But these are not normal times,” he continued.

Of course, Kasich could appear as a willing victim of the Democratic inquisition, but that would not be sufficient for the former bartender who now wields an unnatural control over her party. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the self-confessed socialist of her party, wondered just who in blazes invited this pro-life politician to address Democratic in their hour of triumph, calling him an “anti-choice extremist” (whatever that means).

It’s great that Kasich has woken up &realized the importance of supporting a Biden-Harris ticket. I hope he gets through to GOP voters.

Yet also, something tells me a Republican who fights against women’s rights doesn’t get to say who is or isn’t representative of the Dem party. https://t.co/38h6JGpbMj

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) August 17, 2020

President Trump rightfully dismissed Kasich’s apparent political transmutation as a “desperate” and disgraceful political stunt: “John Kasich did a bad job in Ohio, ran for President and was easy to beat, and now went to the other side desperate for relevance. Good Job by Chris C in exposing yet another loser!” Trump tweeted, in reference to former Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) who described Kasich as a “backstabber” and “untruthful guy.”

Meanwhile, another politician who attempted to use the convention to rekindle his relevance was Gov. Andrew Cuomo. He appeared certifiably mad as he attempted to reimagine his shameful record during the pandemic of shuttering sick patients into nursing homes. Cuomo did not try and justify that coronavirus legacy, exactly; he merely pretended it never happened. It might have been the most chilling moment of the convention, as Cuomo clearly decided to move beyond blaming (at one point, his COVID-19 strategy had been to just repeat over and over again that it was all President Trump’s fault) to abject denial, doing his best impersonation of a Soviet commissar blindly side-stepping the famine, the purges and the show trials of Stalinist Russia.

“We saw the failure of a government that tried to deny the virus, then tried to ignore it, and then tried to politicize it—the failed federal government that watched New York get ambushed by their negligence, and then watched New York suffer, but all through it learned absolutely nothing,” Cuomo said in a speech by video. In an Orwellian moment of acute absurdity, he added, “Our way worked. And it was beautiful.”

Former president Bill Clinton.

FROM CLOWNS TO CRIMINALS

The event continued into Tuesday night, when Former President Bill Clinton was placed before a camera to also criticize President Trump’s response to the pandemic. Liberal media outlet CNBC described the aging statesman’s speech as offering “a stark choice” for voters between Trump and Biden. (Which of course, is true: one of the candidates is actually campaigning, while the other is hiding in his basement.)

“Thank you all. It means the world to me and my family. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Unlike most other convention speakers, Clinton made no personal attacks against President Trump. He knew better than to do that, as he himself was, yet again, mired in sexual controversy with new pictures emerging Tuesday of the former President and midnight gadfly receiving a massage from one of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged victims. The usual challenge of putting Clinton in front of party faithful was, as usual, ignored by the Democratic leadership, who have always acted as though there are at least two standards in this world: one for the Clintons, and another for the rest of us. The Democratic Party has long since decided it can be both the party of #MeToo, and one that continues to exalt the political legacy of one, Bill Clinton.

Now, lest we think the convention was all about bald-faced lies and doublethink, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was brought in to throw out some policy talking points, as he delivered a pitch to voters to send more Democrats to the upper chamber. He managed to encapsulate his party’s entire unwieldy commitment to state intervention and socialism in one sentence: “With President Biden, Vice President Harris, and a Democratic Senate Majority, we will make health care affordable for all; we’ll undo the vicious inequality of income and wealth that has plagued America for far too long; and we’ll take strong, decisive action to combat climate change and save the planet.”

Tuesday ended with the man of the hour, Joe Biden himself. In stark contrast, unlike Schumer, Biden’s acknowledgment of his nomination victory offered very little in terms of political objectives or policy plans. As the former Vice President stood awkwardly while funky music played and the screen split into tiny squares of people clapping, Biden only managed to muster a paltry,  “Thank you all. It means the world to me and my family. Thank you, thank you, thank you.” Displaying none of the command and charisma Americans are accustomed to in their Commander in Chief, and all of the enthusiasm of a man who had just been appointed Grand Poobah of the Water Buffalo Lodge.

Day three brought back the last Democratic president and the woman who still insists she should be the president. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton dominated the show Wednesday night, with Obama’s speech apparently inducing a rare form of political ecstasy in liberal journalists, who described listening to the words in the same way you might relate a religious experience. “Obama. Powerful. Moving. He demonstrates once again why he was twice elected President,” tweeted Dan Rather. “Whatever you thought of his tenure in office, there is no denying that he can summon forth an inspiring vision of the American story.”

In reality, the speech was just more partisan politics, this time with more biting and targeted criticism than the public is used to hearing from Obama. “Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t,” Obama charged. “This administration has shown it will tear our democracy down if that’s what it takes to win, so we’ve got to get busy.”

“There is no vaccine for racism. We’ve gotta do the work.”

Hillary Clinton offered nothing substantively new, but brought along her usual supply of sour grapes to suggest Trump somehow unfairly won the election in 2016 and would so again, undermining American democracy and standards of decency in one fell swoop. “Don’t forget: Joe and Kamala can win by 3 million votes and still lose. Take it from me,” the former secretary of state said in a video. “We need numbers overwhelming, so Trump can’t sneak or steal his way to victory.” (More Clintonian doublespeak, of course. When she speaks of ensuring that Trump is unable to “sneak or steal his way to victory,” she must be referring to that process called the Electoral College—which, as dense as Clinton pretends to be at times, she knows very well has absolutely nothing to do with election fraud. But the implication lingers nonetheless).

Sen. KAMMA-LA Harris (D-CA), Biden’s running mate rounded out the evening. After watching liberal media swoon over Obama, Harris could have delivered the best speech of her political career and still have failed to keep viewers entranced—she was clearly outclassed. As it was, the convention organizers set her up for a stale speech, having the Senator speak in front of what appeared to be an empty warehouse with state placards laying about, but not a human being to be seen. How convention designers toned down her presence was interesting to see—almost as though they didn’t want you to notice that a Biden/Harris ticket was effectively a Harris presidency.

After laying the usual roadwork about “systemic racism” in American society, Harris, who awkwardly attempted to link the coronavirus with racism, announced, “There is no vaccine for racism. We’ve gotta do the work.” The irony being, here, that that’s exactly what Kamala Harris is—immunization for Biden’s career-long racism. Gloating about having come from the “slave state” of Delaware, Biden certainly didn’t do much work on the issue until Democrats decided the septuagenarian politician was suddenly a mover and shaker in the civil rights movement.

But the best of Harris was yet to come: “Joe and I believe that we can build that Beloved Community, one that is strong and decent, just and kind. One in which we all can see ourselves.” What “Beloved Community” could she possibly be referring to? Maybe the war zones prevailing in urban sectors across America wrought by violence that she and her party effectively celebrated and kneeled before. Any talk, any discussion, any admission that the country is coming apart at the seams as anarchists continue to declare war on law and order in major urban centers, was completely absent from Harris’s remarks—and from the convention itself. Crooks and crime go hand in hand, of course.

Former president Barack Obama.

THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE PROGRESSIVE APOCALYPSE

Which brings us to day Closing Night, which hit off with a wonderful little message from billionaire and failed-Presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg, who resurfaced just long enough to admit that he could never quite remember what party he belonged to, and that he was happy that a Biden presidency would mean more taxes for him (along with everyone else making above minimum wage.) Incredibly, even as a fly landed on Bloomberg’s face during his diatribe against Trump, the former mayor of New York City urged on his new political friends. “So let’s put an end to this whole sorry chapter in American history and elect leaders who will bring integrity and stability, sanity and competence back to the White House.”

“So let’s put an end to this whole sorry chapter in American history and elect leaders who will bring integrity and stability, sanity and competence back to the White House.”

Biden’s speech on Closing Night was good—that is, as good as a man without any principle, without any consistent political philosophy can possibly offer as he tries to convince his own party that he is worth voting for. In a passionate 25 minute address, Biden assured Democratic voters that, even if you don’t think he’s up to the job, he’s got a cadre of people around him who you can sure will push through an ever-more extreme leftist agenda on his behalf.

Biden further made his party’s political agenda clear by naming the four horsemen of the progressive apocalypse: “[H]istory has delivered us to one of the most difficult moments America’s ever faced. Four, four historic crises. All at the same time. A perfect storm. The worst pandemic in over one hundred years, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the most compelling call for racial justice since the 60’s and the undeniable realities and just accelerating threats of climate change.” Yes, climate change.

Political conventions have long lost the element of suspense and surprise since the primary system selects a presidential candidate well in advance of party faithful gathering to endorse that foregone conclusion. This year’s Democratic convention more than compensated for it’s staged, senseless nature through absurd performances. While the convention was not intended to introduce uncertainty over Biden’s candidacy, the charade did go far in establishing just who will be in charge in a Biden White House. The feeble candidate himself was just an afterthought. Instead, we were given a display of just how socialist the Democrats have become, and just how dangerous they would be if they took the White House in their current form.