UnConventional times

I was raised to keep up with current events – space race, arms race, race wars, the World Serious, political shenan-agains and assassinations, and every four years, presidential nominating conventions. I was about to enter fourth grade watching NBC reporter John Chancellor arrested live on air at the 1964 Republican convention.

Heading into eighth grade, I watched the Chicago police riot during the Democratic Convention, leading to Hubert Humphrey’s nomination and the trial of the Chicago 8. Them was the good ol’ daze, when activist Abbie Hoffman was arrested and spit upon for wearing an American flag shirt, decades before the flag became neckties, ball caps, bikini panties, making money for all kinds of clothes designers and WalMart.

Political conventions usually load dump trucks of dollars for hotels, airlines, taxi drivers, restaurants, journalists, consultants, lobbyists, and outfits that mass produce buttons, hats, bumper stickers and yard signs. Chinese manufacturers must miss big conventions as much as big cities do.

Here in the hills, we watch these internet-based extravaganzas from the safety of home. Last week was a Democratic lovefest via Zoom and YouTube; this week the Republicans follow the Fearsome Leader into prime-time unreality tell-a-vision: Make America Grate for an eternal four more years.

Thursday night we stayed up for Joe Biden’s official acceptance of his life-long goal as nominee for chief executive. No easy task for Uncle Joe: How could he credibly follow the powerful idealist Bernie Sanders; the intensely focused head-and-heart Obamas; a gaggle of also-ran candidates; the smarmy billionaire Bloomberg; a busload of converted Republicans; victims whose lives were saved by Obamacare; doctors, nurses and EMTs fighting Covid-19; stalwart union members fed up with trade wars; a nine-year old girl whose mommy was deported while her Marine Corps dad could do nothing; a 13-year old boy whom Uncle Joe supported as a conquered stutterer himself; Senator Elizabeth Warren and Joe’s wife Jill speaking from empty school rooms ordered to open, ready or not; and his vide-presidential partner, Kamala Harris.

And yet he did it! I had no idea that Biden, who turns 78 three weeks after Election Day, had it in him. All week Democrats made three basic points: first, their party welcomes everyone who lives in the USA; second, Joe is a decent, honest and experienced public servant whose personal tragedies grant him empathy for everyone from elevator operators to cops and soldiers’ wives; and third, our country cannot risk another experiment with the current president.

The Trump show this week will try to overturn those three points. His re-election saves us from dangerous people with dark skin, whether US-or foreign born, LGBTQs, and anyone whose politics are to the left of Fox News, who will riot in the streets with Uncle Joe’s blessing.

Keeping America great means keeping Trumpkinism. True conservatives don’t like this, so it is independent voters who will make the choice that, with the help of a topsy-turvy census, corrupted voting mechanisms, input from Russia, China, and other interested countries, the degraded postal service, and the pardons of other loyalists (the only thing Steve Bannon needs to fear is that his trial occurs after a Biden election), we stay the course (though we know not where it goes) or we try a different route.

I was struck by Biden’s speech, which I can directly relate to. When things go crazy, pick yourself up and keep going, that together we can recover from most any disaster. My wife and I have both been expelled from jobs – me to make an example of the temporary boss’s authority, and she in the parking lot by an assistant to the boss who would not tell her face-to-face. Somehow, we recovered, and in both cases, our lives improved in the long term.

So… we have giant problems – a global pandemic which upended the economy, the schools, the hospitals, police forces – life itself, especially for poor people of color. Here come hurricanes and wildfires. The boss don’t know what to do except assert his authority and hide from facing reality. Turn the tables and say, “Donald – you’re fired!”