Politics
/
August 20, 2024
The convention in Chicago is both a forum for past fights and a showcase of tomorrow’s stars.
Anyone who thinks the two major political parties are basically the same just needs to watch the competing political conventions to understand what radically different creatures they are. The GOP is a monologue, whereas the Democratic Party is a cacophony of contending voices. At the Republican National Convention (RNC), it was striking how much the entire party had become a MAGA-echo chamber, with every major political figure adopting the rhetoric of Trump. Conversely, the Democratic National Convention (DNC) reflected a much more heterogeneous party, with centrists and leftists both coming out in support of Kamala Harris—but for different reasons and with varied accents and arguments.
Another way to frame the difference is that the RNC took place only in the present, while the DNC contained both the past and future of the party. At the RNC, the traditional convention invocation of the party’s heritage was at a minimum: scarce references to Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt—or even Ronald Reagan. All that mattered was Trump. Even the living Republican nominees for president (George W. Bush and Mitt Romney) were excluded from the RNC.
The absence of the past—or any non-Trump future—at the RNC is a negative version of the DNC, where the stage was shared both by representatives of earlier iterations of the party (on the first night notably, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden) and the emerging stars who represent the party’s future (notably Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Raphael G. Warnock). The first night also featured many labor leaders, most notably Shawn Fain, the president of the United Automobile Workers. These labor leaders aren’t the political future of the party, but they do indicate a major change, as elected Democrats have embraced not only unions themselves but even some of the language of union militancy.
To underscore this embrace of organized labor, Joe Biden in his speech said:
“I’m proud to be the first president to walk a picket line, and (to) be labeled the most pro-union in history. I accept it, its a fact. When unions do well, we all do well.”
But Biden’s praise of unions was a rare case of Biden acknowledging the future. Most of his speech was a backward look at his achievements and motives for running, with a strong emphasis on Donald Trump’s embrace of racism at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. Similarly, Hillary Clinton’s speech evoked many of the themes of her 2016 campaign, notably the importance of breaking the glass ceiling on women’s achievements. Clinton has earned her medals as a political warrior, so it’s easy to allow her a moment to bask in the applause of the assembled Democrats and her sly smile when the crowd started yelling “Lock him up!”
The voice of an earlier politics could also be heard in a fine speech by a non-politician, Steve Kerr, the coach who oversaw the winning Olympics men’s basketball team. Kerr offered a message of national unity that called to mind the Barack Obama of 2008, who promised a transcendence of the divide between red and blue America. Kerr said, “The joy, the compassion, the commitment to our country that we saw at the Olympics, that is what Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have, and it is what our country needs. Leadership, real leadership, not the kind that seeks to divide us, but the kind that recognizes and celebrates our common purpose.” Kerr added, “Imagine what we could do with all 330 million of us playing on the same team. Not as Democrats, not as Republicans, not as Libertarians, but as Americans.”
Current Issue
This vision of a Harris/Walz administration reuniting a fraying nation is of course the standard boilerplate of centrist Democrats. But it’s the talk of a moment from the past that isn’t relevant anymore given the radicalization of the GOP and the fighting spirit needed to actually address the problems of the present.
What made Shawn Fain and Ocasio-Cortez both voices of the present is that they didn’t eschew partisanship but openly embraced it. Their Donald Trump wasn’t objectionable just because he was crude, vulgar, and divisive but also, more importantly, because he embodied the class interests of the rich. Fain framed politics with the classic union question, which is also a throwing down of the gauntlet: “Which side are you on?” By denouncing Trump as a scab and union-buster, Fain made clear that the goal was not national unity but the decisive victory of the party of workers.
Ocasio-Cortez also took a strong class position, contrasting the middle-class struggles of Kamala Harris (as well as Ocasio-Cortez herself) with Trump’s wallowing in inherited wealth and privilege.
Ocasio-Cortez argued, “We know Trump would sell this country for a dollar if it meant lining his own pockets and greasing the palms of his Wall Street friends.” She added, “I, for one, am tired of hearing about how a two-bit union buster thinks of himself as more of a patriot than the woman who fights every single day to lift working people out from under the boots of greed trampling on our way of life.”
Ocasio-Cortez was one of two speakers, along with Warnock, to bring up Israel’s onslaught in Gaza. Disappointingly, she brought it up in a way that was too flattering to Kamala Harris (optimistically but without proof claiming that Harris was working for a ceasefire). But Ocasio-Cortez and Warnock do deserve credit for breaking the silence on this crucial issue.
The Democrats are an ideologically diverse party, and the first night of the convention could be confusing—a hodgepodge of arguments that don’t fully cohere. This sense of muddle was reinforced by poor planning that led to too many speakers on stage. Because singularly talentless speakers (notably New York Governor Kathy Hochul) took up much of the evening, Joe Biden himself didn’t speak until after 11 pm ET and continued speaking until after midnight.
But if a theme could be found in the din of contending voices at the DNC, it was that the future of the Democratic Party is emerging before our eyes. The future looks like Fain, Ocasio-Cortez, and Warnock. It’s a party that is much more vigorous in pursuing class politics. This shift is so marked that even the centrist Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo styled herself an economic populist in her speech.
The impact of the first night of the DNC will be muffled by the poor planning that allowed the energetic eloquence of Warnock to be followed by the drone of fellow Senator Chris Coons. If the Democrats actually want to win this election, they’d be well advised to do more to highlight the voices of the future.
Popular
“swipe left below to view more authors”Swipe →
Can we count on you?
In the coming election, the fate of our democracy and fundamental civil rights are on the ballot. The conservative architects of Project 2025 are scheming to institutionalize Donald Trump’s authoritarian vision across all levels of government if he should win.
We’ve already seen events that fill us with both dread and cautious optimism—throughout it all, The Nation has been a bulwark against misinformation and an advocate for bold, principled perspectives. Our dedicated writers have sat down with Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders for interviews, unpacked the shallow right-wing populist appeals of J.D. Vance, and debated the pathway for a Democratic victory in November.
Stories like these and the one you just read are vital at this critical juncture in our country’s history. Now more than ever, we need clear-eyed and deeply reported independent journalism to make sense of the headlines and sort fact from fiction. Donate today and join our 160-year legacy of speaking truth to power and uplifting the voices of grassroots advocates.
Throughout 2024 and what is likely the defining election of our lifetimes, we need your support to continue publishing the insightful journalism you rely on.
Thank you,
The Editors of The Nation
More from The Nation
The Minnesota attorney general will use his speech at the DNC to call for a deeper dialogue around Palestine.
John Nichols
![“We have members who are on Section 8,” said one local union representative. “The majority of our members can’t afford to live here in Ithaca, close to their job.” A crowd of Cornell workers sing and chant as they march around the university’s campus on Friday, August 16, days before the union called a strike. Ithaca, NY—“When I woke up this morning, I thought I was the mayor of a union town,” said Ithaca Mayor Robert Cantelmo at a rally on Friday, August 16. “And do we settle in a union town?” The question was received with cheers during a rally on Cornell’s campus in the upstate New York town, where union leaders, workers, residents, students, and faculty built energy, by the hundreds, for a strike that was just days away. In a vote concluding the day before the rally, UAW’s members in Cornell’s service and maintenance unit authorized a strike with an overwhelming majority of 94% in favor of a strike. By Sunday night at 10 pm, just before student move-in day, the union called a strike. Many members of of the union, which represents over 1,200 workers, including dining hall and custodial staff, are now on strike until they can reach an agreement with Cornell. In a public statement regarding the strike, university officials Christine Lovely, vice president and chief human resources officer, and interim provost John Siliciano said, “The University remains committed to bargaining in good faith. We expect that some service and maintenance workers will strike and not report for work, as is their legal right. We also expect that other members of the UAW will continue to work during the strike, as is also their right.” Since April, the university and the union had been at the bargaining table, attempting to work out the details of a new contract. The previous contract had expired on July 1, and in subsequent weeks, the union began holding rallies, drawing attention to what the union says is Cornell’s lack of seriousness during bargaining sessions. “The university is still not taking us seriously,” said UAW’s Daniel Vicente at a rally on August 2. Vicente is the director of UAW Region 9, which includes New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. “Frankly, the counterproposals that they are putting out to us are insulting,” said Vicente. “They believe that this is just going to be a regular round of negotiations.” The difference between university and union proposals dealt with safety concerns, training pay, parking costs, and a host of issues. But a significant disagreement came down to the fact that pay increases have not kept up with rising costs for many years. “We have members who are on Section 8. We have members who can’t pay for ADA updates,” said Lonnie Everett, international servicing representative with UAW Region 9. Everett explained that while the percentage increase the union was demanding may seem large, it would simply catch worker pay up to the current cost of living. “The majority of our members can’t afford to live here in Ithaca, close to their job.” UAW bargained its previous contract with Cornell without getting anywhere near a strike, but things have changed in the union since the democratic election of the new president, Shawn Fain, in March 2023. Union representatives made it clear that increased accountability to membership and increased transparency during bargaining were top priorities. “There used to be an extremely heavy emphasis on top-down mentality in the union,” explained Vicente, when asked about how the leadership change shifted UAW’s internal decision-making, which appears to be resulting in more strikes on a national level. “We have been given a completely different mandate from Shawn Fain. It is from the bottom up. If the locals…are making demands, and they are saying, ‘No, our membership demands this, we’re putting our foot down,’ our job is just to support them in that initiative.” “We’re taking the same approach that we took with the Stand Up Strike with the Big Three auto plants,” said Wence Valentin III, political director for UAW Region 9, referring to the huge gains the union secured for auto workers last fall. “We’re trying to take that to every location that we have in the UAW. So Cornell is not unique.” Mayor Cantelmo was not the only elected official to voice support for a strong union contract. New York State Assemblywoman Anna Kelles was also present at the August 16 rally, and said in an interview, “There are several, I think, fundamental issues that they’re talking about. One of them is the conversation about a cost of living adjustment.” Kelles was speaking about one of the main sticking points between the union and the university. In addition to general wage raises, UAW Local 2300 has been pushing to secure a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) clause in its contract with Cornell, just as it won with the Big Three auto plants. As reported by Bailey Schulz in USA Today, in the 1970s, COLA clauses were more common in contracts because the country was experiencing years of high inflation, similar to what is happening in today’s economy. When you’re at the bottom wage [for] regular workers at Cornell, a cost-of-living adjustment means a lot,” said UAW Local 2300 president Christine Johnson, When asked about if the university seemed willing to budge on that issue, Johnson said no, adding that “they are saying that they don’t know how they would budget for it, and all kinds of excuses.” However, by the final night of bargaining before the strike, the university did offer a COLA clause, but without other counteroffers that would compel the union not to strike. The effects of inflation and the need for a COLA clause came up often, when speaking with UAW Local 2300 members. “Over the years, you know, it seems as if our paycheck does not go as far,” said Louise Braron, a Cornell custodial worker at a previous rally. “We can tell just going grocery shopping that we don’t buy the foods we once used to buy because we can’t afford them any longer.” Although it is a relatively small city, Ithaca often finds itself as a forerunner in nationwide labor fights. In 2018, workers at Ithaca’s Gimme! Coffee unionized, forming the first barista’s union in the US, years before hundreds of Starbucks stores unionized. Yet, a few years later, Ithaca would become ground zero for union-busting activities by Starbucks. By the spring of 2023, after workers in all Ithaca Starbucks locations voted to unionize, the corporation shut down every one of its stores in the city, violating federal labor law in at least one case. In turn, Cornell students organized to hold the corporation accountable, and successfully pressured the university not to renew its contract with Starbucks. This was the beginning of the Starbucks Off Our Campus movement, which spread to a couple dozen campuses, a direct response to the company’s anti-labor practices. Ithaca’s oversize pace of labor fights for its small size could be partially attributed to the fact that Cornell is home to the renowned Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) school, which creates an international draw for students who want to learn about labor law. In recent years, students have demonstrated a desire to take their organizing knowledge from the classroom to the streets. So when Ithaca’s mayor contended that Ithaca was a union town that refused to settle in labor fights, he had a strong basis for doing so.This time around, when it was Cornell workers who entered into a hardball labor negotiation, students and locals—including elected officials—who had grown practiced in these fights readily joined in support. The presence of Cornell’s ILR school also makes it all the more notable that as an institution, Cornell has been attempting to strong-arm organized labor, sometimes running afoul of unions, as the strike at the start of this semester demonstrates. In November of last year, graduate students at Cornell voted to unionize with a large majority. Yet contract bargaining between the Cornell Grad Student Union (CGSU) which began in March of 2023, has hit similar roadblocks. In an e-mailed response, the CGSU bargaining committee characterized talks with Cornell with this statement: “Our sessions have been productive and we have reached several [tentative agreements] on important issues, but a major hurdle stems from Cornell’s desire to maintain unilateral power by inserting University policies and academic loopholes into our contract.” CGSU was the second recent attempt to organize graduate students; in 2017, Cornell graduate students unsuccessfully attempted to unionize. However, the following year, an arbitrator found that Cornell violated federal labor law with an e-mail sent the day before the graduate student unionization vote that implied that pro-union graduate workers would be voting against their self-interest, since a union could result in a reduction of university jobs for them, if it increased costs for the university. The CGSU bargaining committee voiced support for the UAW effort. “We are in full solidarity with our fellow workers holding Cornell accountable. This institution has its world class status because of its workers, and Cornell has no excuse for not giving their workers a fair contract.” “For years, we’ve been deprived of what’s a just compensation for our contribution in this community, in this university,” said Mitja Bontempo, who has worked at the Cornell Botanic Gardens for over a decade. “This institution has, at its core, this humanistic mission and vision. And it’s failing.” But when asked at the rally, a couple days before the strike how he felt about community support, Bontempo’s eyes lit up. “It’s emotional,” he said. “To see a couple of blocks on campus just full red, with people coming together, marching down the street to demonstrate unity and solidarity and demanding better living conditions, better wages… it’s just incredible.” The 2023–24 academic year ended with a pro-Palestinian encampment and divestment demand of the university from its students, and this new year will kick off with a very visible, and likely messy labor fight. So as they begin their fall semester at Cornell, students are headed onto a campus where the ivory tower keeps pushing up against the grass roots. As Everett and other union reps stated, and as the students will see, there are multiple ways to address an issue: “We can fix this at the table, or we can fix it in the streets.”](https://www.thenation.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/biden-speech-dnc-getty.jpg)
A sentimental send-off to a brave, accomplished president who knew when to step aside.
Joan Walsh
The right is tying itself in knots to find fault with Vice President Harris’s running mate.
Chris Lehmann
The call to stop sending arms is no fringe demand. It has a huge base of support, and the DNC can’t ignore it.
Sarah Lazare
By sharing her compelling story, the Democratic nominee can put her party firmly on the path to victory.
Jeet Heer