Dispatches from the DNC

I hadn’t attended a political convention before and hadn’t planned to attend this one, but when I was invited to speak at an event sponsored by Democracy House, I realized it would be a wonderful opportunity to see the action up close.

It didn’t disappoint.

On Tuesday morning, I as on a panel with Vanderbilt’s Rev. Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, Faith Forward’s Jen Butler, and Congressman Emanuel Cleaver II, moderated by Paul Rauschenbush. “America Has Faithful People and a Secular State; Can Our Politics Reflect Both?” was the topic under discussion. We covered several topics under that umbrella and easily could have talked for several more hours.

Over the course of two days, I met with many involved in faith activism in the Democratic Party, some old friends and some new acquaintances and some who quickly became new friends.

And, of course, I dropped by the Evangelicals for Harris booth and told them I wanted to buy their social media person a drink.

I also had the pleasure of attending a session moderated by my friend Katherine Stewart, author of the book The Power Worshippers. (She just revealed her next book, Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy—it releases February 18, but you can pre-order it now!)

I grabbed a picture here of Congressman Jamie Raskin making a robust case for the separation of church and state and for people of faith to engage as people of faith in the political system.

On Tuesday evening, I made my way to the United Center. We spent a of couple hours waiting in line to get through the very narrow security gate and had the bad luck of getting stalled by a Westboro-Baptist-style group with a blowhorn and creative counter-protestors.

Hands-down the highlight for me was seeing Barack and Michelle Obama’s speeches. You’ve probably seen a couple of clips, perhaps the former’s artful allusion to Trump’s…crowd sizes, or the latter’s decision to go not quite so high anymore.

But I wanted to share two of my favorite moments with you, neither of which are barbs aimed at opponents. In both of these, they’re addressing their own side.

The first is Barack Obama’s reminder to engage politically with humility and grace, not forgetting to acknowledge our own blindspots, contradictions, and prejudices. You can access the full transcript and video here or read the excerpt below, but for a more intimate look, here’s a short clip I filmed:

That’s the America Kamala Harris and Tim Walz believe in: an America where “we, the people” includes everyone. Because that’s the only way this American experiment works. And despite what our politics might suggest, I think most Americans understand that. Democracy isn’t just a bunch of abstract principles and dusty laws in some book somewhere. It’s the values we live by. It’s the way we treat each other, including those who don’t look like us or pray like us or see the world exactly like we do. 

That sense of mutual respect has to be part of our message. Our politics have become so polarized these days that all of us across the political spectrum seem so quick to assume the worst in others unless they agree with us on every single issue. We start thinking that the only way to win is to scold and shame and out-yell the other side. And after a while, regular folks just tune out, or they don’t bother to vote. 

Now that approach may work for the politicians who just want attention and thrive on division, but it won’t work for us. To make progress on the things we care about, the things that really affect people’s lives, we need to remember that we’ve all got our blind spots and contradictions and prejudices. And that if we want to win over those who aren’t yet ready to support our candidates, we need to listen to their concerns and maybe learn something in the process. 

After all, if a parent or grandparent occasionally says something that makes us cringe, we don’t automatically assume they’re bad people. We recognize that the world is moving fast, that they need time and maybe a little encouragement to catch up. Our fellow citizens deserve the same grace we hope they’ll extend to us. That’s how we can build a true Democratic majority, one that can get things done.

It’s not often that Barack Obama gets upstaged when it comes to oratorical prowess, but everyone agreed that he came in second-best last night. It seemed to me that Michelle showed up because she had some things to say.

She took on Trump, but she also had stern words for the Democratic base.

So no matter how good we feel tonight, or tomorrow, or the next day, this is going to be an uphill battle. So folks, we cannot be our own worst enemies. No. See, because the minute something goes wrong, the minute a lie takes hold, folks, we cannot start wringing our hands. We cannot get a goldilocks complex about whether everything is just right. And we cannot indulge our anxieties about whether this country will elect someone like Kamala, instead of doing everything we can to get someone like Kamala elected.

Kamala and Tim, they have lived amazing lives. And I am confident that they will lead with compassion, inclusion and grace. But they are still only human. They are not perfect. And like all of us, they will make mistakes. But luckily, y’all, this is not just on them. This is up to us, all of us, to be the solution that we seek. It’s up to all of us to be the antidote to the darkness and division. Look, I don’t care how you identify politically, whether you are Democrat, Republican, independent or none of the above. This is our time to stand up for what we know in our hearts is right.

To stand up not just for our basic freedoms, but for decency and humanity. For basic respect, dignity and empathy. For the values at the very foundation of this democracy. It’s up to us to remember what Kamala’s mother told her: Don’t just sit around and complain, do something.

So if they lie about her, and they will, we’ve got to do something. If we see a bad poll, and we will, we’ve got to put down that phone, and do something. If we start feeling tired, if we start feeling that dread creeping back in, we’ve got to pick ourselves up, throw water on our face, and what? [Crowd chants back: “Do Something!”]

We only have two and a half months, y’all, to get this done. Only 11 weeks to make sure every single person we know is registered and has a voting plan. So we cannot afford for anyone, anyone, anyone in America to sit on their hands and wait to be called. Don’t complain if no one from the campaign has specifically reached out to you to ask you for your support. There is simply no time for that kind of foolishness. You know what you need to do. So consider this to be your official ask. Michelle Obama is asking you — no, I’m telling y’all — to do something.

Now, to catch up on all the missed emails and messages from the week, and get back to all the things to do…