An Unconventional Convention

My wife and I were talking, and she was expressing severe doubts about how interesting it would be to watch the 2020 Democratic Convention on TV, like we usually watch political conventions.  After all, practically every candidate withdrew, leaving only Joe Biden.  The Convention would do little beyond endorsing Joe.

But we were very pleasantly surprised, and the Convention was a true shot in the arm.

Most of the speakers focused on indicting the President on failing to do his job.  Being President, said one of the speakers, is no walk in the park.  President Trump, they concluded, is in over his head.

Michelle Obama brought up a point that I have been struggling to articulate.  All of us, she said, (with a few notable exceptions,) have been brought up to be sensitive to the pain of others.  But President Trump and his team seem to be the exceptions.

More than 150,000 lives have been lost to the Virus.  In a typical winter, more than that many lives are sometimes lost to the conventional Flu virus.  Trump takes this to support his position that he could not have done anything to prevent the Virus from taking its toll.  To this date, he has not show remorse at the tremendous loss of life from this Pandemic.  He has been slow to confront the problem head-on, for fear of antagonizing his supporters among Governors and Mayors.  Many of the cities and states whose leaders have been Trump supporters are now having out of control Virus infection rates.

This concern for the welfare of others is something parents try to inculcate in their children from infancy.  Teachers do the same, and so do the clergy.  Our complex modern life is impossible without cooperation.  And the basis of cooperation is not enlightened self-interest.  It is the instinct of empathy.

"How can we teach our children empathy, when they see what goes on in the White House?"  Children naturally conclude that it is all a lie.  They don't realize that all empathy was beaten out of Trump by his father, according to the book by Mary Trump.

In the future, we are going to have to reckon with four years' worth of children whose lessons in empathy have been confused by these four years of Trump.  We cannot, Michelle Obama says, afford four more years of Trump for that reason alone.

To be a successful slum landlord, Trump's father has emphasized, one has to be inured to the complaints of one's whining tenants.  Trump's older brother had too much empathy, but Donald was praised--and rewarded--for putting the family interests first.  This is very plausible.

Here is a summary of the events of this first night.

To begin with, I was inspired by the message of the people who have been subject to marginalizing as The Ultra Left, or The Socialist Extremists, etc.  What were these so-called renegades arguing for?

Health Care.  Many perfectly ordinary countries have subsidized Healthcare, to anyone who needs it, including foreigners passing through.  If you're interested in the nuts and bolts of how this can be done in the USA, we can talk about it another time.  But universal health care can be made possible once and for all, or made available in stages.  We already have a framework for this: Medicare.  But for many, Medicare has acquired negative associations, as of being too clumsy, or too anathema to expect ordinary citizens to get treatment through it.

Free Education through College.  This makes education available to everyone, and not just the wealthy.  Looking at the paychecks of teachers at all levels, you know Education is not going to cost a lot of money.  (Professors hungry for more money have to go into Administration; the professor game is less rewarding than practically any job requiring professional training.)

A clean environment.  Rich folks--among whom are those who make money off dirty energy--have the means to clean the air in their environment with special equipment.  But the poor have to breathe the dirty air from billions of pollution-spewing cars, and pollution-spewing power companies.  So cleaning up the air and the water is something that will improve the health of everyone, especially the poor, who are less able to handle a bad environment.

Gun Control.  The only people who resist reasonable regulation of firearms are Gun Manufacturers (who have never stopped making tons of money through every administration, Democrat and Republican), and the members of the NRA (National Rifle Association).

Stricter control of Police harshness against minorities and blacks.

A higher basic wage.

The Trump Administration, and the Alt-Right (a.k.a. Trump Supporters) have long vilified those who make these demands as Socialists and anarchists.  They do not have a leg to stand on, because America as it is provides numerous goods and services to everyone for free.  I suppose this happened because those services were convenient for the wealthy as well.  I always point out highways, airports, water service, elementary schools, the Police, the Coast Guard, the National Parks, etc.  Even the GPS satellite system.  It hasn't prevented the wealthy from getting wealthier at the cost of the workers and the poor, who continue to get poorer.  These new demands make it possible to exist fairly comfortably even under poverty.  (Unfortunately, that is not what most conservatives want.  Most conservatives consider themselves self-made men and women, who worked hard for their money.  They are not.)

It was a very edifying first day of Democrat 2020.  I suppose they have to have several more days like this, with interesting speakers on each day, to make up for the frustrations of an election season under the stranglehold of the Virus.  Tomorrow, one of the speakers is slated to be Bill Clinton.