For a nominee who has adopted a policy platform that Bernie Sanders said would make him the “most progressive president since FDR,” Joe Biden’s Democratic convention took a curiously centrist tone that was out of step with the party’s growing ideological leftism.
The first night of the Democratic convention featured several Republicans speaking in opposition to President Trump and in support of the Democratic presidential nominee. Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich stood at a fork in the road to drive home his point: “We are at a crossroads.” A man named Eric from Illinois held a whiskey glass while he said that he regretted his vote for Trump in 2016. Cindy McCain, widow of Arizona Sen. John McCain, narrated a video praising Biden’s character that aired on Wednesday.
Avoided almost entirely was abortion, one of the biggest issues that divides Democrats and Republicans. A Catholic priest prayed for the “unborn child in the womb” on Thursday night, a stark contrast from when former Planned Parenthood head Cecile Richards spoke at the 2016 Democratic convention and NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue “shouted” her abortion.
Democratic socialist firebrand Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gave a one-minute ceremonial nominating speech in support of making Sanders the Democratic presidential nominee — the same amount of time that TikTok comedian Sarah Cooper was on screen. More Republicans spoke at the convention than Latinos. Those moves infuriated some on the Left.
The tone of the convention revealed how Biden’s campaign and the Democrats are viewing the final months of the election, particularly as Trump’s campaign tries to argue that Biden is a “Trojan horse” for the “radical left.”
“They don’t really feel they need to worry about the progressives,” Vanderbilt University history and political science professor Thomas Schwartz said of the Democrats in an interview with the Washington Examiner. “What they’re doing here is essentially going after people who really have had enough of Trump but might be inclined to vote for him if they thought the Democrats were going to do some of the things that they’re promising to do.”
Unlike in 2016, left-wing supporters of Sanders are far more likely to say that they will vote for Biden despite not being as excited about his candidacy. Biden worked with Sanders after the Vermont senator suspended his presidential campaign to adopt some of his policies and create recommendations for the Democratic Party platform. While some activists were frustrated that the platform did not endorse “Medicare for all,” there was not a dramatic open revolt that distracted from the ceremonial aspect of the convention.
Schwartz said that the projection of centrism in this year’s convention was similar to the Democratic convention in 2004, when John Kerry was the party’s nominee. Despite the increasing unpopularity of the Iraq War among Democrats, the convention highlighted his background and military service, taking a patriotic theme that could theoretically appeal to more centrist voters. Kerry opened his acceptance speech with a salute and said: “I’m John Kerry, and I’m reporting for duty.”
“What they’re doing in 2020 is a bit like that, except that the focus in this particular case is just anti-Trump,” Schwartz said. “Effectively, making the case for the biography of Biden as the non-Trump candidate and downplaying issues that might remind voters why they like Trump more than a typical Democrat, for example, on things like abortion or some aspects of the economy, some issues where the the numbers aren’t quite as overwhelmingly in favor of the Democrats whether they might actually lose some votes.”
Discussion of policy was not necessarily absent, and there were some hints about the Democrats embracing the left wing of the party. Taking a break from fawning over Biden’s character or warning about how fragile American democracy is, some sections of the Democratic convention focused on expanding the Affordable Care Act, banning “assault weapons,” and combating climate change.
Both Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren spoke at the convention, in a gesture of party unity.
And Biden’s acceptance speech included a line that might as well have been lifted straight from Sanders’s stump speech: “It’s long past time the wealthiest people and the biggest corporations in this country paid their fair share.”
