# Democratic National Convention August 19-22 2024 **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** kamala-harris\ **Created:** [August 17, 2024, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-national-convention-august-19-22-2024/1005835 "2024-08-17T15:55:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 50
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2024, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-national-convention-august-19-22-2024/1005835/981 "2024-08-24T01:40:14Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > You may see it as abdication of responsibility, but that is because it interests you. Many people have lives to live and paying close attention to politics is a significant burden to them, one way or the other, so they just hang back and sometimes catch a soundbite or two. It’s absolutely an abdication of responsibility because democracy itself is crucially and fundamentally dependent on the **participation of an informed populace**. If the people are not informed, or are misinformed, or simply choose not to participate, democracy and our way of life are in peril. Politics and elections are not a sport like basketball or baseball, they’re the mechanism by which we determine and safeguard of our way of life. If I sound contemptuous when I refer to undecided voters in a context like this as low-information morons, it’s because I absolutely am. In fact let me expand that further: “low-information morons who are a threat to our democracy”. It’s ironic that these morons may go to great lengths to analyze and celebrate or mourn the win or loss of their baseball team as if the world depended on it, yet couldn’t care less about the things that the world actually and literally does depend on. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2024, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-national-convention-august-19-22-2024/1005835/982 "2024-08-24T01:55:05Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > At least Trump’s live reaction to the Harris speech was as rational and calmly composed as one might think. > > [Harris’s convention speech sparks live rant from outraged Trump | Donald Trump | The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/23/trump-reaction-harris-dnc-speech) As reported all over the news, and posted here several times, Trump also called in to Fox News after Harris’ speech and ranted incoherently while (presumably accidentally) pushing the buttons on his phone that created annoying beeping sounds until finally even Fox cut him off. > MacCallum then kicked coverage to a live broadcast of _Gutfeld!_, where the namesake host began by acknowledging the quick end to the call. > > “That wasn’t my fault, Donald Trump!” Gutfeld said. “He’s still talking, by the way,” he joked. > > It wasn’t long before Trump found another right-wing network that would take his call. Minutes later, he continued his gripes on Newsmax. > [Fox Cuts Off Ranting Trump Then Mocks: ‘He’s Still Talking!’ (thedailybeast.com)](https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-cuts-off-ranting-trump-then-mocks-hes-still-talking) ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2024, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-national-convention-august-19-22-2024/1005835/983 "2024-08-24T02:23:51Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Politics and elections are not a sport like basketball or baseball While I do understand your point, you should consider walking that back a bit. I have _always_ been irritated by the fact that the person who gets elected has to win by one vote – which means that, given significantly divergent policy agendas between two major candidates, almost exactly half the voters can end up unrepresented, in the sense that “their side lost”.        It looks a lot like a sport from that perspective – and even if you add in alternative voting schemes, it still works out to “this side ‘won’ and that side ‘lost’.” Lose out enough times and you become disenchanted with a system that just pushes you aside. And if you are not in one of the two major camps, why the fuck even bother if you know your candidate has no prayer of ‘winning’? ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2024, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-national-convention-august-19-22-2024/1005835/984 "2024-08-24T02:26:09Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > You may see it as abdication of responsibility, but that is because it interests you. Many people have lives to live and paying close attention to politics is a significant burden to them, one way or the other, so they just hang back and sometimes catch a soundbite or two. Kind of like, once in a while, I hear something about some basketball team that something or the other, but it means nothing to me because I care nothing for basketball, as opposed to that one guy who wears his SuperSonics shirt everywhere and can go on at length about stat stat stats Except that who wins the basketball game affects only those who are interested in basketball. Who wins the election affects the lives of everyone in the country; some of them to the point of life or death. (And that is not true only of this election, though it may be more so of this one than of some others.) Ignoring whether your neighbor plays basketball because you don’t care about basketball is one thing. Ignoring that somebody’s trying to set your neighbor’s house on fire is something else altogether. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2024, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-national-convention-august-19-22-2024/1005835/985 "2024-08-24T02:28:53Z")
Moderating: This thread has outlived its usefulness, as evidenced by the many hijacks occurring now. Accordingly, this is closed. Please find a more appropriate thread for your discussions going forward and link back to the posts in this thread that inspired them, if you wish. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2024, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-national-convention-august-19-22-2024/1005835/986 "2024-08-24T02:29:03Z")
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**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2024, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-national-convention-august-19-22-2024/1005835/988 "2024-08-24T03:08:19Z")
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**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2024, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-national-convention-august-19-22-2024/1005835/989 "2024-08-24T03:08:24Z")
Moderating: I am reopening this thread at the request of several posters in ATMB. > [@Please re-open the DNC thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-re-open-the-dnc-thread/1006129): > > The [DNC thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-national-convention-august-19-22-2024/1005835) was closed due to a brief hijack. There are still potential questions and comments to be made, especially since not everybody watched it all in real-time. There are still speeches I haven’t had time to catch up on, for example. Am I supposed to start a new thread if I want to comment on them? I see no reason to shut it down due to a brief hijack. I wish to make it clear that if the hijacks continue, it will be closed again. Please be considerate of your fellow posters and take off-topic discussions elsewhere. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2024, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-national-convention-august-19-22-2024/1005835/990 "2024-08-24T03:08:48Z")
Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2024, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-national-convention-august-19-22-2024/1005835/991 "2024-08-24T03:17:05Z")
On day 4, I think, there was a large group of veterans for Harris onstage. Was that Tammy Duckworth in that group in a wheelchair? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2024, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-national-convention-august-19-22-2024/1005835/992 "2024-08-24T03:24:18Z")
Yes, it was at the conclusion of Ruben Gallego’s speech last night (day 4), and yes, that was Senator Duckworth in the wheelchair. She lost both legs when her helicopter was shot down in Iraq in 2004. While she sometimes uses prosthetic legs and walks with the help of a cane (as she did when she spoke at the convention on Tuesday (see clip below), I think that she uses a wheelchair more often. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/kPGeLF6qQrQ/maxresdefault.jpg "WATCH: Sen. Duckworth speaks about freedom, IVF protections at 2024 Democratic National Convention") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPGeLF6qQrQ) ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2024, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-national-convention-august-19-22-2024/1005835/993 "2024-08-24T03:29:59Z")
How many speakers were there altogether? More than the usual for conventions? ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2024, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-national-convention-august-19-22-2024/1005835/994 "2024-08-24T03:32:20Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > While she sometimes uses prosthetic legs and walks with the help of a cane (as she did when she spoke at the convention on Tuesday (see clip below), I think that she uses a wheelchair more often. Yep, I’ve seen her in news clips with the prostheses, but not in the wheelchair. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2024, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-national-convention-august-19-22-2024/1005835/995 "2024-08-24T03:38:07Z")
I thought it was really unfortunate that regular stations didn’t show all the talks. Did anyone really want to hear the commentators blathering together while we could hear the audience applauding talks we couldn’t see? Thankfully posters here linked to YouTube feeds showing all the talks (after I’d missed a lot and had to go hunt them down, like Keenan Thompson). I still don’t know what all I missed. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2024, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-national-convention-august-19-22-2024/1005835/996 "2024-08-24T03:45:49Z")
> [@Jihi](#): > > That said, I haven’t seen many of Kamala Harris’s speeches recently. Based on what I remember from her in the 2020 primaries, she’s came light years from that. She has truly matured into a fantastic public orator. I actually saw her debate Loretta Sanchez during her first campaign for senator in 2016. I thought she was fantastic even then. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2024, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-national-convention-august-19-22-2024/1005835/997 "2024-08-24T05:16:07Z")
So as not to start a hijack in this thread, here’s a link to a post in the Schadenfreude thread of a Stephen Colbert clip of (fake) Melania at the DNC. > [@A Perfectly Reasonable Amount of Schadenfreude about Things Happening to Trump & His Enablers (Part 2)](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-2/984250/7865): > > Finally! The (satirical) answer to [Where’s Melania](https://youtu.be/Dp0II2XolEg?si=lQJNnmjT_GXhujMl)! ---
**Author:** ![Eric1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3bc359/32.png) [@Eric1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eric1)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2024, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-national-convention-august-19-22-2024/1005835/998 "2024-08-24T06:10:24Z")
I admired that VP Harris was willing to smile when discussing social problems. I could aspire to that, to being smooth while still taking action. She seemed poised so I appreciated that. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2024, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-national-convention-august-19-22-2024/1005835/999 "2024-08-24T16:23:58Z")
(Thank you for re-opening this thread.) [Inna](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/love-in-the-age-of-trump-or-i-fell-in-love-with-a-republican/980600) and I watched Kamala’s speech only, for that was the only thing which mattered to us - how she would handle the biggest speech of her life. I thought she did fine, a few quivers in her voice, in a speech which may have focused _a bit too much_ on Donald Trump. Inna enjoyed the non-Trump parts, but later said (which I agree) that there was a lot of ‘fluff’, for want of a better word. I thought she looked great, and the brown backdrop worked well in contrast. Kamala is in that position that Trump was in 2016 - you can pretty much imagine her to be what you want her to be even if there is no evidence she is who you think she is. That’s an attractive pull for independents, undecideds, and RINO’s. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2024, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-national-convention-august-19-22-2024/1005835/1000 "2024-08-24T16:40:54Z")
I thought a lot of what could be described as fluff were the “greatest country on earth” things, the USA, USA, USA stuff, which is great because it works to take back the patriotic narrative from the Party of Assholes. That’s huge! ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2024, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-national-convention-august-19-22-2024/1005835/1001 "2024-08-24T16:46:11Z")
Trump can have his authoritarian fist raised, bloody ear picture. I’ll contrast that with this one any day. [![](https://i.ibb.co/0DdpFHp/IMG-1869.jpg) ](https://i.ibb.co/0DdpFHp/IMG-1869.jpg) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-national-convention-august-19-22-2024/1005835.md?page=49) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-national-convention-august-19-22-2024/1005835.md?page=51)