Most of Monday Night Was Spent Defining Trump. Very Little Was About the Future.

Typically, the first night of any party convention is the least-watched night. The biggest day of the convention is the last day, Thursday, when we hear from the candidates themselves – in this week’s case, Kamala Harris. Monday is the opening act of the opening act.

Interestingly, that’s the night they decided to put in the Biden family. According to reporting from various corners of the internet, Biden loyalists were upset at the disrespect. Through a combination of disorganized coordination, people running over their time, and the slate of speakers the party had scheduled, the sitting president of the United States was bumped out of prime time to speak to most Americans while they were already asleep.

But the various speeches last night were a mixed bag of topics that only had one thing in common – very little of it had to do with why people should vote for Kamala Harris. Instead, the bulk of the night was spent defining Donald Trump as an insurrectionist, criminal, felon, predator, out-of-touch rich guy, etc. 

In other words, last night was all stuff we had heard before. 

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Hillary Clinton made a lot of her speech about herself, reminding America she is the only person in the history of the world to lose to Trump in an election as though that was an appeal to listen to her. Jamie Raskin gave a speech with awkward zingers and more energy than substance. Several Democrats made the choice to talk about Biden or Trump. Very few told us why in any memorable terms voters should pick Kamala Harris.

Admittedly, the convention is a party for, well, the party. It’s about rallying the Democrats. But with a brand new candidate no one has cast a vote for and less than eighty days until the election, every waking moment should be about winning independent voters. Every second not doing that is a second wasted.

There are still three more nights of the convention, which is three more nights to convince voters in the middle to side with Kamala Harris, but there is a problem: There isn’t much of a record to run on. If there was, they’d be leading with that. Biden’s speech last night would have been more focused on the Biden-Harris administration’s accomplishments and less on Trump.

A strong record means you don’t have to be negative. It means you don’t have to frighten voters about the big, scary orange man. Frankly, with a successful record, you should give as little airtime, positive or negative, to your opponent – why even acknowledge he exists and give him free airtime when you have a great record to run on?

But that is not the case. Harris herself took Friday to tell us all the economy actually does suck, which is an admission against interest. She released a plan to fix the economy that she previously said was much better thanks to Bidenomics. Her plan has received, at best, a big “meh” from economists on the left and the right (at worst, it’s being outright rejected by just about everyone who has a basic knowledge of supply and demand).

So, the Democrats remain obsessed with Trump. There are more speeches coming tonight, and I expect that there will be a lot more about Trump. The current Democratic Party identity is of opposition to Trump. It’s not a tenable identity, either. Trump isn’t forever, but their impact on the American people and the American economy will be.