Notes from Paris: Watching the Democratic Nat'l Convention

With everything else happening this week, moving apartments, selling my home in Oakland, gobs and gobs of paperwork, I found myself glued to YouTube, the streaming channel that made it possible for me to watch entire evenings of the Convention or just the speeches I wanted to hear.

Each evening, TV coverage started at 7pm ET which is 1am in Paris. So I elected to get a good night’s sleep and watched everything the following day. As with almost everybody else I’ve heard talk about the Convention, I was immediately struck by the joy, the happiness, and, dare I say it, the hope that oozed off the delegates and electrified each evening. I’m not sure how it happened and would love to hear from my readers, but from the moment President Biden threw his support behind his Vice President, Kamala Harris, the people who were so blue and feeling hopeless suddenly perked up, like watering a drooping plant that had days to go before it died and now suddenly was alive and vibrant. Watching Joe speak that first evening, I was very happy to admit that I was wrong and all the rest of you were right: He needed to step down and let someone younger run for his job. He didn’t look his age, eighty-one, but his entire body screamed that he was old. I felt so sad. What a thing to have to do. After most of his political lifetime, yearning to be President of the US, he got the golden ring but wasn’t able to finish what he started. He was asked to step down for the good of the country. Joe Biden will have a special place in history when Presidents are evaluated. I hope I’m alive to see him earn his well-deserved place.

I have spent the last 50+ years in California. Hearing the storied journey of Kamala Harris through the halls of California courts and administration was a revelation to me. And her smile!! On TV news channels, during her time in California, we were always treated to photos of her tough side, prosecuting criminals. Her smile is beatific!!! I did wonder over the last four years why people seemed to dislike her. I wondered what she had done. Or was it just that she is a strong, tough highly educated woman, a black woman, who pulls no punches and is not intimidated by bullies. Is that what she was guilty of?

Now, with the eyes of the world watching America, she is our darling. I was worried that the media would have a field day dredging up rumours and gossip about the Democratic hopeful. But she and husband, Doug Emhoff, seem to think ahead, to look at all those slippery slopes that most politicians, most people actually, don’t want to admit are there and do what is right. When she won the vice-presidency, Emhoff, an attorney whose cases had nothing to do with politics, quit his job in case there was any question about his connection to a possible case being litigated in the law firm of which he was a partner. In other words, he loved his wife more than his ambitions.

We heard that a lot over the four days of the convention. Biden: “I love my job but I love my country more.” Stephanie Grisham who worked for Trump: “I love my country more than I love my party.” and many other republicans who had voted for Trump said something similar.

The Love— Coach Walz telling his family how much he loved them. His son, in tears, saying “that’s my dad!” Emhoff declaring his love for Kamala. One of his sons telling us in photos how much fun it was watching his dad and “Momala” falling in love “just like teenagers!” The love, real love between people and families, was palpable even on YouTube watching from 7000 miles away.

It was pretty clear from the second hour of the first night that the DNC was going to take the high road. They grabbed themes that the republicans thought were theirs only and made them Democratic themes: patriotism, freedom, the American flag, families, USA chanted over and over. The words ‘facism’ and ‘neo-nazis’ were rarely mentioned. the words ‘dictator’ and ‘autocrat’ were mentioned as part of Trump’s psychology of “me, me, me,” all about Trump. Project 2025 was a book that several speakers referred to in the plans that Trump has for the US if he were to win. No one went into a lengthy explanation of who actually wrote the book, how long it has been in the making, and that these writers were not going to make the same mistake that was made in 2016 when they were unprepared to use the power that Trump made available to them. If you really want to indulge in a horror show, listen to the two seasons of Rachel Maddow’s Podcast: Ultra.(Click to start). It will make your toes curl, your stomach want to vomit, and wonder why you have never heard all this information so clearly before.

August in Paris is a time when the streets are empty, fifty percent of stores are closed, and most people are taking much needed vacations before La Rentrée, the return to school and the return to work, begins. The few people that are here have the Paralympics on their mind after having just witnessed the glorious Parisian party that was the 2024 Paris Olympics. I would watch my daily dose of the Convention and then wonder who can I talk to? Who can I trade observations with? Very few people were here. I got a few e-mails from Democrats Abroad that were joyful and urging us to get to work and that was about it. I suspect that there were others who had a different experience. Mine was lonely. It’s one of the first times of being an exPat that I longed to be somewhere else and bask in the hope and joy of my community.

In the words of the excellent Heather Cox Richardson: the Harris-Walz team is “reclaiming the idea of Community with its understanding that everyone matters and the government must serve everyone.”—HCR, Substack, August 24, 2024

And now, we who have moaned and groaned, have to “Stop complaining and get to work!” (Michelle Obama). I am volunteering with Democrats Abroad and doing whatever they ask me to do.

What are you doing?

A bientôt,

Sara