The Tensions Inside the Democrats’ New Big Tent
The opening night of the DNC showcased Republicans and socialists and dire warnings about Trump. Whatever happened to inspiring voters?
The 2020 Democratic National Convention that got underway Monday night featured socialists and Republicans, former Donald Trump voters and Black Lives Matter activists, small-business people and CEOs. There was one of the chief architects of the Green New Deal—and a recovering climate skeptic. There were speeches delivered on a lectern and speeches recorded in living rooms. The vision for the Democratic Party under Joe Biden’s leadership offered at Monday night’s kickoff of the 2020 DNC was, for better or worse, one of far-reaching ideological inclusivity.
Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former Rep. Susan Molinari, former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, and Quibi CEO and one-time Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman weighed in from the GOP side of the aisle. All of their speeches, to some degree, explained their switch to support a Democrat in 2020; all cited their abhorrence of our 45th president. “The stakes in this election are greater than any in modern times,” said Kasich. “We’re being taken down the wrong road by a president who has pitted one against the other.”
