Democrats, day 2

So today I watched the unannotated feed of yesterday's convention proceedings. It was even more raucous and joyous than Monday's, largely because of the roll-call vote. This was purely nominal, as the official vote has already been tallied, and any opposition votes were subsumed under "Present". The proceedings were that each state called upon offered the usual local puffery followed by the vote announcement; what made this one different was the presence of a dj, who played a song selected to be appropriate for each state while its representatives were speaking. They were almost all upbeat contemporary pop numbers, which made it a little exhausting for me to listen to, and I had to take several breaks. There was no singing on the recordings; they were all of instrumental riffs, which made it a bit hard for me to recognize even any of the half-dozen songs I actually knew. Here's a complete list.

The evening began with the grandson of Jimmy Carter and the grandson of JFK each testifying that Kamala Harris is in their grandfather's tradition, followed by a couple of renegade ex-Trumpistas. Both of these themes could have been carried on for quite a while, but I guess they judged it best to stop at two or three of each.

Of the midlist speakers, some good jabs at Trump were delivered by Governor Pritzker ("Take it from an actual billionaire, Trump is rich in only one thing: stupidity") and Senator Duckworth, who remember is one of those maimed war veterans Trump is so disdainful of ("I take it personally when a five-time draft-dodging coward tries to take away my rights and freedoms in return"). Then came Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, whose message was basically that Kamala was the right thing for him at that particular time, and that she's the right thing for the country at this particular time.

Then to end the evening the con pulled out the big guns: Michelle, followed by Barack. Michelle said that Kamala believes "that regardless of where you come from, what you look like, who you love, how you worship, or what’s in your bank account, we all deserve the opportunity to build a decent life. All of our contributions deserve to be accepted and valued." And that, children, is what Thomas Jefferson meant when he said "All men are created equal." And then she said that when things get tough, don't mope or whine: "Do something." And Barack did something similar when he responded to boos of one of his digs at Trump by saying "Don't boo. Vote."

Useful reminder for the slog ahead. Go get 'em.