Unity in the Democratic Party?
The theme for the week in Denver and the mainstream media is, of course, unity. But what does it mean?
Does it mean that the party will agree on a candidate? I don’t think so; asking a political party whether Republican or Democrat, that makes up roughly half of America to agree on a single candidate is asking too much. The GOP doesn’t all agree on John McCain and, certainly, the Democrats don’t agree on Barack Obama.
Does it mean that Hillary and Bill will say nice things about Barack Obama? Perhaps, but what good does that do? No one in their right mind (which, of course, may not include many folks in Denver) believes that Hillary or Bill really likes Obama or thinks that he is the best choice for President. They spent several months using the same arguments against Obama (that he is inexperienced and unprepared) that John McCain is using today. Sen. Clinton will say some nice things about Obama, but she will be very careful in what she says (her husband is the master at parsing his words, depending on what the definition of the word “is” is), and Americans will see that she doesn’t really mean it. Her main goal tonight is to position herself for a run in 2012.
Does it mean that the party will come together on a platform? Absolutely no way. This candidate, and therefore this party, has no coherent platform. As Sen. Obama so eloquently demonstrated at Saddleback, this party is all about long-winded statements that say nothing while including every possible point-of-view, ensuring that no one is offended or disenfranchised. There is simply no platform to unify around.
Anyone who has ever been to a political convention knows that most of what goes on is not shown on TV. There is a great deal of cheerleading, hobknobbing, and partying, but the vast majority of American voters aren’t there and don’t see that. Most Americans see (or read about) what happens in prime time. So, what will they see to unify them? Last night, nothing… Ted Kennedy is fighting a corageous battle against cancer and Barack Obama is a family man. I love my wife and kids, and we had a storybrook romance, but that doesn’t qualify me to be President! Tonight, they get Hilary and its all about Hillary. Tomorrow night, they get Bill and its all about Bill. So, they get one night, Thursday, to “unify” this party.
So what does unity mean? I have no idea.