I suspect the delay is the first stage of cancellation, somewhere between denial and bargaining.
The extra five weeks will “increase the possibilities for us moving forward,” Perez said... “We’re going to continue to be guided by, among other things, what the situation on the ground is not only in Milwaukee and Wisconsin but across the country,” Perez said. “We will make sure that our presentation every day is exciting, it’s clear, it’s safe and it highlights our values.”At some point, the "values" will require cancellation, but for now, the "value" of optimism is in play. Optimism and Wisconsin-i-ness.
I am a little surprised that the values permit the use of the phrase "very muscular." It might strike some people as sexist, but it might be sexist to regard it as sexist. It's more clearly ableist. Anyway, for me, at least, it calls to mind "Muscular Christianity":
Muscular Christianity is a philosophical movement that originated in England in the mid-19th century, characterized by a belief in patriotic duty, discipline, self-sacrifice, manliness, and the moral and physical beauty of athleticism.... The movement was also closely related to British imperialism, and many tenets of Muscular Christianity were derived from or related to the ideology of colonialism and the "Noble savage" archetype....Physical strength and health... that is indeed something you'd like your political party to embody in this time of raging disease and death. And I think that's what Perez is doing with his rhetoric of robustness and muscularity.
American President Theodore Roosevelt was raised in a household that practiced Muscular Christianity and was a prominent adherent to the movement. Roosevelt [and others] promoted physical strength and health as well as an active pursuit of Christian ideals in personal life and politics....
Roosevelt believed that, “There is only a very circumscribed sphere of usefulness for the timid good man”, a sentiment echoed by many at the time. Followers of Muscular Christianity ultimately found that the only solution to this was to connect faith to the physicality of the body....
And Wisconsin-i-ness.
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I look forward to watching the muscular minions of Antifa and the Bernie Bros in the streets of Milwaukee. And with their masks they'll will blend right in!
Have a robust convention, Democrats.
Great quote by TR on the “circumscribed sphere.” Let me suggest —timidly— that the radius of that sphere is 3 feet?
Perhaps it's just a message of hope.
Politicans and political types, like participants in the sports world, really, really believe that their world and what they do is the most important thing. To them, committing to holding the convention is a demonstration of their commitment to this really, really important thing - even and especially in the face of a worldwide pandemic. See how strong and committed they are?
I may be too cynical about Tom Perez and his ilk to believe he is honest and not totally pandering to secure and win political support.
Robustness is not something I associate with the Democratic Party. (Does anyone?) But I agree it's the right tone—in a time of pandemic, there is a premium on health and energy.
"The Democratic Convention in Milwaukee will be "robust," "very muscular" and "It’s going to be safe, it’s going to be exciting and it’s going to be Wisconsin-y."
And may its first child be a masculine child.
There is a certain faction of the party that needs public spectacles to maintain the facades of inclusiveness, diversity, and a focus on the working class.
A roll call vote of delegates by party elders via Zoom will not energize that part of the base.
The Coronavirus is not a good thing for the Democrats.
Should Trump win a convincing victory, they will use it to explain low turnout and remain in their state of continuous denial for another four years.
Please let the nominee be Biden, aka Hunter's dad.
...and it highlights our values
A bug, not a feature...
Perhaps it's just a message of hope.
...of desperation.
These desperate attempts to appear relevant in these times are easy to cheap shot...but for those of us who don't have boots on the ground, what is Wisconsin-y exactly? Will there be badgers? Creative drinking of quality and quantity? Takeout Pizza from Il Retrovo in Sheboygan?
Will there be badgers?
They don’t need no stinking badgers.
...they will use it to explain low turnout and remain in their state of continuous denial for another four years.
...to further this thought, they will use it claim the election is illegitimate and, depending on the new head count in Congress and the state of health of RBG, use it as a basis of impeachment or a do-over recall election.
The Democratic Convention has been running on CNN and MSNBC for almost four years.
The country can get by without several more nights of pre-programmed anti-Trump speeches with a balloon dump at the end.
Cancelling the convention seems like a bad idea to me, and an interesting piece of speculation.
"Muscular Christianity"
"The most common ShorDurPerSav is J. R. "Bob" Dobbs, followed by Connie Dobbs and then The Fightin' Jesus. Other common ShorDurPerSavs include Jehovah 1, Francis E. Dec, Eris Discordia, Adolf Hitler, Emperor Norton, The Bleeding Head of Arnold Palmer, Robert Anton Wilson, L. Ron Hubbard, Alien Sex Goddesses, Satan, the number 23, Barack Obama, and Cthulhu."
That's probably fake but inaccurate.
Virus is virile.
What is the nature of people who live in Wisconsin? How are they different than Minnesotans? Discuss.
It's hard to do something muscular when all the males in your party are low T.
Perez obviously doesn't read the Althouse blog comments. If he did, he would know (from Titus) that all Sconnies are fat and have a pasty complexion from the lack of sunlight.
"Wisconsin-y" = cheesy?
Most conventions are.
Muscular Christianity was last glimpsed in America in the excellent movie Chariots of Fire, 1981, with the racing matches of a devout Scotsman, Eric Liddell, and Jewish Harold Abrahams leading up to the 1924 Olympics.
First of all, Tom Perez is a douche. It's a word I have not used in years, and it's not the topic of this post, but this guy is a complete and total douche. Him at the top of the party is all you need to know about that party.
As for Wisconiny, I suppose that means there will be a lot of beer, brats, and cheese? Is there more to being Wisconsiny? I mean, outside of Madison Wisconsiny.
"Robust" was a word I only heard in coffee ads from a half-century ago. Then the word was the subject of an episode of Veep, and it turned out that it was a very popular word in Washington DC. I guess it's a kind of unword, that you use when you want to say "strong" or "fortunate" or "healthy" without unpleasant connotations (pitting the strong against the weak, the lucky against the unlucky, the healthy against the sick). The fact that people aren't so sure about what it means but half-remember it from coffee (or beer or cigar) ads (it's hard to remember which now) gives it the added attraction of imprecision. Come to think of it, it's a word vaguely but not clearly associated with masculinity, so it has that going for it as well in an age that has conflicted attitudes about masculinity.
Old fogies telling the kids to stay home and cower.
50 years ago the old fogies were triumphantly singing: “I hope I get old before I die!”
If I were young and on the make, I’d get out there and raise hell and tell the old fogies to go fuck themselves.
This panic is absurd. 4 people have died in my county. 49 deaths reported in Wisconsin.
I wonder if there are any state legal ballot issues if the convention is cancelled.
For example, under New York State Election Law, Section 6-102:
§ 6–102. Party nominations; electors, presidential
Party nominations of candidates for the office of elector of
president and vice president of the United States, one for each
congressional district and two at large, shall be made by the
state committee.
Could a state committee act to place a slate of Sanders electors on the Democratic line, instead of Biden, if there is no convention? Say in Vermont?
Theodore Roosevelt was shot in Milwaukee. How come you didn't end up with a bad reputation like Dallas? I guess it was because he survived. Could it be that the Dallas curse also lingers over other assassination sites like LA, Memphis, and Buffalo? Especially Buffalo.
@Lurker 21. I believe "robust" emerged from the computing world about 15 years ago as a way to claim your software wouldn't be full of bugs and could handle many applications without wimping down into crashdom. It was then picked up by the business community and became a favored pr word to mean superb, wonderful, and muscular, while actually connoting fairly good.
Robust Bernie bros, muscular union thugs and and Anti-1A will be there looking for Republicans to beat up, but they’ll probably just have to fight among themselves. Biden may have to knock a few heads together.
Shouting Thomas said...
Old fogies telling the kids to stay home and cower.
50 years ago the old fogies were triumphantly singing: “I hope I get old before I die!”
If I were young and on the make, I’d get out there and raise hell and tell the old fogies to go fuck themselves.
This panic is absurd. 4 people have died in my county. 49 deaths reported in Wisconsin.
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Which the intelligentsia will tell is due to the social distancing and all the other measures they have forced on us.
We will never know if we overreacted.
Muscular convention = one where delegates have to be seated or unseated by force, or one where the protesters break into the convention hall. We haven't had one of those for fifty or sixty years.
The burly guys from urban political machines, courthouse gangs, and labor unions aren't as much of a feature in Democratic party gatherings nowadays, and it doesn't look like Bernie's bros are going to be bringing burly back any time soon. Maybe muscular and robust women will take up the slack.
“We will make sure that our presentation every day is exciting, it’s clear, it’s safe and it highlights our values.”
Can someone interpret this bug-man word salad?
Wisconsiny! Brandy Old Fashioneds for everyone!
"We will never know if we overreacted."
But we will, as long as Sweden doesn't cave and continues its un-lockdown. Then we'll have something to compare our and everyone else's efforts to. And that's why there's so much pressure on Sweden to do what everyone else is doing.
I've been thinking of TR in terms of Trump. Of course Trump haters are always on about how there's never been an elected Pres who's so coarse, evil, whatever. I'm not sure "Muscular Christianity" is a good description of what Trump offers, but there's some overlap. America First: definitely.
And then: critics are complaining about the long briefings, a few facts mixed with somewhat unfounded promises, misleading claims about technical matters, etc., partly just an exposure of the real Trump like his rallies. Is he such a narcissist that he thinks this is what the country needs?
TR's daughter Alice on TR: he wanted to be the bridegroom at every wedding, and the corpse at every funeral. As the combination of the two makes clear, not sleeping with the bride, just the center of attention--the person no one can take their eyes off of, or stop thinking about.
Ahh...thank you TCrosse! Brandy Old-Fashioneds. I use to love those, and was first introduced to them in the 70s while working in, of all places, Madison, WI.
It became my drink of choice for years after that.
Althouse,
Given how anti-Christian the Democratic Party has become in recent years, I was reminded instead of "I need some muscle over here".
Sexist, ableist. Does everything have to be -ist? Must every comment be picked apart to see if there is some offense to some identity group lurking in it somewhere?
And Wisconsin-i-ness.
O, the vowels! So hard.
Back in high school we would refer to girls who were well endowed to be "robust".
Hawkeye... I know, right? hopefully one of the benefits of the pandemic will be the destruction of political correctness and cancel culture which is like sand in the gears of social and business interaction.
Good point Annie C. However one thing is even more certain. If we under-react to the pandemic, there will be no misinterpretation no debate no misunderstanding... Everyone will know that we made a catastrophic fatal mistake.
Slogan: The Convention that made Milwaukee Great!
Or is that too close too MAGA?
Wisconsin-y.
Hmm. Beer. Fried Cheesecurds. BOFS.
Having read the post, my first reaction was that they aren't going to allow the date of the federal elections to be moved from November (even if there is an apparent need to do so and a political consensus involving large numbers of polls): they are going to try to force universal vote-by-mail, failing which they'll be able to impeach on a routine basis because the re-elected Mr Trump will be, this time, obviously illegitimate. I think others must have pointed this out in the previous threads about the horrors of absentee voting in Wisconsin because it seems rather too coherent for my usual nonsense about politics.
I can't conceive of a less apt description of the Democratic convention this year.
They should go hold in the middle of nowhere, like South Dakota.
"They should go hold in the middle of nowhere, like South Dakota."
Excellent idea. The annual Burning Man event in Nevada would be a perfect fit for the Dem convention.
What is the nature of people who live in Wisconsin? How are they different than Minnesotans? Discuss.
I was born in Wisconsin and have roots in both states.
My relatives in WI and MN pretty much have the same Norwegian characteristics (e.g., pleasant demeanor, heavy duty denial). However, many times when I vacationed in Door County WI, locals would voice strong disapproval of Minnesotans. I suspect it has to do with the higher SES of Minnesotans and its accompanying snobbishness.
The annual Burning Man event in Nevada would be a perfect fit for the Dem convention.
Burning Baby quorum (BBq). Celebrate nearly one century of progress and wicked solutions.
It's going to be Lit AF with all the rioting.
I think the best introduction to Muscular Christianity would be to watch Disney's The Happiest Millionaire, which iirc was somewhat based on a true story. Anyway, it's hard to look at that era, for all its faults and compare it unfavorably to the current one.
If the convention bans margarine, then it will be Wisconsin-y AF ...
When I think of 'muscular Christianity' I always think of Tom Brown's School Days.
“What is the nature of people who live in Wisconsin? How are they different than Minnesotans? Discuss.“
Gophers live in a hole in the ground, whereas Badgers live in a hole in the ground.
We do not admire the man of timid peace. We admire the man who embodies victorious effort; the man who never wrongs his neighbor, who is prompt to help a friend, but who has those virile qualities necessary to win in the stern strife of actual life. It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. In this life we get nothing save by effort. Freedom from effort in the present merely means that there has been stored up effort in the past.
A man can be freed from the necessity of work only by the fact that he or his fathers before him have worked to good purpose. If the freedom thus purchased is used aright, and the man still does actual work, though of a different kind, whether as a writer or a General, whether in the field of politics or in the field of exploration and adventure, he shows he deserves his good fortune.
But if he treats this period of freedom from the need of actual labor as a period not of preparation, but of mere enjoyment, he shows that he is simply a cumberer of the earth’s surface, and he surely unfits himself to hold his own with his fellows if the need to do so should again arise. A mere life of ease is not in the end a very satisfactory life, and, above all, it is a life which ultimately unfits those who follow it for serious work in the world.
I doubt any Democrat today has much use for teddy Roosevelt, except his trust bashing and his support for the "Crusade to make the world safe for Democracy".
Wisconsin has gone from being ignored by the D's in 2016, to being the center of attention. Funny what a few Republican votes will do.
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