I live-blog my first reading of Joe Biden's convention speech.

Transcript (with punctuation improved in spots based on the video):

Good evening, Ella Baker, a giant of the civil rights movement left us with this wisdom: give people light and they will find the way. Give people light.

I give this post my "light and shade" tag (one of my favorites).  I don't remember ever hearing about Ella Baker, but it's a good quote, and it sets up a theme, and gives us something we can use to test the success of this speech. He must give light. He cannot simply claim to be the light. Jesus said, "I am the light of the world," but Biden is not Jesus.

Those are words for our time. The current president has cloaked American darkness for much too long, too much anger, too much fear, too much division here.

I don't yet know if Biden is going to claim to be the light, but he has asserted that Trump is the dark. The dark is defined as anger, fear, and division, but I don't know how the Democrats can say they are not part of that darkness. The speech is already marked with divisiveness: The other side is the darkness and we bring the light.

And now I give you my word. If you entrust me with the presidency, I will draw on the best of us. Not the worst. I’ll be an ally of the light, not the darkness.

So he's not the light, but an ally of the light.

It’s time for us, for We, the People to come together and make no mistake. United, we can and will overcome this season of darkness in America.

"We can... overcome." Not: We shall overcome. He didn't Lyndon Johnson it! If he'd said "We shall overcome" it would have tied to the Civil Rights Movement, and he did begin the speech with a quote from "a giant of the civil rights movement," but he's not talking about racial justice specifically here. He's talking in the most generic way about light and darkness. There's nothing about any specific people, just all the people, the ethereal entity "We, the People," which needs to "come together."

We’ll choose hope over fear, facts, over fiction, fairness, over privilege....

Pretty much everyone chooses those things in the abstract, but he's telling us what we will do. What's the evidence of that? It seems to me that We, the People have been, in reality, choosing the negative side of each of those binaries, but if Donald Trump can be made to embody fear, fiction, and privilege, then it's correct to say we'll choose hope, facts, and fairness if only we vote him out of office.

Biden accepts the Democratic Party nomination for President, but if he is elected, he'll be "an American President," working for everyone, "not just our base or our party":

This is not a partisan moment. This must be an American moment. Someone with a cause for hope and light and love — hope for our future, light to see our way forward, and love for one another. 

I've been wondering where's the love. He's offering love — love and hope and light. That's all very abstract, of course.

No, nearly a century ago, Franklin Roosevelt pledged a new deal in a time of massive unemployment, uncertainty, and fear. Stricken by a disease — stricken by a virus — FDR insisted that he would recover and prevail, and he believed America could as well. And he did. And we can as well. This campaign isn’t just about winning votes. It’s about winning the heart and yes, the soul of America — winning it for the generous among us, not the selfish when needed for workers who keep this country going, not just the privileged few at the top, winning for those communities who have known the injustice of a knee on the neck, for all the young people [who] have known only America being  rising inequity and shrinking opportunity....

The metaphorical "knee on the neck" has affected whole communities... but weren't these communities in cities run by the Democratic Party?

And now history has delivered us to one of the most difficult moments America has ever faced: four historic crises.

The 4 crises are: the pandemic, the economy, the "call for racial justice," and climate change.

As many have said America is at an inflection point...

Inflection point! (I blogged about the term "inflection point" twice yesterday — 1, 2 — after Kamala Harris used it in her speech.)

We can choose a path to becoming angrier, less hopeful, more divided, a path of shadow and suspicion or, or we can choose a different path and together take this chance to heal, to reform, to unite, a path of hope and light.

As if the idea of light could meet 4 crises. By the way — only 4? Why not 6?



Back to Joe:

Character is on the ballot. Compassion is on the ballot, decency, science, democracy.

He's incanting abstractions.

They’re all on the ballot, who we are as a nation. What we stand for. And most importantly, who we want to be, that’s all on the ballot. And the choice could not be more clear. No rhetoric is needed....

Are you kidding?!! It's nothing but rhetoric! You have 4 crises, and what are you going to do about it? Tell us we're voting for good versus evil. That's what's on the ballot. It sounds like you have no idea what to do.

He complains that Trump "does not have a plan" to deal with the coronavirus and asserts that he has a plan, then lists some things that Trump has been doing. He uses one of my favorite political bullshit phrases: "We’ll make sure our schools have the resources." "Make sure" is not a plan. It's just another way to say what you want. We all want the schools to be good.

We’ll have a national mandate to wear a mask, not as a burden, but as a patriotic duty to protect one another and short we’ll do what we should have done from the very beginning....

What's the basis of federal power to make everyone everywhere in the country wear a mask? The Commerce Clause? And he's telling us not just that we must wear a mask but what state of mind we're supposed to have while we wear it. Patriotic. Spare me. I'll keep my own thoughts and you won't know what they are unless I write them out loud.

Look, I understand. I understand how hard it is to have any hope right now on this summer night.

Summer, the season of darkness.

Let me take a moment to speak to those you who have lost the most. I have some idea how it feels to lose someone you love. I know that deep black hole that opens up in the middle of your chest and you feel like you’re being sucked into it. I know how mean and cruel and unfair life can be sometimes, but I’ve learned two things. First. Your loved one may have left this earth, but they’ll never leave your heart. They’ll always be with you. You always hear them. And second, I found the best way through pain and loss and grief is to find purpose.

Okay. We know that Biden suffered a great personal loss long ago. He uses this to connect to people. In this speech, it works as part of the dark-and-light theme. The deaths made a "black hole" inside him. But he found a way out: Purpose.

As God’s children, each of us have a purpose in our lives. We have a great purpose as a nation to open the doors of opportunity to all Americans, to save our democracy, to be a light to the world, once again, and finally to live up to and make real the words written in the sacred documents that founded this nation, that all men and women are created equal endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The nation's purpose is written in the Declaration of Independence, he says, then moves on to the individual characters in his life:

You know, my dad was an honorable decent man. He got knocked down a few times, pretty hard, but he always got back up. He worked hard and he built a great middle class life for our family. He used to say, Joey, I don’t expect the government to solve my problems.... 

Kamala and I both draw from our families. That’s where we get our strength for Kamala’s Doug and their families. For me, it’s Jill and ours. I’ve said many times, no man deserves one great love in his life. Let alone two. But I’ve known too. After losing my first wife in that car accident, Jill came into my life and she put our family back together... 

Beau inspires me every day, Beau served our nation in uniform...

He brings up Charlottesville and says some of the same words that I objected to a week ago (here):

Remember what you saw on television. Remember seeing those neo-Nazis and Klansmen and white supremacists coming out of fields with lighted torches, veins, bulging spewing, the same, same antisemitic bile heard across Europe in the thirties. Remember the violent clash that ensued between those spreading hate. And those are the curries to stand against it. Remember what the president said when asked, he said there were quote very fine people on both sides.

You wanted us to choose between fact and fiction, and you are doing fiction!

It was a wake up call for us as a country. And for me a call to action. At that moment, I knew I’d have to run because my father taught us that silence was complicity and I can never remained silent or complicit. At the time, I said, we’re in the battle for the soul of this nation. And we are. You know, one of the most important conversations I’ve had this entire campaign. It was somebody. So someone who was much too young to vote, I met with six year old Giana Floyd. The day before her daddy, George Floyd was laid to rest. She’s an incredibly brave little girl and I’ll never forget it. When I leaned down to speak to her, she looked in my eyes and she said, and I quote, “Daddy changed the world. Daddy changed the world. ”

That's extremely touching, but I'm hearing it as I am outraged that he told that "very fine people" lie. It's emotional trash. It's maudlin. It's the use of an innocent child. Please leave our souls alone. You're in a battle for a position of governmental power.

Her words burrowed deep into my heart. Maybe George Floyd’s murder was a breaking point. Maybe John Lewis is passing the inspiration, but however it’s come to be — however it’s happened — America’s ready. And John’s words to lay down, quote, the heavy burden of [hate] at last. And then the hard work of Rudy.

Something's amiss in the transcription. Rudy? But I get the idea. He's talking about "the soul" and then John Lewis, recently deceased, is some sort of Holy Ghost infusing the protestors. Maybe!!!

Now, our systemic racism, you know... 

No, I don't know.  I want you to specify exactly what you mean when you say it and explain why, if it's systemic, you — as a fixture of government — are not very much a part of it.

American history tells us that has been in our darkest moments that we’ve made our greatest progress that we found the light and this dark woman....

What?! I must check the video. Is there a visual image? [ADDED: He badly garbles the word, but I think he said "in this dark moment," not "and this dark woman."]

I believe we’re poised to make great progress again, that we can find the light once more. You know, many people have heard me say this, but I’ve always believed you can define America in one word: possibilities.

This is gaseous. From there we float into the stratosphere:

To defining feature America. Everything is possible that in America, everyone, and I mean, everyone should be given an opportunity to go as far as their dreams and God given ability will take them. We can never lose that in times as challenging as these, I believe there’s only one way forward as United America. United in our pursuit of a more perfect union United in our dreams of a better future for us and for our children United in our determination to make the coming years bright, are you ready? I believe we are. This is a great nation. We’re a good and decent people. For Lord’s sake, this is the United States of America, and there there’s never been anything we’ve been able to accomplish when we’ve done it together.

The Irish poet, Seamus Heaney once wrote “History says don’t hope on this side of the grave, but then once in a lifetime, the longed for tidal wave of justice can rise up and hope and history rhyme.” This is our moment to make hope and history rhyme with passion and purpose. Let us begin — you and I together. One nation under God united in our love for America, united in our love for each other for love is more powerful than hate. Hope is more powerful than fear and light is more powerful than dark. This is our moment. This is our mission. May history be able to say that the end of this chapter of American darkness began here tonight as love and hope and light join in the battle for the soul of the nation. And this is a battle we will win and we’ll do it together. I promise you. Thank you. And may God bless you. And may God protect our troops. Good night.

ADDED: My transcription had "And then the hard work of Rudy. Now, our systemic racism, you know..." I found the spot in the video, and it should be: "And then the hard work of rooting out our systemic racism. You know...."