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The 2024 DNC: All Vibes, Little Substance

By
Ryan Zickgraf

The DNC revealed a Democratic Party still in love with the Obamas. The fantasy is that Kamala Harris will be a reboot. Brat summer is cooling — are you ready for an Obama autumn, heavy on feeling good and light on political substance?

Former president Barack Obama speaks during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Tuesday. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

If the 2024 election theme is “vibes,” then the atmosphere at the Democratic National Convention is pure vibe-flation.

Between Lil Jon’s decade-old party anthem and the giddy rhetorical toasts to the political partnership of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, the DNC floor feels like the world’s most expensive wedding reception. It’s been a three-day blue-hued bender with influencers sipping “Walz on the Beach” cocktails at “Hotties for Harris” events while political speakers alternate between sassy oh-no-he-didn’t jokes about Donald Trump and J. D. Vance and sappy odes to vague virtues (especially “joy,” the word of the moment).

But is barely nudging past Donald Trump in the polls in August really worth getting this crunk?

Democrats have some cause for good cheer. Despite Joe Biden’s hefty list of policy achievements early in his presidency, our octogenarian commander-in-chief resembled a mummified version of himself at the first presidential debate, and the party could no longer hide him away in a vault until he needed to make a speech. It’s easy to forget that Wednesday marked only a month since Biden succumbed to pressure, withdrew from the presidential campaign via tweet, and then perfunctorily endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, to take his place on the ticket. Ever since this bloodless coup, Democratic partisans have been riding an emotional high.

In some ways, it’s like a honeymoon period, a burst of new relationship energy. But in other ways, it’s more like the rekindling of an old flame. The vibe of Wednesday night’s programming, to use the parlance of the times, was that the Democrats are still deeply in love with the Obamas. The fantasy on offer is that the Harris administration could be a reboot of sorts, with a wacky Minnesota dad as a beloved new supporting character.

Last month’s Republican National Convention was a mash-up of nostalgia for the mythical flag-faith-and-family days of yore and the testosterone-fueled mass spectacle of the ’80s and ’90s. But the DNC is on its own nostalgia tour: it’s attempting to Make America 2008 Again.

There are even new posters by artist Shepard Fairey everywhere outside the convention, with Barack Obama’s colorful “Hope” portrait palate swapped with Harris’s and the word “Forward.”

“I have that 2008 feeling,” North Carolina governor Roy Cooper told a crowd at a recent Harris event. “I haven’t seen anything like this since Obama was our nominee,” Illinois governor J. B. Pritzker said. Brat summer is cooling. Get ready for Obama autumn.

On Tuesday, both Barack and Michelle returned to prime time to deliver rousing speeches that were heavy on emotion and calls for party and national unity but light on substance. Wednesday’s programming resembled a trailer for one of the Obamas’ many high-profile media projects. Their favorite celebrity pals made cameos, from John Legend performing Prince to Mindy Kaling and Oprah’s happy reflections on good hangs with Harris and the Obamas.

Amanda Gorman unironically quoted the title of Obama’s memoir, The Audacity of Hope, in a line of a new poem she delivered onstage. Meanwhile, many featured speakers — Pete Buttigieg, Wes Moore, and Josh Shapiro — felt like younger men offering karaoke versions of Barack’s soaring rhetorical style. That’s especially true for Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, who gives the impression of having endlessly rehearsed the ex-president’s iconic past DNC speeches in the mirror.

Even Bill Clinton’s folksy-but-flimsy address doubled as an attempt to pass the Democratic Party elder statesman baton on to Obama.

Make America 2008 Again

The breaks and programmatic lulls were a time to sober up and realize that the Democrats in Chicago have few big policy goals to offer over the next four years.

What is the Harris Doctrine exactly? Remember Medicare for All? In 2019, as Democrats scrambled to adjust around Bernie Sanders’s presence in the primary field, Harris herself proclaimed that it was a “human and civil right,” but now it’s all but off the table.

A Green New Deal? Yeah, right. A cease-fire in Gaza? We’ll see, but only if you stop raising a ruckus. But, hey, aren’t you psyched about our subsidy program to incentivize corporate developers to build a small number of slightly-below-market-rate units? Let’s hear it for removing medical debt from credit scores! No, we will not do anything drastic to eliminate the medical debt itself. Or the student debt, for that matter.

Thus far, the Harris campaign has hinted that it won’t stray far from Biden’s agenda, which was a surprising departure from Obamaism, focused on large public investments of the type Obama showed little interest in. Still, as Harris has brought back more Obama people into the fold, including his 2008 campaign manager, David Plouffe, it’s hard not to imagine a halfway revival of the twilight of the neoliberal era.

At least Walz’s record of progressive lawmaking in Minnesota is impressive, hinting at what could be achieved if Democrats had more gumption and a sense of urgency beyond defeating Trump. But on Wednesday, talk of Walz’s record of good governance took a back seat to a kind of pep rally portraying him as Minnesota’s real-life Ted Lasso. “We love a dad in plaid,” exclaimed Amy Klobuchar during her Walz warm-up act.

It was great to see Bernie Sanders as the Left’s lion in winter, dusting off his truisms about the need to get big money out of politics, health care as a human right, strengthening unions, and raising the minimum wage. But then the DNC followed Bernie’s speech up with J. B. Pritzker, who bragged on stage about being an actual billionaire, unlike Trump. Feel the Bern, indeed.

One deeply telling DNC moment happened on Wednesday, broadcast only on social media. After Walz’s concluding remarks, a group of protesters demanding a cease-fire in Gaza confronted conference-goers. They were angry that the DNC had refused the antiwar “Uncommitted” delegates’ request for a Palestinian representative to speak this week. The protesters plead with conventioneers leaving the United Center, urgently making their case for allowing a Palestinian to speak.

But most of the Democratic Party faithful simply held their hands over their ears and walked away. Sorry, good vibes only.