Even in our modern political and news landscape, where the narrative changes seemingly every day, sometimes conventions can stick around and continue to shape the outcome of the race.
The 1968 DNC Convention in Chicago is remembered for being rocked by protests. In 1988, Democrat nominee Michael Dukakis’s infamous line during his acceptance speech that the election was “not about ideology” continued to haunt him. Jimmy Carter’s 1980 convention was hopelessly inept. Democrat Party infighting in 1972 delayed George McGovern’s speech until 2:30 in the morning, long after most Americans had gone to bed. In all of those instances, the Democrat nominee went on to lose, and the convention was a sign of things to come.
Last week’s DNC Convention in Chicago likewise has a chance to go down as one of the more memorable conventions in recent history – but, like these other examples, not for the reasons Democrats hope.
The fundamental weirdness of the event may well have a permanent impact on the rest of race. From abortion pill costumes to Joe Biden’s latest battle with the teleprompter and plenty of liberal meltdowns, here’s a look back at some of the more embarrassing and downright bizarre moments from Chicago – and why the spectacle may have put Democrats on the outs with everyday voters.
Abortion-palooza
It was no surprise that Democrats made abortion a centerpiece of their 2024 convention. But the obsessive fixation and even open celebration of the practice was nothing short of grotesque.
Setting the tone for the entire week, several activists dressed as abortion pills were spotted on the first day of the convention. “F*** the courts! F*** the state! You can’t make us procreate!” they were heard chanting.
The degeneracy continued as Planned Parenthood set up a “mobile health clinic” just outside the gates of the convention, providing free vasectomies for men and free abortions for women. The entire display had the air of a carnival, with a giant inflatable IUD and a local hot dog shop offering free hot dogs to anyone who visited the clinic.
Inside the event, virtually every marquee speech was filled with shameless fearmongering and misinformation about abortion policy. From Kamala Harris’s entirely made-up claims that former President Donald Trump would “limit access to birth control” and “enact a nationwide abortion ban, with or without Congress,” to various other disgusting claims that Republicans want to outlaw medical care for miscarriages and pregnancy complications, Democrats went all-in on outright lying to the public to win votes.
One group that got no mention during the convention? Innocent unborn babies. Every Democrat effectively endorsed abortion-on-demand up until – and in some cases even after – the moment of birth.
For Americans who remember the Democrat Party of yesteryear as the party that supports abortion being “safe, legal, and rare,” the images emerging from Chicago must have been utterly shocking. With polling consistently showing that most Americans are somewhere in the middle on the issue, the DNC Convention should’ve erased all doubt as to which party is truly radical when it comes to “reproductive rights.”
Chicago Looked Like A War Zone
For a party seeking to convince Americans that they can preserve law and order, the scenes just outside the convention center in Chicago were not reassuring.
Days before the start of the convention, businesses were boarding up and bracing for unrest from left-wing anti-Israel protestors. When the protestors arrived, legions of police officers were required to keep order.
Meanwhile, Democrats once again constructed a wall around the convention itself – even as the speakers inside continued to insist that “walls don’t work” when it comes to the U.S.-Mexico border.
All in all, the scene around the convention conveyed that Democrats are the party of chaos and disorder.
Democrats, “Party of Joy,” Get Really, Really Angry
As part of the liberal establishment’s makeover of Kamala Harris, Democrats and the corporate media have been reframing the vice president’s unnerving habit of poorly timed cackling laughter as “joyful.” Kamala Harris and the Democrat Party, they tell us, are about “the politics of joy.”
But that supposed joy was placed in constant tension with the evident anger displayed by most of the speakers throughout the convention. Former First Lady Michelle Obama, embracing Democrats’ divisive identity politics, suggested that if someone doesn’t want to vote for Kamala Harris it must be because she is a black woman.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, meanwhile, delivered an angry tirade against Trump and his supporters, again leaning into the Democrat assertion that anyone who supports Republicans is a “threat to democracy.”
For Americans who still believe that America is a fundamentally good nation and the land of freedom and opportunity, the animosity Democrats displayed toward the country last week was undoubtedly a big turn off.
Joe Biden Discarded by Media and Democrat Establishment
Never in the history of American politics has a sitting president been as much of an afterthought as Joe Biden is right now. That fact was on full display at the DNC Convention.
Biden’s speech was as lackluster as might have been expected, and the president once again did battle with a familiar foe – the teleprompter. “Women are now without electrical… not allowed, excuse me, not without electoral [long pause] or political power,” he mumbled at one point.
CNN anchor Jake Tapper unintentionally crushed Biden during a segment on the network just before his speech, noting that before the president dropped out of the race, “Joe Biden who would come out and they [Democrats] would sit on the edge of their seat and hope that he didn’t say something meandering or off message or addled.”
For Democrat activists and partisans, the DNC Convention was their send-off for Biden, a symbolic opportunity to finally wash their hands of him.
But for the American people, Biden’s speech and the utter contempt shown for him by his own party was likely highly disconcerting given the fact that he is, for the next several months, still the President of the United States. That Democrats seem so unconcerned with having a man in a serious state of cognitive decline in the Oval Office raises a whole host of questions about who is actually running the country.
Gavin Newsom Accidentally Gives Away the Game
California Governor Gavin Newsom is clearly still bitter about the controversial hand-off between Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
During an appearance on the popular podcast “Pod Save America” from the floor of the convention, Newsom, his voice dripping with sarcasm, said, “We went through a very open process, a very inclusive process. It was bottom-up,” referencing Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer laughable assertion that Harris’s ascension “played out from the grassroots, bottom up.”
“I don’t know if you know that. That’s what I’ve been told to say,” Newsom added with a laugh.
Newsom’s comments gave voice to the uneasy and downright outraged feelings that many Americans likely have about the process by which Harris became the Democrat nominee. 14 million Democrat primary voters who cast their ballots for Joe Biden were effectively disenfranchised. Democrat elites and the corporate media, in coordinated fashion, rallied behind Harris to squash any talk of an open contest where voters would have a say.
As Democrats continue to insist they are the party of “democracy,” the thoroughly undemocratic process by which they selected their nominee reeks of hypocrisy.
With just over two months to go until Election Day, the polls show a close race where anything can happen. But if Trump starts to edge ahead and ultimately emerges victorious in November, history may well look back on Democrats’ outlandish and downright weird convention as the beginning of their final slide into defeat.
Shane Harris is a writer and political consultant from Southwest Ohio. You can follow him on X @shaneharris513.
