“May you live in interesting times.” That idiom is often attributed as an ancient Chinese curse. These days, a curse makes sense. Virtually everywhere to you go in our digital world, you will hear people commenting on the latest unprecedented situation and longing for PRECEDENTED times.
Convention Ready
The last 10 days have been very busy. I ran to be a delegate at the 2024 Democratic Convention in Chicago. I had previously served as an Assembly Delegate Election Meeting (ADEM) delegate and the Chair of the Placer County Democratic Central Committee. These roles allowed me to attend California Democratic Party conventions and executive board meetings But, I’d only ever seen a national convention from the comfort of my yliving room.
I retired from local politics in December 2022. But I did manage to keep my finger on the pulse of local party business. Still, I missed the activities and the friends I’d made over the years. I knew that convention delegates would be elected in 2024, so I investigated how run for the position and delcared my candidacy.
I mounted a campaign, contacted Central Committees in my congressional district and addressed the members of some of the local clubs. This was in every way an internal party campaign and I intended to make an effort.
Long story short: I finished first in the polling for my district. I am going to Chicago!
The Debate
The Presidential election was underway pretty much as expected: Joe Biden was going up against Donald Trump in a re-match of the 2020 election. I’m sure you remember that election: Joe Biden won a fairly close race, Donald Trump refused to concede, then on January 6, 2021 his supporters stormed the capitol in a failed effort to overturn the results of the election.
Biden and Trump participated in a debate was held on June 27, 2024. Trump was Trump: he lied, misrepresented himself and his accomplishments, attacked immigrants, women, LGBTQ people, and ignored facts. Nothing out of the ordinary there. But, Biden’s performance was unexpected and difficult to watch at times. He slurred his speech, lost his train of throught, and, at times, looked confused. Not the performance Democrats expected or needed.
In the days that followed, there were many calls for Biden to step down. From politicos, supporters, and more importantly, celebrity fundraisers. Democratic voters were generally in support of Biden and stated that they still intended to vote for him. Yet many of them had concerns about Biden’s ability to deliver the needed votes in the critical swing states.
What to do?
This was my position as well. I’d run to be a convention delegate and I intended to fulfill my obligation. I’d had concerns over Biden’s stance on the war in Gaza, but now I was beginning to have some doubts aboutt his performance in the campaign. I knew that he’d win in California, but what would happen in the swing states?
Next, elected members of the Democratic Party begain calling on Biden to drop out, some also calling for an “open convention.” This was surprising because there were legal and practical challenges to replacing Biden with someone else. The biggest hurdle would be that the Democratic Party campaign warchest would be lost. Not to mention that an open, hard-fought convention would lead to hurt feelings. Many democrats staying home on election day or voting 3rd party. This would be a disasterous repeat of the 2016 election that saddled us with the four jarring years under Donald Trump.
I was feeling a bit concerned and a bit challenged to keep supporting Joe Biden in his bid to be re-elected. I felt like the Kevin Bacon’s character Chip Diller in “Animal House” telling everyone that “all is well.”
Then it happened
On Friday, July 19th my daughter was in town with her boyfriend. We did gold country things: gold panning and then a run to Three Forks Bakery and Brewing in Nevada City. Along the way, I received a text message from a reporter with the Sacramento Bee. She was asking for an interview since I was a convention delegate. We made arrangements to have a phone call after our outing and I answered several questions (the interview is included in this article).
I also received a call from another Sacramento Bee reporter. He was interested in speaking with delegates should Biden step down on Sunday. I never spoke to him again. By Sunday CADEM had asked us to refer questions to their Communications team for guidance. This seemed to temper the interest in getting an interview with me.
On Sunday, July 21, 2024, I got a Facebook message from my sister asking what would happen now that Biden had dropped out. Some quick searches on the New York Times website confirmed that Biden had dropped out. My worst fears had come true! Fortunately, he soon endorsed Kamala Harris to lead the Democratic Party ticket.
It came together quickly
A nationwide sigh of releif was heard from Democrats across the nation as soon as Harris announced that she was taking up the campaign. The Harris-Biden campaing received over $81 Million dollars in campaign donations in one day. A truly staggering amount. Just as important, the timing of Biden’s announcement and Harris’ stepping up consumed the news cycle for several days following the GOP convention.
A few days later, Rusty Hicks (CADEM Chair and the delegation chair) announced a Zoom meeting for the delegation. We heard from Rusty and several other speakers. Then, House Speaker emeritus Nancy Pelosi made a motion for the delegation to endorse the candidacy of Vice Preseident Harris. The vote was nearly unanimous in favor of the motion.
Typical Zoom meeting:Speaker Pelosi’s mike was muted for a bit and had to re-start her motion.
Earlier that day, someone from the Associated Press called asking if I intended to attend the convention and if I knew who I’d be supporting. I answered “yes” and “Kamala Harris.” Later in the evening, I saw an AP poll showing that Harris had support from enough pledged delegates that should would be nominated and elected on the first round of voting at the convention.
[The actual voting will take place prior to the convention to deal with some shenanigans from GOP leadership in Ohio affecting ballot access in November. The convention vote will be to accept the results of the early voting.]
Unprecendented, unprecedented, unprecedented
Let’s review: In the span of 4 days, we
- Had a contest between the oldest and second oldest men to be nomincated to run for preseident
- Had a LOUD calling on the President to drop out of the race by members of his own party
- Had a vice president step up to take over the campaign of a president who dropped out of the race
- Had a candidate raise a HUGE amount of campaign money on the day she announced her candidacy
- Had a candidate for president who is female, of african-american and Indian roots
All of these are unprecedented. In the year I decided to try something new, politically. Figures.
A return to precendented
All of this begs the question: will we return to precedented times soon? I wish. I’m not expecting a normal concession speech from Trump anytime soon. Trump and his supporters are willing to try anything and everything to keep Harris from being declared the winner of the election (if she wins),
Still, I hope that I see another election with a normal turnover of power to a new administration without the capitol being placed under seige from disaffected supporters of a losing candidate.
Precedented times, again. Wouldn’t that be nice?