For almost a century, Republicans have engaged in a sustained campaign of lies about the Democratic Party. The Democrats, claimed the GOP, hate the military. They’re hostile to religion. They support the dissolution of the family. They cravenly crave a weak nation without respect in the world and a nannying state at home that interferes in citizens’ lives daily.
Malarkey, as someone we love would say—all of it. But so long and so effectively have Republicans peddled this nonsense that the traditional media and many Americans grew to accept it. It became an ugly and painful burden for us: We knew it wasn’t true, but no matter our protestations, no one seemed to believe us.
Well, they believe us now. Donald Trump, in pursuing the nightmare vision that Hillary Clinton brilliantly excoriated as “Midnight in America,” has exposed the Republican Party as the true embodiment of the caricature conservatives drew of the Democrats. And that stark difference was showcased in extraordinary fashion throughout the two conventions that just concluded, particularly on the final night of the Democrats’ gathering.
Do you want to talk about family? It was the Democrats who featured incredible families like the Mothers of the Movement and the parents of slain police officers—families that, despite being riven by terrible violence, still believe in themselves, and in a better America to come. They did not curse their fortune, as they might well have. They stood up to try to improve the world for others so that they might not experience the same fate.
Then there was the remarkable 11-year-old Karla Ortiz, who feared that her parents, both undocumented immigrants, could be deported at any moment, leaving her to return to an empty home. Clinton said she would not let that happen: “I’m going to do everything I can so you don’t have to be scared, and you don’t have to worry about what happens to your mom or your dad or somebody else in your family.” The true spirit of the Democratic Party lies right there, in keeping families together, not splitting them apart.
Trump, by contrast, had nothing to say on the topic. He offered only his own family members, who could scarcely say a single kind word about him. Chelsea Clinton told more personal stories about her mother in five minutes than all of Trump’s children did about their father combined.
And faith: Religion was, to the amazement of Republicans, far more present in Philadelphia than in Cleveland. But when we Democrats talk about faith, we do not do so in a manner that scolds or excludes, as conservatives invariably do. Our watchwords, as Khizr Khan unforgettably reminded us, are the words of the First Amendment, words he didn’t need to utter aloud when he drew forth his copy of the constitution from his pocket because we know them all by heart: “Congress shall make no law”—no law—“respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
Instead, we embrace our pluralistic society, as the equally unforgettable Rev. William Barber expressed in soaring terms:
When we love the Jewish child and the Palestinian child, the Muslim and the Christian and the Hindu and the Buddhist and those who have no faith but they love this nation—we are reviving the heart of our democracy.
Trump, of course, wants to ban an entire religion.
The military? Retired four-star Marine Gen. John Allen delivered a remarkable speech, flanked by a phalanx of top brass and a diverse array of veterans, in which he made it blazingly clear that Hillary Clinton respects our armed forces—and that our admirals and generals respect her. But Allen’s address, passionate as it was, was not filled with the kind of warmongering rhetoric that Republicans mistake for love of the troops.
Rather, he spoke of how, with Hillary Clinton as commander-in-chief, our military will halt the spread of nuclear weapons, honor our treaty obligations, and care for our veterans. Clinton, declared Allen, “knows how to use all instruments of American power, not just the military, to keep us all safe and free.”
As for Trump, he thinks the military is a “disaster”—and also wants it to commit war crimes. Khan’s excoriation of Trump was likewise instantly seared into our memories: “You have sacrificed nothing and no one.” It’s an indictment no one can dispute.
Many more examples of narrative-defying messages abound, and Republican elites were beside themselves as this new reality began to dawn on them. But the most important point is that the world finally began to see last night that it is Democrats who believe in family values, respect religion, support our troops—and love our country.