A Regular Person’s DNC reaction.

A run of the mill voter, here! I watched night one of the DNC! Here’s my dumb ol’ post!

Well, I watched the first night of the DNC, and I am neither a pundit, journalist, politician or DC Elite. Maybe I am an east side of Los Angeles elite, because of my excitement over a wine bar opening in my neighborhood within walking distance that ALSO serves food (I haven’t even visited it yet, so I am performative at being elite but let’s just say it is comforting to me as an option one day and I love small, local businesses and wish them success.) Full disclosure, I was live chatting through the entire program with four active text chains that keep me sane and fulfilled on a mental health level while also commenting to Paul (my husband) who was watching it in person with me and also on two of those text chains, lol.

Tim Walz got bunny eared in a video by his kids, Ella Emhoff sports the back-ordered cammo hat (uh, fashion icon who is also an artist and has also helped raise money for suffering children in Palestine so icon-icon.)

Overall, I felt heartened by many of the speakers on the first night of the DNC for addressing and supporting governance that is popular, needed and wanted by a majority of Americans. We all know “majorities” are not always honored in our elections because of the antiquated electoral college architecture of the way we vote. Don’t get me started, I believe the electoral college system is absolutely AWFUL and keeps a lot of the gridlock we all feel demoralized over in our federal government. But that is a topic for another time.

Here are some moments that made me feel emotional about how our government can show up for us, since we give them money and attention and stuff.

There was an entire segment on women’s reproductive freedom and pointing out not only the STUPIDITY of these abortion bans but the DANGER it puts millions of American taxpayers with a uterus in by denying them care and choice. Let me tell you something, this segment left me filled with so much RAGE all over again at what these lawmakers are doing to our society. It ended with Hadley Duvall giving her personal testimony over what freedom and choice did for her. And let me tell you something, if you are an adult with a beating heart in America who can see her speech and still want to insert yourself in very sensitive medical decisions, then I believe there may actually be something wrong and evil in your soul and you should keep your mouth shut, lest you want to be viewed as a criminal of sorts. It is a short one minute segment and am including it here. If you didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016 then maybe you feel you own this current situation with SCOTUS and people’s rights. Good news, there is a way to feel less guilt over that boneheaded decision. Vote for Kamala, y’all!

OK, moving on to another highlight. The United Auto Workers Guy was fantastic and did a T-Shirt reveal. Including that video here as well. You know the crazy uncle archetype who wears a MAGA hat and spouts conspiracy theories at Thanksgiving? Well the president of the UAW is giving the OPPOSITE of that! Decent Uncle Energy!! DUE!!! As a member of a union, I am very pro-labor union. So I was really feeling his energy. Members of my own union, SAG-AFTRA, who work in video games (maybe you love video games and would feel moved to show some love for these workers online or through a tax-deductible donation big or small to the Entertainment Community Fund) are currently on strike for better working conditions and I SUPPORT OUR VIDEO GAME PERFORMERS!

OK, then of course we had politicians speak. They all did very well, but sometimes I don’t feel as emotional as when the private citizens speak about their dreams for what our tax dollars could do for us. I remain skeptical of government systems, despite a politician’s purest intentions, because I am a realist about the architecture of said system. And boy could the system use some reform (hello! Citizens United! Anyone? Is this thing on?) Speaking of private citizens, Hillary Clinton’s speech was phenomenal and she spoke about the context historically of including all voices in our democracy. I felt emotional again about her having to concede in 2016, in spite of the resounding popular vote rejection of Tr*mp. (There’s that electoral college thing again! It feels sometimes frustrating to be in a state that contributes the MOST yet has the least sway in our government policy shaping.)

Then Biden ended the night, I thought his speech was energetic given the discourse about his stamina and the current election and stuff. I was pleased he gave a good speech, even though I still get nervous when he talks. We felt compelled to re-watch his 2016 DNC speech on YouTube immediately after it ended (the “we own the finish line” one). It is sad to see he has given so much of his body, mind and soul to successful governance and it is very evident in seeing the Biden from 8 years ago to now. Do I think his presidency was perfect? Not always, but he did try to enhance our lot with some excellent achievements like The Infrastructure stuff. That said, there is so much that can be improved upon, and one thing I am SOOO happy about is the Harris Walz platform addressing the housing shortage on a federal level. FINALLY, this is being meaningfully added to the discourse. It wasn’t talked about last night, but they released their platform before the convention and I believe this is URGENT to improve life in our country. What good is improved infrastructure if there is nowhere to even LIVE in America?

OK. I guess this about covers it for a normal person’s reaction. I do have more thoughts about other topics that were covered, but I decided not to write a whole novel on it, Hopefully this will launch the comment section below, this post will be free for everyone which means comments are OPEN FOR BIZ.

Won’t you get the discussion rolling? I am tuning into DNC night TWO tonight and maybe there will be more to react to? One more final image to react to before I leave it to y’all to get chatty. Hunter’s son Beau Biden, Jr. in the tiny suit with Biden as he finished WAS THE CUTEST THING EVER. COME ON! RIGHT??? OR ARE YOU DEAD INSIDE (which is valid, I think many are close to being dead inside after a lot of things in our recent history, but let’s CPR ourselves back to life, shall we?)

After all, pessimism is irresponsible.