Nobody Cared About Bernie's Speech

Washed up: Last night, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.) played the hits. Just one problem: Nobody cared.

He asked Democratic National Convention delegates to recall the early days of the pandemic—when "people were being evicted from their homes" and "children in America were going hungry"—and how Democrats came together to pass the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which provided "$1,400 for every man, woman, and child in the working class," offered "emergency assistance" to help small businesses stay operational, and included eviction protections to keep people in their homes. "I say all of this not to relive that difficult moment, but to make one simple point. When the political will is there, government can effectively deliver for the people of our country," said Sanders. "We need to summon that will again—because too many of our fellow Americans are struggling every day to just get by."

The halcyon portrait Sanders is painting ought to stun. The stimulus checks doled out by the government were a massive contributor to the inflation that the Federal Reserve has just now successfully clawed back, through painful interest rate hikes. The eviction moratorium, imposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was "dropped into place with virtually no public discussion of the limits of bureaucratic power, the rights of private property holders, [or] the unintended consequences" that might arise, wrote Reason's Christian Britschgi. It was maintained in some places for over two years, making it impossible for some landlords to pay their mortgages without earnings from their properties. The Paycheck Protection Program, intended to help struggling small businesses, went off the rails, abused by fraudsters. Of the $4.2 trillion federal funds distributed during the pandemic, roughly one in every $10 was wasted or stolen. Children were kept out of schools for more than a year in some cases, due to the safety demands of teachers unions and against the real-world evidence from Scandinavia that schools could, in fact, safely operate.

Sanders pivoted, as he is wont to do, from arguing for the expansion of the social safety net to cracking down on corporate greed to ending the war in Gaza. But his prescription for America, using the pandemic as a guidepost for the type of social safety net we ought to create, feels ill-fitting, and he received accordingly little fanfare compared to Michelle and Barack Obama.

Tonally different: Former First Lady Michelle Obama's speech was perhaps the highlight of the evening, followed closely by former President Barack's. What could have at times strayed into sour-grapes territory—like when she brought up former President Donald Trump's promotion of birther conspiracies about her husband—ended up being a fairly interesting and worthwhile reflection on character.

"Most of us will never be afforded the grace of failing forward," she said, in reference to Trump's legal and business troubles. "If we bankrupt a business or choke in a crisis, we don't get a second, third or fourth chance," she added, contrasting Trump's upbringing, where many opportunities have been handed to him on a silver platter, with the hardships many Americans still face.

"If things don't go our way, we don't have the luxury of whining or cheating others to get further ahead," she added. "We don't get to change the rules so we always win. If we see a mountain in front of us, we don't expect there to be an escalator waiting to take us to the top."

The former president struck a similar note. "Here's a 78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago," said Barack Obama. "It has been a constant stream of gripes and grievances that's actually been getting worse now that he's afraid of losing to Kamala." Both Obamas hit the same note: That Trump is out only for himself and his cronies; that he will not deliver for the American people; that Vice President Kamala Harris is a prosecutor who has shown over the course of a long career her commitment to the victim, the little guy, the one who's been burned.

Whether this is actually true is unfortunately beside the point for many voters. It's the tonal shift, and both Obamas' abilities to deftly condemn Trumpism while promoting a positive vision of how America ought to operate, that will probably matter most.

Scenes from New York: I love this corny man's incredibly absurd social media presence. Who was talking about rats, exactly? Who was asking for Adams to co-opt this meme format?

QUICK HITS

• It's time to build:

• The most fun/absurd moment from last night:

• Nancy Pelosi memes are next-level:

• "Democrats for Life of America met in Chicago Monday on the far, far periphery of the Democratic National Convention," reports Bloomberg. "In a small, windowless WeWork conference room on the 19th floor of a downtown office building, a little over a dozen people attended a discussion about the future of anti-abortion politics in the Democratic Party. At a convention where 'joy' is one of the bywords, no one here seemed especially thrilled about the state of abortion politics."

• Ukraine taking Russia's Kursk region, despite their many losses in recent months, is restoring hope to demoralized troops and civilians.

• "Why do top CEOs earn such high paychecks?" asks Alex Tabarrok at Marginal Revolution in a great explainer. (Related posts here and here.)

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