Three Things Democrats Don’t Want to Talk About

Modern political conventions tend to be slick, carefully orchestrated events. And despite the struggles to keep up with the pace and the unusual way the Democratic Party chose its presidential nominee, this year’s Democratic convention in Chicago was no different.

On the convention stage, Democrats tried to put their best foot forward by talking up Kamala Harris’s qualifications and character, her plan for the economy and issues where the party has broad public support, like abortion rights and health care.

But what they don’t talk about—the issues and areas they’ve tried to avoid, at least so far—say as much about their electoral strategy and weaknesses as what they choose to highlight. Here are three notable omissions from the party’s lavish banquet.

Four years ago, amid mass protests over the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, Democrats — and the country at large — engaged in a sometimes heated debate about systemic racism and the way American history is presented.

While many mainstream Democrats have shied away from strident calls to “defund the police,” most have engaged in discussions about how America can take steps to address what they see as the corrosive legacy of slavery in the nation’s businesses, classrooms, and government, including by promoting DEI — diversity, equity, and inclusion.

More recently, the issue of transgender rights has become a driving force for parts of the Democratic coalition — especially in the face of Republican efforts to limit or ban children’s ability to receive gender-affirming care.

So far, no topic has received much attention during the Democratic convention floor. There was an emotional tribute to the civil rights movement early Monday, which ended with a wheelchair-bound Jesse Jackson — who marched with Martin Luther King Jr. and ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 1980s — taking the stage. But DEI and other remedies have not received the attention they deserve.

“DEI has become a dog whistle law” used to undermine minorities in positions of power, said Shavon Arline-Bradley, president of the National Council of Negro Women, an organization that is organizing voter outreach efforts in presidential battleground states.

“Our country was founded on opportunity for all men and women, but we don’t hear that anymore, because many people don’t want to alienate a certain group of people who are afraid of it.”

At this convention, the main goal of the game is to upset as few potential voters as possible.

While abortion rights were a daily focus at the conference, transgender issues — another hot social topic right now — were largely overlooked in the national television broadcast.

Ms. Arline-Bradley warned that without discussing issues of equity and inclusion, the problems will persist.

“We should talk about them, because this party is the most inclusive and diverse party,” she said. “Show that, activate that, and live by those values.”

The final Democratic convention in 2020 was largely virtual — held in empty convention halls and television studios — due to the Covid pandemic. In 2016, when thousands of Democrats gathered in Philadelphia, the party’s rifts were on full display.

Supporters of Democratic socialist candidate Bernie Sanders, who came in second to Hillary Clinton in that year’s election, repeatedly disrupted proceedings and staged protests around the convention hall.

The party is divided on issues like universal health care, free college tuition and more broadly whether Democrats should rely on support from wealthy donors, big business and what Mr Sanders calls “oligarchy”.

Those divisions remain. Mr. Sanders delivered a speech Tuesday night criticizing the corrupting influence of money in politics. But his speech was immediately followed by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who bragged about being a billionaire, and venture capitalist and former American Express CEO Ken Chenault. The big tent, at least for now, has covered clear differences in policy and perspective.

Another area where the party is deeply divided is US military support for Israel amid the ongoing war in Gaza. Thousands of protesters demonstrated outside the conference’s security perimeter, but the deep divisions were little noticed inside the conference hall.

Mr Sanders received applause when he called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and Joe Biden drew attention when he said in his speech on Monday that protesters “have a point” when they say too many civilians have been killed.

But all of this is a far cry from 2016, when some anti-war conference attendees booed former four-star general John Allen and former Defense Secretary and CIA Director Leon Panetta during their speeches.

Since illegal border crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border surged early in Biden’s presidency, immigration has become a sore point for Democrats. Republicans blame the administration’s policies for encouraging a historic surge in border crossings, and the wave of newcomers — many of whom have been brought to heavily Democratic cities by conservative governors — for straining public services.

Harris’s campaign appears to recognize her weakness on the issue. One of the campaign’s first television ads blamed Donald Trump for scrapping bipartisan border security legislation earlier this year and praised Harris’s record of prosecuting “transnational gangs, drug cartels and human traffickers” as California’s attorney general.

But immigration seems to be the issue Harris’s team would rather talk about in 50-second TV ads than onstage in Chicago. The topic gets a few lines here and there, but compared to the 2020 convention — when Donald Trump’s hardline approach to immigration was the focus of the attack — the silence has been conspicuous.

Reports suggest that could change on Wednesday evening, when a number of speakers will address the issue.

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