The Tribune

By CHARLIE HARPER

CHICAGO, Illinois - THE weather here in Chicago is fine, especially considering that it’s mid-August in the American Midwest, where high air temperatures, high humidity and the threat of severe thunderstorms or even tornadoes is an annual menace.

But as the Democratic Party gathers here in enormous venues purpose-built for occasions such as this quadrennial presidential nominating convention, there’s a different kind of menace overshadowing the planned coronation of the first female major political party candidate in American history.

The Democrats have rallied convincingly and resolutely behind the candidacy of Vice-President Kamala Harris of California as their standard-bearer in the upcoming November election. In the process, many of the concerns and divisions in this ideologically sprawling, intentionally diverse party have been suppressed in a wave of relief and enthusiasm at the departure of “old” Joe Biden, whose age caught up with him in a disastrous late June debate failure.

A vibrant symbol of the Democrats’ change in outlook since that grim occasion is their excitement and anticipation of Harris’ now-confirmed September 10 debate date against their personification of the evil emperor – Donald Trump. And it is of course progressives’ total allegiance to the concept of ensuring that Trump never again darkens the White House door that unites Democrats as surely as Vladimir Putin’s invading Russian army unites the Ukrainians in defence of their nation.

But amid all this excitement and apparent unity, a menacing storm cloud rests on the Chicago horizon. That’s the possibility of significant protests against the consistently pro-Israel stance adopted by President Joe Biden during the ten months, so far, of the Israeli invasion and occupation of Gaza.

Governor Phil Murphy of New Jersey told the New York Times that Gaza “is a reality, and it cannot be ignored. There’s too much tragedy, there’s too much loss of innocent life, and by the way, there’s still too much — at a very high level — of geopolitical risk, and that is not going away, unfortunately, anytime soon”.

Still, the Times opined that compared to big issues like inflation, housing costs and abortion, the war in Gaza is not such a big deal for most Democratic voters including young voters. The Times cited a poll released yesterday by the University of Chicago finding that there was a roughly even split on the issue. 36 percent of Democratic voters disapproved of military aid to Israel, while 33 percent approved and 29 percent had no opinion.

No one knows how protests by Palestinian supporters will ultimately impact the convention that got underway yesterday morning, but the memory of bloody clashes between Chicago police and anti-Vietnam War protesters at the last Democratic convention here in 1968 does linger in many minds. Those violent protests, broadcast around the world in living color on television, doomed the candidacy of Minnesota senator and Vice-President Hubert Humphrey in that year’s election won by Richard Nixon.

Now, another Minnesota legislator, Tim Walz, is the vice-presidential candidate on a ticket designed to defeat Trump, who in many minds is the spiritual successor to Nixon in the Republican Party.

But it’s clear that Chicago won’t allow another 1968 bloodbath. On the ground in what is now America’s fourth-largest city, Chicago police are everywhere. especially around the mammoth McCormick Place complex of gargantuan meeting place structures located on Chicago’s edgy near South side, police even on Sunday morning were ubiquitous. And they were decked out in partial combat gear and obviously armed.

Heavy steel fencing surrounded McCormick Place and a nearby hotel. Dozens of heavy, rust-pocked salt-delivering snow plow trucks lined nearby streets, ready to be deployed as formidable blockade elements to frustrate potential violent protests.

There was a quiet around the venue where much of the daytime activity at the convention would begin in earnest less than 24 hours later.

Further uptown in the city’s fabled centre, Grant Park and Millennium Park along the Lake Michigan shoreline which defines Chicago’s most famous landscapes were thronged with summer crowds. There was a distinctly holiday feeling in the air. Parents with young children in strollers, kids on various types of sports boards, locals and visitors just out to see the scene crowded sidewalks and parks.

Also present were even more Chicago police, relaxed-looking but also ready to ensure that things remained peaceful. Several cops with NYPD shirts had obviously been brought in as reinforcements. While things were peaceful in parks that have witnessed the exultation of Barack Obama’s coronation in 2008 as well as the awful strife that surged through the area 40 years earlier, law enforcement was obviously ready to keep the peace.

As the convention actually began with numerous state delegation caucuses at breakfast yesterday morning, a buoyant mood prevailed. One delegate said she shared an almost unanimous sense of relief in her young Democratic group.

“I was actually resigned to a November loss even before Biden messed up so badly in his June debate with Trump,” she said. “Our party had lost its zeal and zest. everyone was flat. Biden seemed just too old, and Trump, for all his deficiencies, just projected more life, more vitality. We were cooked.

“Now,” she continued, “it is exactly the reverse. everyone I’ve met here at

2024, in Chicago.

the convention is bubbling with enthusiasm. We think we’re going to win, hold the Senate and regain the House of Representatives. Unless things change in the next couple of months, I think we’re in.”

Determination even more than confidence was the prevailing emotion at a well-attended Labor caucus meeting yesterday morning as convention activities swung into high gear.

Clearly illustrating the pivotal role that organised labour will play in this year’s election, the Labor meeting attracted some of the biggest stars in the Democratic Party.

Stuart Applebaum, president of the hotel and retail workers union, moderated the session. He began by reminding the thousands who attended this meeting that “the Labour movement in the United States created the modern Democratic Party”.

Over the past four years, he said, the Biden-Harris team had “restored the seat at the head table for the labour movement”. As did many who followed him, Applebaum reminded the raucous crowd of the infamous GOP blueprint for 2025 and its strongly anti-union bias. “Trump is no friend of labour,” he said.

Following the little-known Applebaum to the podium were Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer of New York; Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro; Kentucky governor Andy Brashear, and labor leaders AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler and longtime national teachers’ union chief Randi Weingarten.

The symbolism was clear. While Schumer’s support for the Harris-Walz ticket was sincere and expected, Shapiro and Brashear were two of the losing finalists in the race to be chosen as Harris’s vice-presidential running mate. The audience perked up noticeably when they took the stage.

Shapiro was first. He began with a lengthy recitation of the good things he has done as governor for labour. “I will always have your back,” he told the gathering. But he also seemed to dwell a bit too long on his own achievements and waited longer than expected to pivot to his support for the Harris-Walz ticket.

Shapiro, who reportedly focused too much on his own future in his discussions with Harris over the vice-presiden- tial nomination, boasted that he removed a college degree requirement for 92 percent of Pennsylvania’s government jobs, and reminded the audience that he had led the state government to invest heavily in trade union apprenticeships.

The crowd grew noticeably restless. But eventually, the governor showed his ardent support of the Democratic ticket. Even then, however, he stressed his own common experiences with Harris such as holding his state’s position as attorney general.

Shapiro brought the crowd to its feet with a rousing, energetic finish. If there were lingering doubts about his loyalty to Harris-Walz, he seemed to dispel for the crowd.

Bashear was more dynamic than Shapiro, and notably more modulated than Shuler and Weingarten. Shuler, the first female president of the giant labor umbrella organization AFL-CIO, fired up the crowd, but the most passionate orator of the day was certainly Weingarten, who showed the same passion that has characterized her 16-year career at the helm of the national teachers’ union.

Gradually, the mammoth crowds left their caucus rooms and headed uptown to the United Center, where Biden would later appear and deliver what might be his valedictory as a national political figure.