UNITY DAY(S): They aren’t all this pretty
There has been a lot of overheated rhetoric regarding the possibility of a contentious convention in Philadelphia this week. But based on the unity day rally earlier this month, I think it’s going to be boring. Other than some important and topical (this is key) protests outside on the streets, I think it might be very boring, unshocking email leak aside.
I’m old enough to remember a hot summer at the end of a long and contentious Democratic presidential primary when tension was in the air and I was dripping with milk.
“Does this mean you’re going to smell like milk all day?” Barack Obama asked giving his famous nose-wrinkle smile.
It was June 27, 2008 and I was working for Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign as a videographer and photographer. The beleaguered press wrangler Katie Lillie accidently spilled the milk, originally destined for a bowl of Special K, directly into my lap aboard O-Force One as we awaited the arrival of Senator Hillary Clinton and her entourage. It would not be the last liquid spilled on me that fateful day, what we were already calling “Unity Day” in quotes.
The two were travelling together to Unity NH, which not only had a catchy name for the occasion of the first appearance of the Presumptive Nominee and his strong competitor, but which was a location that had roughly split the vote between Barack and Hillary.
But before they would take the stage I had a very important job to do, I had to get the shot: the picture of the two candidates together. It should have been easy, they were seated next to each other on the plane, their name-tags shining and together in the 1st two seats. Barbara Kinney, Hillary Clinton’s long-time photographer and I were lined up for the shot when they sat down next to each other and smiled amicably.
But it just wasn’t there. I knew it wasn’t there even before I showed the view screen to Communication Director Robert Gibbs, who shook his head sadly. It needed to be a picture with the two genuinely interacting in present tense, not grinning for the press, even the internal campaign press. The only chance I had to get a picture transmitted to Chicago before the event so we could post, publicize and fundraise would be on the ride over to the event site.
On the bus both souls were in a generous mood, Obama telling me and Reggie Love about his philosophy of the campaign trail turkey sandwich (there is nothing as sad as the second half of the turkey sandwich) and Clinton smiling over a blackberry message with aide Huma Abedin, but unfortunately neither were in within 15 feet of each other, which on a bus is decently difficult to pull off. There are three rooms on the standard charter bus and until the last 5 minutes of their trip, Barack and Hillary managed to occupy those farthest from each other. Finally as the bus was turning into town they exchanged some genuine pleasantries … through a doorframe before actually finally sitting down.
I currently work for Senator Sanders as the Digital Creative Director for his presidential campaign, and though I was thousands of miles away from Portsmouth High where Bernie and Hillary held their unity event, I can tell you Unity 2016 is going significantly better than Unity 2008. The backstage pictures my team sends out from every Bernie event speak for themselves, as do my meager snapshots from the bus back in ‘08.
Though there were some hard feelings and muffled protest at Tuesday’s Portsmouth Event, there was less of the underlying hostility I can only describe as “bad vibes” present in Unity. Not on the part of the speakers, Obama even said Hillary “rocked”, as you’ll recall. But there was something simmering.
Part of it has to be that there was less to talk about. Other than some binary disagreements on foreign policy and some domestic style points, the main difference between Obama and Clinton was a tonal/generational divide. The differences were less issue-based than they were tribal, Jungian even. A party as expansive as the Democrats will never be homogeneous and everyone isn’t destined to get along.
The myriad substantive disagreements between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton have given rise to sharp to passionate Facebook debates that channeled the emotions into open (and often contentious) debate rather than a smoldering feeling like you just “don’t like that man/woman.” The issues filled up enough room to have a cycle almost totally free of negative ads. Unlike 2008 where the ads only fueled emotional churn. Those are the tribal feelings, the ones that are hard to shake. But they didn’t spill over much into this late-stage event in which the Jr Senator from Vermont gave an hour long speech almost totally focused on the issues.
In his book The Road To Wigan Pier a work mostly about how terrible it is to work in a coal mine (spoiler: it’s really terrible) George Orwell drops an important piece of wisdom at the very end. Socialism, he says, is clearly a great thing, but when you meet a socialist more often than not you think “oh wow whatever they are into is not my thing”. He makes the same case for vegetarianism and it has the ring of truth.
Having worked for two “enthusiasm” candidates, both Barack and Bernie, the kind of campaigns who attract the people in wonder-woman costumes and on unicycles etc, I can tell you that the most enthusiastic voters can sometimes be a turn off to other members of the Democratic family. Often the energy and raw excitement of new voters, what I might call “inspirational and creative” or even worse “awesome,” can be annoying to older hands. And I don’t think it ends with annoyance. These feelings can be enough for one to reject a candidate with whom you might be in concert with politically simply based on your feelings for their followers.
And I get it, there can be something off-putting about a certain kind of enthusiasm: I myself feel it as an Independent voter. Every party function seems like misplaced enthusiasm to me, why do you all wear those terrible hats at your conventions? In 2008, our video team thought the folks who would compete over who could comment first on our YouTube channel videos and offer various blessings and the like were absolutely crazy. There were plenty of people in those days, most of whom are die hard supporters of our handsome brilliant President now, who didn’t care for Obama simply because his supporters were … annoying. In Wisconsin in March 2016 campaign manager Jeff Weaver and I surveyed the two lines attending competing Trump and Bernie rallies. They may seem a little wacky with all the snake flag tank tops but we have a certain je ne sais something with all the homemade unicorn masks.
But here is where we have to keep it real.
Number One: Those are my people: the political newcomers the reluctant political participants, the creatives, the punks, the crazy ones and I vouch for them. You wouldn’t trade an Obama/Bernie style rally for anything else going on out there, believe me.
Number Two: As a close observer of people and power, I can tell you when one is worked up politically it can manifest itself in strange ways. A story I often tell is two different people who met Barack Obama at two different times and both started spontaneously singing. That passion is valuable politically and you’ll want to harness it!
Number Three: Hillary Clinton has in both 2008 and 2016, as loser and winner, attracted the older steadier hands of the Democratic community. Those are the folks who need to soften their emotional stances just as their candidate has made compromises on some of her platform. This election has the potential to be close and very contentious and the nominee of the party will have to be a champion of the enthusiastic minority.
And if we can do all that, not only will Donald J. Trump lose this election, but maybe we can keep future primary flares short and on topic. This was a long campaign season but a largely substantive one. At convention time the numbers tell the same story. A huge percentage of Sanders voters have moved over to Clinton as their candidate, higher than the corresponding 2008 statistics.
Anecdotally, even from the view from my Facebook page, it seems a far cry better than when I smiled at a middle-aged rally attendee in Unity, eight years ago while packing up some gear.
She looked me up and down and spat at me hitting my milk soaked pant cuff. You can understand why I took this unity day off, they aren’t all pretty.
