As with Chicago 1968, the world watches a wider reality in Milwaukee 2020
A medical staffer tends to a coronavirus patient on July 28 in an intensive care unit at the United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas. Credit: Getty Images/Go Nakamura
Not since the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago has daily strife outside the nominating arena so dramatically upstaged and transformed either party’s main event.
Fifty-two years ago, heartbreaking U.S. body counts and turmoil resulted from the Vietnam War. This time tumult comes from COVID-19. On Monday, as the Democratic National Convention opened, the surrounding drama was further symbolized by an abbreviated schedule and Milwaukee’s ghost-town look.
As with the 1968 election, a massive American trauma shapes all the politics.
This time, the Democrats are the "out" party, siding with those who condemn the White House status quo. More important than what speakers from different states say are the operational disasters brewing across the U.S., leading to the question of whether the Trump administration has real strategies to help the people cope.
The House returns to Washington on Saturday to vote on legislation to provide the U.S. Postal Service with $25 billion in coronavirus-related funding despite President Donald Trump's complaints about the prospect of election mail fraud. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a campaign donor allied with Trump, agreed to testify before the House Oversight Committee about his cost-cutting changes at the agency. Several plaintiffs on Monday sued Trump and DeJoy in New York to ensure adequate funding.
The number of reported daily virus tests declined over the past two weeks for the first time since the pandemic began. Most people in authority accept by now that a blitz of accurate tests still is needed to get schools and businesses up and running. But Trump has put Dr. Scott Atlas, with no background in the field, on his coronavirus task force. Atlas downplays the need for broader testing.
On the verge of a new semester, schools and universities struggle with details of what mix of online and in-person instruction is possible. School staff shortages also are reported in some communities. This is an education crisis of a lifetime.
On Monday, Texas surpassed 10,000 coronavirus deaths, most of them recorded following a big summer outbreak. Deaths nationwide are above 170,000.
Even before he took the virtual DNC stage Monday night, New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo gave the gist of his political message: "COVID in many ways was the symptom and not the illness. The COVID virus showed us how weak we were … and how divided we were."
And so the substance of the election has everything to do with the crisis at hand, just as the 1968 election was inextricable from Vietnam. Demonstrators back then chanted, "The whole world's watching."
Now as then, the world is watching much more than the party proceedings.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
