I used to watch all of the debates, all of the speeches, all of the convention footage. Political junky. Watched it all so I could form all of my own opinions. I was a one woman fact checker sitting on my couch correcting them in real time.
Which, of course, THRILLED Brent.
He would place mini bets on how long it would take me to start yelling at the TV. Easier to do if you know who was speaking, and when, and what their favorite "misstatements" were.
But Trump really broke me of the habit. I didn't enjoy it anymore. There was no point in it. I thought when Paul Ryan said that Republicans wouldn't be held to account by fact checkers that was as low as the party would go. Then they just came up with alternative facts. And with banking on the media to clean up whatever nonsense Trump says with a "what he meant was" rewriting of the headline.
There was no point in watching anyof it anymore.
And really no point because who I will and will not vote for has been locked in since Trump got the nomination the first time and the whole party started to fall in line with his world vision. Unless the Republican party has a massive shift I cannot see that changing any time soon.
But I still checked in on the Republican convention this year for a brief moment. See after the assassination attempt we were promised a new party philosophy. They had seen the light. An actual come to Jesus moment where they were going to be different.
And they weren't. They were what they have been. They are what they are. And no giant bandage could cover that up.
Then the talk about Biden dropping out got more heated and there was some talk of a contested convention. Which even Brent was like, "I guess we will have to watch" because of course we would. One it would have been historic. We've never seen one. How would it even work. And who would run? And... But then it was apparent that Biden had his ducks in a row before he stepped away and Harris was set up for success instead of chaos. Again, so glad to have been wrong about that.
So no need to watch the convention again. I know who I'm voting for.
But...
I tuned in on Monday while I was cooking dinner. The DNC had a feed on YouTube where it just showed the convention. No talking heads telling me what to think about it. No panel talking over people who they didn't think were interesting enough to listen to. Just the direct feed from the stage. And I watched. And watched. And watched. Monday night went LATE. Biden was the last speaker and it was past midnight DC time before he finished. For a party that was worried about his stamina and his age he kicked that speech out of the park when it was past my bedtime on the West Coast!
But I enjoyed Monday's speeches so I tuned in again on Tuesday. And again on Wednesday. And Thursday.
I watched it all.
Brent was not impressed. He saw no need to do it. But I told him it was birthday week so he had to. And he did.
He wasn't impressed but I was. I enjoyed probably 80% of the speakers I saw. I liked the messaging. I loved the feeling of an energetic and enthusiastic crowd that came across my television set. This was not the doom and gloom and darkness of the Republican convention, which there is always a marked difference, but it wasn't even the cautious let's try and be optimistic feeling of past Democratic conventions. It was a freaking dance party during roll call. It was speakers talking about moving forward with a "joyful warrior" mindset.
I am here for it.
It filled my tank in a way that it has not been filled in a long time.
Unapologetically optimistic about America's future. The belief that we can and will make a difference. Trump and his ideology can and will be defeated. Not running from the feeling of loving America and also believing she can be better. Those ideas are compatible. "In order to form a more perfect union" means we are always looking to improve. It's never we already formed the most perfect union so let's freeze in place. It's a movement. Forward progress.
We're not going back.
Oh my gosh I loved it all.
Now we just need to carry all of that with us. Bottle that feeling and put it in our pockets.
Make sure your voter registration is up to date. Talk to your friends about checking theirs. Have a voting plan.
Be ready.
Because when we fight...we win.
And I am excited for the fight.
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