A Potemkin Convention

In the 18th century, Catherine the Great Empress of Russia was traveling cross-country. Along the road, small villages were erected and sparsely populated with people giving accolades to the Queen as her entourage passed. These villages, however, were only temporary and meant to impress the Empress. As she passed, the village would be disassembled, and moved further along the route and re-assembled.

The term given to this facade was “Potemkin Village,” named after its creator Gregory Potemkin, a Field Marshall and lover of the Empress. Recently we have had an opportunity to look and see up front and close, a modern version of this fake portable construction. The Democrat’s convention, or idea of one, was a Hollywood production, a Potemkin Village, and a Convention intermingled. 

Most of the Democratic Party elite politicians were there, as were the billionaires, celebrities, and local/state representatives. The substance of the convention, however, was mere fiction, unreal; it was all about creating a false narrative and superficial portrait of the characters. Each speaker was assigned a task handed down from the Democrat hierarchy. They will reinvent their presidential candidate Kamala Harris, and introduce their vice presidential candidate Tim Walz without all his baggage and radical progressive history.

The usual suspects were paraded out to the cheers and thunderous applause of a raucous crowd. The Clintons, Obamas, and Nancy Pelosi - they parodied all the speakers who came before them. And like the others, the former presidents, first ladies, and Speaker of the House, were not above the insults and fallacious information and remarks toward former President Trump. Aside from the former president, the main theme, front and center and often mentioned, was abortion rights.

The governor of New York embarrassed herself and her state, in a rambling speech with rhetorical flourishes and flubs, and this: “Donald Trump was born in New York but ended up a fraud, philanderer, and felon.” Upon coming out on the stage, Hillary Clinton received a standing ovation from the throng. But history got the best of her; the 2016 presidential race was on her mind and took front and center stage. 

Ms. Clinton, like most who came before her, took the low road and said “Donald Trump made his own kind of history, the first person to run for president with 34 felony convictions.” Former President Clinton, looking aged, voice quivering, and an unsteady gait, described Mr. Trump as "Vain and a good actor.”

When she finally took the stage on Thursday night, Kamala Harris wasted 38 minutes delivering a speech filled with platitudes, empty promises, and skirting the periphery of issues of major importance and consequence. There were scant details, little substance, and of course, it was her teleprompter that ruled her every word. The half-truths, outright fabrications, and the disparaging comments toward former President Trump were also part of her repertoire. He was “selfish” and she accused him of “having no guard rails,” and “in many ways Donald Trump is an unserious man, but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.” “Donald Trump tried to throw away your votes; he sent an armed mob to the United States Capitol.”

The Media Research Center made a count of the number of times Mr. Trump’s name was spoken over the four days of the convention -275 times, whereas mentions of the southern border, the economy, and prices were few and far between.  But of course, abortion, the killing of babies in a mother’s womb, was top on the list of these depraved, callous reprobates. 

What happened? The Democratic Party found itself in a dilemma of its own making. It began with a political coup of a sitting president, their party leader. From there they needed candidates to run for the office of president and vice president; they have installed two of the most left-wing progressive politicians in the nation, Harris and Walz. Now they’re on a tangent to sell these two unserious radicals to the American people.

The Potemkin convention was meant as an introduction of two unknowns. Yes even Kamala Harris, although the current vice president has been out of sight and out of most of the people’s minds for the past 3½ years. She was thought of as being a drag on the Biden administration, and was often ridiculed for her “word salads,” meaningless blather.