AOC’s Speech to ‘American Dream’: 5 Key Takeaways From DNC Day 2
On the second day of the Democratic Convention, Joe Biden was officially nominated for president by his party.
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On the second day of the Democratic National Convention, Joe Biden was officially nominated for president by the Democratic Party, after a roll call spanning 50 states and seven territories.
Here are the five key highlights from day 2 of the convention:
1. Keynote by 17 ‘Rising Stars’
In a keynote address unlike any other, 17 ‘rising stars’ took to the screen to advocate for Biden.
This was done purposely to “offer a diversity of different ideas and perspectives on how to move America forward, but they will all speak to the future we’re building together – a future with Joe Biden at the helm,” said the DNC organisers.
“There is one person that is looking out for us – all of us,” they said in unison. “And that is Joe Biden.”
One of the 17, Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams, spoke on the occasion.
2. Restoration of the ‘American Dream’
With repeated mentions of the immigrant experience, and the catastrophic handling of the COVID-19 pandemic by the Donald Trump Administration, Biden was repeatedly put up by speakers as the antidote to all the crises that America currently faces.
US Senator Chuck Schumer, too, took the stage.
“We will protect voting rights, fight systemic racism in the criminal justice system and in our economy, and restore a Supreme Court that looks out for people not corporations. We'll rebuild our infrastructure and make sure every home from inner city to rural America has broadband. We will save the post office and once and for all defeat COVID-19, this evil disease. And beckoned by the lady behind us, we will reform our immigration system so that immigrants yearning to breathe free will at last become American citizens,” Schumer added.
3. Republican Support for Biden
A Republican, who has frequently broken ranks to support Democratic candidates, Colin Powell, came out in support of Biden.
“With Joe Biden in the White House, you will never doubt that he will stand with our friends and stand up to our adversaries – never the other way around,” Powell said. “He will trust our diplomats and our intelligence community, not the flattery of dictators and despots.”
Referring to Trump’s tenure in office, Powell said:
4. The Mass People's Movement
Taking the screen for a brief 60 seconds, New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez addressed the American nation. But, her 60 seconds packed a punch.
This “mass people’s movement,” she said, is dedicated to addressing “the wounds of racial injustice, colonisation, misogyny, and homophobia,” and building “reimagined systems of immigration and foreign policy that turn away from the violence and xenophobia of our past.”
Ocasio-Cortez had made an appearance in support of Bernie Sanders, whose campaign is now over as he rallies in support of Biden. She later tweeted this:
5. Focus on Healthcare
“He will do for your family, what he did for ours,” Former Second Lady of the United States and Joe’s wife, Jill Biden, said as she mapped every personal tragedy that her husband has risen from.
He lost a wife and a daughter in a car accident. He lost a son to cancer. Biden, as the Democratic Convention argued, knows the importance of a strong healthcare system.
Ady Barkan, an activist who was diagnosed with ALS in 2016, said that he “experienced the ways (the American) health care system is fundamentally broken: enormous costs, denied claims, dehumanising treatment when we are most in need.” Unable to use his own voice, Barkan’s remarks were voiced by a computer that tracks his eye movements.
Barkan, too, came out in support of Biden.
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