Granderson: 'We love Joe' really means 'We love American values' (2024)

CHICAGO—

There was a clue Monday night to why Donald Trump is still fixated on President Biden, even though he’s now running against Vice President Kamala Harris. When Biden appeared Monday on the Democratic National Convention’s stage, a packed house gave a standing ovation that lasted more than four minutes. We heard deafening chants of “We love Joe.” We saw tears from the most powerful person on the planet.

Trump sees in Biden everything that Trump is not.

Remember, for the former president, the thought of losing the White House was so painful that he tried to pressure elected officials to overturn the results. Instead of stopping the Jan. 6 attack at the Capitol, he watched it on television. When told that then-Vice President Mike Pence had been rushed to a secure location, he said, “So what?”

Trump is still hung up on Biden after the president stepped aside because Trump would never do something as selfless as what Biden did. For someone like the Republican nominee, who has spent 50 years seeking high-society acceptance, celebrity and adulation, scenes like what Biden received on Monday are a lifelong dream. They are why you run for office. It is inconceivable to a narcissist like Trump to consider patriotism more important.

Sure, in the golf cart video that was leaked after their jointly disastrous debate, Trump said he thought Biden would quit. However, considering Trump’s three-week temper tantrum since the president stepped aside, it’s now clear that the former president did not believe Biden would actually do it.

Unlike Biden, Trump will always scramble for more moments like Biden had on Monday night. The moving tribute videos, praises from congressional colleagues on stage, the words “I love you” coming from the running mate who is also a family friend. As opposed to awkward poses with a random senator from Ohio who not too long ago likened you to Hitler.

This isn’t to say Biden doesn’t have an ego or doesn’t have to be fact-checked. Of course he does. However, leaders don’t receive a four-minute standing ovation from colleagues if ego and half-truths were all they were known for.

“I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my career, but I gave my best to you,” Biden said toward the end of the night. “For 50 years, like many of you, I’ve given my heart and soul to our nation. And I’ve been blessed a million times in return with the support of the American people.”

How much the president will be able to accomplish in his remaining five months is unclear. Before he took the stage, thousands gathered at a nearby park to protest the war in Gaza — and specifically the Biden-Harris administration’s role in providing Israel with weaponry that has led to the deaths of innocent Palestinians. Biden acknowledged the protesters had a point during his address, no doubt encouraged by earlier news that Israel had accepted a bridge proposal for a cease-fire.

Stopping the war has been on top of Biden’s agenda since last fall and may be the key to getting Harris elected this fall. Many of the protesters I spoke with indicated that their decision about whether to vote for Harris in November would be tied to Gaza. While they acknowledged that not voting in the election may allow Trump to return to the White House, they also said they didn’t feel comfortable voting for what they see as the same policy.

For me, the differences between Trump and the Biden-Harris brand were embodied in the final moments of the opening night of the convention. The president’s daughter recounted the day her father took a train from Washington just to wish his baby girl a happy birthday before heading back to work. The first lady described the moments in which Biden decided to walk away from the campaign. The humble beginnings of the blended families gathered on that stage in Chicago. It is clear for Biden-Harris the greatness of America lies in our willingness to sacrifice for one another.

Today, millennials outnumber baby boomers, and 1 in 5 Gen Z adults are LGBTQ+. In 20 years, no one racial group will be a majority in this country. Book bans, attempts to turn “diversity, equity and inclusion” into a slur, trying to control women’s bodies — they represent the last vestiges of America’s ugly past. For the second time in three presidential elections, a woman sits at the top of the Democratic ticket. For the third time in five elections, a person of color is a major party’s nominee for president. To borrow a line from Hillary Clinton’s speech at the convention on Monday: “My friends, the future is here.”

None of this can be said enough.

In what has essentially become a fight for white working-class voters in the battleground states, Republican candidates are betting on fear: They’re desperately shouting that America was better “back then” without clarifying when “back then” was, for obvious reasons. Meanwhile Democrats, with the help of Harris, are championing the future with joy.

When your entire platform is based on personal grievances, there’s not much room for laughter and joy. There’s no opportunity to experience a celebration like Monday night.

For Trump, the Monday nights are for him and him alone.

What Biden showed in half a century of service, stepping aside, endorsing Harris, is that nights like Monday are for all of us.

@LZGranderson