Love her or hate her, one thing you can say about former First Lady Michelle Obama is that she is comfortable in her own skin. One cannot say the same for the candidate she is advocating for. Which is why it is a genius move on the part of the Obamas to bring their vibe of “Hopium” and manufactured optimism and apply it to Kamala Harris. This is exactly what Michelle Obama did in her speech on Night 2 of the Democrat National Convention.
Obama is a native daughter of Chicago, and the partner to the last successful Democrat president. She is popular and beloved among her people, and this was expressed in the rousing applause and cheers. Obama made gentle motions to get the audience to quiet down.
Thank you guys. Okay. We got a big night ahead. Thank you all so much. Thank you so much.
Hello, Chicago! Yeah… all right. Something… Something wonderfully magical is in the air, isn’t it? Yeah… You know, we’re feeling it here in this arena, but it’s spreading all across this country we love. A familiar feeling that’s been buried too deep for far too long. You know what I’m talking about! It’s the contagious power of “Hope.” The anticipation, the energy, the exhilaration of once again being on the cusp of a brighter day. The chance to vanquish the demons of fear, division, and hate that have consumed us and continue pursuing the unfinished promise of this great nation. The dream that our parents and grandparents fought and died and sacrificed for.
America, hope is making a comeback!
No doubt Obama and Hillary Clinton compared notes. Just like Clinton, Obama’s speech invoked this deceptive aura of “change happening,” and then evoked the wisdom and weight of the ancestors. In Obama’s case, she brought in the heritage of her own lineage and the lessons her mother taught her. A mother who had recently passed away.
But, to be honest, I am realizing that until recently I have mourned the dimming of that hope. And maybe you’ve experienced the same feelings. That deep pit in my stomach. A palpable sense of dread about the future. And for me, that mourning has also been mixed with my own personal grief. The last time I was here in my hometown was to memorialize my mother. The woman who showed me the meaning of hard work and humility and decency. The woman who set my moral compass high and showed me the power of my own voice.
Folks, I still feel her loss so profoundly. I wasn’t even sure if I would be steady enough to stand before you tonight. But my heart compelled me to be here because of the sense of duty I feel to honor her memory.
The Democrats are exceptionally good at evoking all the feels. Who can argue with the memory of a beloved mother? Obama immediately built a bridge and took the goodwill people already had toward her and manipulated it. Obama used the lessons from her now dead mother to weave deceptive falsehoods not only about herself and Barack Obama, but more importantly, about Kamala Harris. This speech, and the entirety of Night 2, frankly, was all about the reimagination and reinvention of Kamala Harris.
This is what Democrats do, and they do it well.
Obama continued,
And to remind us all not squander the sacrifices our elders made to give us a better future. You see, my mom in her steady, quiet way lived out that striving sense of hope every single day of her life. She believed that all children, all people have value. That anyone can succeed if given the opportunity. She and my father didn’t aspire to be wealthy. In fact, they were suspicious of folks who took more than they needed.
<insert *eyeroll* emoji> Anyone paying attention for the last 10-15 years or so knows that the Obamas have been the biggest conspicuous consumers. They almost put the Clintons to shame. Like that $11.75 million Martha’s Vineyard home they purchased in 2020, the book deals, the Netflix deal, not to mention the taxpayer-funded presidential pension. Maybe Obama’s mother was suspicious of her own daughter and son-in-law, because they are the poster children of taking more than what they needed.
They understood that it wasn’t enough for their kids to thrive if everyone around us was drowning. So, my mother volunteered at the local school. She always looked out for the other kids on the block. She was glad to do the thankless, unglamorous work that for generations has strengthened the fabric of this nation. The belief that if you, “Do unto others,” if you “love thy neighbor,” if you work and scrape and sacrifice, it will pay off, if not for you, then maybe for your children or your grandchildren.
Thanks to the damage done by the Obama-Biden administration years ago, and the Biden-Harris administration now, working, scraping, and sacrifice cannot even buy your groceries or pay your rent, let alone buy a house or pay for your children’s or grandchildren’s future. These people created the very policies that are destroying Americans’ ability to do this, yet they successfully drape themselves in a cloak of benevolence and good will, pretending that Republicans are the problem and more government is the solution.
You see, those values have been passed on through family farms and factory towns. Through tree-lined streets and crowded tenements. Through prayer groups, and national guard units and social studies classrooms. Those were the values my mother poured into me until her very last breath.
Here is the Democrat sleight-of-hand. Obama dovetailed the values instilled in her by her mother, and connected them to the values Kamala Harris’ mother instilled in her. Look! Kamala is just like us!
It was dazzlingly brilliant, and nauseating all at once.
Kamala Harris and I built our lives on those same foundational values. Even though our mothers grew up an ocean apart, they shared the same belief in the promise of this country.
This is the same woman who in 2008 said, “for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country — and not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change.” Guess whatever the America she envisioned suddenly materialized after her husband was elected twice. The money to live the lush life certainly did. Our opportunity to live that same lush life? Well, sucks to be you.
That’s why her mother moved here from India at 19. That’s why she taught Kamala about justice. About the obligation to lift others up. About our responsibility to give more than we take. She’d often tell her daughter, “Don’t sit around and complain about things. Do something.”
So, with that voice in her head, Kamala went out and she worked hard in school, graduating from an HBCU, earning her law degree at a state school.
Howard University is considered an elite school in the HBCU, and the University of California Hastings School of Law is one of the Ivy League schools of the West. So, there is a ton of elitism in these choices with no meritocracy to be found. Hastings School of Law is also one of the schools where people don’t actually learn a love or skill for the law; what they learn is judicial activism. Obama conveniently leaves this out, along with the fact that Berkeley and Montreal, Canada, the places where Kamala Harris was raised, are veritable hotbeds of communism.
And then she went on to work for the people, fighting to hold lawbreakers accountable, strengthening the rule of law. Fighting to get folks better wages, cheaper prescription drugs, a good education, decent healthcare, childcare, elder care. From a middle class household Kamala worked her way up to become Vice President of the United States of America!
Willie Brown would like a word. There is so much left out of this that has been well documented in these pages. Sadly, the DNC audience is already enraptured by the fiction Obama has weaved, so they continue to swallow it hook, line, and sinker.
My girl, Kamala Harris, is more than ready for this moment. She is one of the most qualified people to ever seek the office of the presidency. And, she is one of the most dignified. A tribute to your mother, to my mother, and to your mother too. The embodiment of the stories we tell ourselves about this country. Her story is your story. It’s my story. It’s the story of the vast majority of Americans trying to live a better life.
“The stories we tell ourselves about this country…” interesting turn of phrase. Not the stories of our country’s founding and the people of all races, colors, creeds who made it possible, but a fiction that we weave until we can make it so. Like there are 57 genders, men can get pregnant, and a three-year-old can choose their own gender.
Look, Kamala knows, like we do that regardless of where you come from, what you look like, who you love, how you worship, or what’s in your bank account, we all deserve the opportunity to build a decent life. All of our contributions deserve to be accepted and valued. Because no one has a monopoly on what it means to be an American. No one.
Ahh, therein lies the rub, and here is where the BS meter got turned to 11. After Obama said:
Kamala has shown her allegiance to this nation, not by spewing anger and bitterness. But by living a life of service. And always pushing the doors of opportunity open to others.
Now Jamal Trulove, Caramad Conley, and Cheree Peoples would like a word and the years that they lost after being wrongfully imprisoned under Kamala Harris’ watch.
This is where the Obamas cannot help themselves. Ultimately it all becomes class grievance and hatred of the other wrapped in the pretty package of concern for the marginalized and care of the community. It’s cheap, disingenuous, and manipulative.
And sadly, so many will continue to fall for it. Obama ended her speech with a return to the Halcyon Hopium days of Barack and Michelle.
Our fate is in our hands. In 77 Days, we have the power to turn our country from the fear, division, and smallness of the past. We have the power to marry our hope with our action. We have the power to pay forward the love, sweat, and sacrifice of our mothers, and fathers, and all those who came before us. We did it before ya’ll, and we sure can do it again. Let us work like our lives depend on it. And let us keep moving our country forward, and go higher—yes, always higher than we’ve ever gone before as we elect the next president and vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz!
Michelle Obama introduced her husband Barack Obama to put the icing on that Hopium cake.
