There’s a lot of reasons why I’m on my way to Chicago for the Democratic National Convention. But the main one is, seeing what the national branch of the City’s majority party has in store for Philadelphia.
At the core of what we do here at Philadelphia Hall Monitor is the juxtaposition of journalism and politics.
For some reason, Chicago is the center of that juxtaposition in 2024.
Last month, my husband Chris attended the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago. Chris got to do a talk about his book, “First Draft: A Collection of Stories Chronicling Racism, Sports and Social Justice in the 21st Century” and Hall Monitor’s own Larry McGlynn was one of the stellar panelists on my panel that, well, talked about starting your own Hall Monitor.
But this week, I’m heading to Chicago all by my lonesome for the Democratic National Convention. As part of the Lenfest Foundation for Journalism’s Every Voice, Every Vote campaign, Hall Monitor has partnered with the Philadelphia Sunday Sun to provide coverage of all the pomp, circumstance, and foolery that will surely be a part of this event.
Yeah, I said foolery. Anyone who has observed the 2024 Presidential Race or politics in general this year knows that foolery will be on the menu this week. If what I’m seeing on Twitter (I still refuse to call it X. Get over it, Elon.) is any indication, there’s someone out there ready to show that (a) they have no home training or (b) they don’t understand the function of the Secret Service.
A lot of eyes are going to be on the Pennsylvania Delegation because of the Commonwealth’s designation as a so-called “swing state”. I hate that designation because I believe it gives campaigns an excuse to ignore places that really need their attention because their considered “safe” for one party or the other.
But despite my problems with the whole “swing state” thing, Pennsylvania gets outsized attention because of it, which might be really advantageous to Philadelphians. Protestors are already here in Chicago to bring attention to such things as poverty, the environment, and student loan debt. In fact, the Chicago Police stopped a group that had marched from Milwaukee, where the Republican National Convention was held, to Chicago for the purpose of setting up an encampment as part of their protest.
While they’re sticking around to protest, there won’t be an encampment. Under normal circumstances I’d suggest they resist, but if you Google “Chicago 1968” you’ll see why I’m not. One thing that Philly and Chicago has in common, other than being places that former President Donald Trump would like to have patrolled by the National Guard should he get re-elected, is that their police departments occasionally show that they don’t think the law applies to them.
While there’s going to be a lot to distract you here, my hope is that the Philadelphia chunk of the Pennsylvania delegation remembers to ask one very important question: What does this mean for us?
Let’s be honest here. As the five-county Philadelphia area goes, so goes the Commonwealth. And at the center of the five-county Philadelphia area is, well, Philadelphia.
What folks found out in 2016 is that it doesn’t matter how much of a turnout you get in the collar counties if Philadelphia doesn’t come out to vote. Granted, it didn’t help that there are segments of Philadelphia where sexism is the order of the day and thus there was no way that the men in those areas would vote for one woman, much less two — Katie McGinty caught some of Hillary Clinton’s strays — but that doesn’t make what I just said any less true.
If you’re going to get Philadelphians out to vote, you have to give them a reason to come out or apply for a mail-in ballot. And by a reason, I mean more than saying “Democracy is at stake!”
(Granted, it is. But you have to remember that there are Philadelphians that don’t know that if you put someone in the White House who believes that authoritarianism leads to a lot of other things like food shortages, price gauging, and a lack of funding for things like education, healthcare and taking care of senior citizens. Heck, there are folks out there that think you can get reparations for the descendants of slaves through an executive order, something that shows that they don’t understand that Congress, like City Council, holds the power of the purse.)
During the last Pennsylvania primary, a primary that focused on who would replace outgoing Mayor Jim Kenney, less than 29% of the eligible voters bothered to cast their vote. The percentage of voters went even further down when it came to the previous primary, when the office at the top of the ticket was District Attorney.
If you can’t get folks to vote on who runs the office that determines whether what you’re charged with is a misdemeanor or could lead to the Death Penalty, I don’t know what to tell you.
So, State Sen. Sharif Street, the current chair of the Democratic Party, and the delegates here in Chicago have their work cut out for them.
I’ll be at the morning delegate breakfasts, and all-around Chicago talking to the Pennsylvanians who will have that responsibility. I’ll also be there as speaker after speaker takes to the stage to try and convince folks to do something that other countries have already done, make a woman President of the United States.
The first of these speeches will come from the outgoing president, Joe Biden. When you consider why and how he was removed from the ticket, I can only imagine what this speech is going to sound like.
(My appreciation for pettiness is hoping for lots and lots of well-placed zingers!)
So, join me as I find out how the Democrats and Vice President Kamala Harris answer the question, “What in this for us?”
It may be one of the most important answers she ever gives.
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