If you watched some or all of both political conventions in the last two weeks, then you know they were as different as night and day and black and white.

 

Night and Day

In many ways, the Republican convention was dark. The major theme was a fallen America, a country in danger of collapse from internal and external forces determined to destroy our democracy.

Internally we are, from Republican arguments, threatened by immigrants who will take our jobs, commit rape and spread disease and crime. We are threatened by Muslim immigrant terrorists who intend to defeat America from within. We are at risk of Sharia law taking over American justice. We face unruly minorities who make us feel unsafe in our America.

Externally, we are at risk by our allies not paying their share of defense costs. We may have to end NATO and surrender the Baltic States to Russia if those states do not pay their share of their defense. We may have to give nuclear weapons to South Korea and Japan to protect us from having to defend those nations. We have to end all our trade agreements, and we may offer our debtors pennies on the dollar, defaulting on the dollar, to cut our expenses.

And, at the same time, the traditional Republican values of fiscal responsibility and social conservatism are no longer topics of discussion within the party of Trump.

The Democratic convention saw an America that remains the world’s largest and most successful economy, an America more respected in the world than under the Republican presidency that preceded President Obama. Democrats see an America with the longest sustained period of job growth in our history, a stock market at all-time highs, auto sales at pre-recession levels, housing markets strong and wages up 2.3 percent in the first six months of the year.

Democrats painted a picture of a great nation facing new and complex challenges. How do we provide the needed day care for parents, care that has been in place in most democracies for a generation? How do we fund paid family leave, another idea in place across the planet? How do we insure that Social Security will not only be sustained, but improved for so many living only from that income in their retirement? How do we create a path to citizenship for those who have sought little more than a better life for their families in America? How do we honor our police, while recognizing that equality demands more for it to provide justice for all?

Black and White

Perhaps the most stark contrast of the two conventions was found in the faces of the attendees. At the Republican convention, once again virtually all the faces were white. At the Democratic convention the faces were black, white, brown and every shade of skin under the sun.

The Republican theme was that we must recover the America of the 1950’s when all was good. The 1950s when racial equality was not even considered; the 1950s when women stayed home; the 1950s, where Gay people needed to hide.

The Democratic theme was that we are a better nation together, a better nation where all of our differences contribute as they always have to our exceptionalism.

But the black and white contrast was found most deeply in the differences in tone at the conventions. Hillary Clinton’s name brought hatred to the faces at the Republican convention. After the latest mock crisis of the Clinton emails found nothing, Republicans chanted “lock her up.”

The Democrats had no similar hatred driving their convention. They uniformly mocked the absurdities that circle Donald Trump, but expressed no personal hate toward the Republican candidate for President.

If you think fear and hatred represent you, you should know how to vote. If you think greatness and hope are our future, then you should also know how to vote in 2016.