Police block off a street in front of the United Center.
It was the story of two crowds of people separated by a long fence.
Delegates, politicians and protesters flocked to Chicago on Monday as the 2024 Democratic National Convention began. In the streets outside the United Center, where the convention is holding its evening events, demonstrators marched and chanted against the Biden-Harris administration’s support of Israel and for LGBTQ+ and immigrant rights.
Behind long metal barriers and Secret Service checkpoints, the mood was celebratory. Convention attendees reported a sense of joy and excitement as the party demonstrated its unity behind its presidential candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
“I’m seeing a level of excitement that I haven’t seen since 2008,” said Michigan Democratic Party Vice Chairman Jason Morgan, a DNC superdelegate. “There’s just general excitement about Vice President Harris and Governor Walz.”
News outlets and political commentators have compared this DNC to the controversial 1968 DNC. Both were held in Chicago, both took place after the incumbent president decided not to seek his party’s nomination (Lyndon B. Johnson and Joe Biden), and both took place amid protests against U.S. involvement in foreign wars (Vietnam and the Middle East).
Delegates to the 2024 convention – who can commute between their hotels and convention centers by shuttle buses on roads separated from public transport – did not seem concerned about the protests.
“People in Texas have sent me notes saying, ‘Be careful’ and ‘Do this’ or ‘Do that.’ I have not had a single moment where I felt I needed to be careful,” Carol Teitelman, a delegate from Texas, told The Daily.
She said she had friends who had experienced the 1968 events.
“You remember tanks rolling through the streets of Evanston,” Teitelman said. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”
The police violence and tear gas that characterized the 1968 convention were not repeated on Monday. Instead, protesters marched past police barricades that kept them away from the convention center.
The protesters chanted slogans and waved signs to urge the Biden administration – and a possible Harris administration – to end their support for Israel. According to Palestinian authorities, more than 40,000 people have died in Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip since the militant Hamas killed about 1,200 Israelis on October 7, 2023.
“I want to see you as the first female president and I’m proud of you,” 81-year-old Elsa Rassbach told The Daily when asked about her message for Harris. “I’m in tears saying this because I’ve waited so long for a female president. Could you please change your policies so I can vote for you?”
Although there were relatively peaceful interactions between protesters and police compared to 1968, demonstrators criticized the strict enforcement of the law.
One protester named April, a self-described anarchist who asked to be identified by her first name, said the presence of a helicopter over the march made her feel “surveilled” and “threatened.”
Another protester, Nicholas Pizza of Hackensack, New Jersey, explained the reasons for their protest.
“This is one of the last means we have as political subjects,” Pizza said. “The fact that the police are increasingly repressing this is, for me, just a sign that we are drifting into another form of fascism.”
At the United Center, meanwhile, Democratic speakers were geared toward criticism from the right, not the left. On television, a series of prime-time speakers sought to introduce Harris and Walz to the American public by attacking former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee.
Among other things, speakers and prepared videos discussed the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of Covid-19, emphasized Democrats’ support for unions and the middle class, promised to protect reproductive rights and reminded the public that Trump was found guilty in New York on 34 counts of making payments before the 2016 election to cover up an affair with a porn star.
During former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s speech, the crowd of delegates chanted “Lock him up” – an analogy to a chant directed against Clinton when she ran as the Democratic nominee against Trump in 2016.
Speakers also highlighted Harris’ identity as a black and Asian woman. If elected, she would be the first woman and first Asian American to be elected president.
“We must not lose sight of how great it is that the Democrats have once again nominated a woman as their candidate,” CNN presidential historian Douglas Brinkley said earlier in the day. “If she is elected, it will be a turning point in history and people will say, ‘I was at the convention when the first woman became president.'”
The final speaker of the evening was Biden, who won the Democratic primary but dropped out of the race in July after a poor performance in the debate, raising questions about whether he was too old to run again.
In the run-up to his speech, Democrats praised Biden and awarded him laurels. Senator Chris Coons of Biden’s home state of Delaware had the crowd chant “We love Joe!” The DNC distributed signs with those words – with a heart instead of “Love”. As Biden took the stage, the crowd raised the signs in unison.
All night long, the attention was focused solely on the stage and its speakers.
Until Biden’s speech.
As the President began his speech, the mood in the hall changed as the crowd turned to watch the excitement at the other end of the arena near the Florida delegation sign.
A flag – red and green, like the flags outside at the protests – was raised. A television camera panned to show it. It had already been obscured by a wall of “We Love Joe” signs.
Later in his speech, Biden addressed the activities outside. “The protesters in the streets are right. Many innocent people are being killed on both sides.”
The comment did not contain much political substance, but it was a rhetorical peace offering – and an admission that at least part of the message had gotten through the gates.
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