Moving Towards the Party Conventions

From the date of article publication, we are less than a month away from the Democratic National Convention and almost a month away from the Republican National Convention.

The Democratic National Convention will be August 17th – August 20th in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Republican National Convention will be held in two parts. The first part that hosts the “official business” of the party convention will be held in Charlotte, NC from August 21st – 24th. This part of the convention will include the official nomination of President Trump as the Republican Nominee. The second part of the Republican National Convention will be held in Jacksonville, FL from August 24 – 27th. This second part is being touted on the RNC’s website as a “five-star convention celebration – including the president’s acceptance, speeches by other individuals and candidates, and other convention-related activities.”

What should we as the voter be thinking about in the month leading up to the convention?

Who do we want to pick the next Supreme Court Justice? Ruth Bader Ginsburg seems to be a superhero at times, but as we all know the body isn’t always as willing as the mind. These Republicans in Congress did not give Merrick Garland the chance for a Senate hearing because the president was a lame duck. These same Republicans have said they would push through a nominee if they have the same chance.

How has this president dealt with the economic and social unrest that has come with the brutal murder of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd? Can this administration handle not being the most important voice on race relations in this country? Can the president understand that the economic unrest of the pandemic has hit black and brown people more than white people nationwide?

As we watch the media focus on who will be speaking at either convention, or why does the President demand a six day party for himself, we need to remember what is important. People are dying from COVID-19, it doesn’t matter if the “percentages are small.” 143,000 people are gone, and will never be able to hug their family or say “I love you” again. Those people are real and their lives should not be discounted as “only 1 or 2 percent.”

Black people are being profiled and killed by police officers and these police officers are not being punished.

This country is having a reckoning with its own history. Our founding fathers laid the groundwork for a system of government that can grow and change with the times, but we aren’t taught these were racist men whom either owned slaves or were compliant in the slave trade in one way or another.

The world feels like it’s changing around us. Can Joe Biden or President Trump lead us into the future, and not lead us back into the past?