CHICAGO — Democrats know how to put on a show. On Wednesday night, the United Center, home of the legendary Chicago Bulls, vibrated with the energy of a music concertas two powerful words resonated throughout the evening: freedom and joy.
The party put on more stars in one night than Republicans had in their weeklong convention in Milwaukee. Stevie Wonder, Oprah Winfrey, John Legend, Sheila E, presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman, and SNL’s Kenan Thompson all took the stage. It could have been the NAACP Image Awards or a BET Juneteenth special, but it was the Democratic National Convention.
The Harris-Walz campaign also could have chosen a bland, politically safe lineup of artists to appeal to middle America, but we knew that wasn’t going to happen a month ago when Megan Thee Stallion brought her Hotties for Harris energy to Harris’ first rally in Georgia. So in Chicago, everything from Lil Jon rapping “Turn Out for What” to the ubiquitous presence of Beyoncés “Freedom” as Harris’s new theme song, felt culturally, authentically, and unapologetically Black. It was a celebration of Harris’s own background while not denigrating anyone else’s experience.
I stood next to the Illinois delegation as Oprah Winfrey rattled off the names of the places where she had lived, ending in thunderous applause as the entire state delegation rose to its feet to cheer her sweet home Chicago.
“When a house is on fire, we don’t ask about the homeowner’s race or religion,” we just try to save them, Winfrey said. “And if the place happens to belong to a childless cat lady, well, we try to get that cat out too.” It was a direct challenge to the hate-filled messaging of the Trump-Vance campaign. “We’re not going back,” Oprah announced.
“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history,” Moore told the nation.
When former president Bill Clinton spoke, he warned us that Harris and Walz will likely make mistakes in the short three months of this campaign that may disappoint even some Democratic supporters. All candidates, regardless of party, should be held accountable when they get it wrong, but just as the Obamas mentioned the night before, Clinton advised us to find the grace to guide them along the way and keep our eyes on the prize.
Clinton also contrasted Kamala Harris, who is “for the people” with Donald Trump, who only thinks about himself. “The next time you hear him, don’t count the lies,” said Clinton. “Count the I’s.” And that’s the question. Do we want a hate-filled administration giving us four more chaotic years of Donald Trump’s egomaniacal personal obsessions or a heart-filled administration focused on the public good?
To underscore that point, the night ended with a speech-turned-pep-rally by Tim Walz, Harris’s choice for vice president, who was affectionately introduced to the world by his former title as a high school football coach. When Coach Walz’s former players marched on stage in their old jerseys, it reminded me of the contrast with Donald Trump, the transactional snake oil salesman who couldn’t even get his former vice president to show up at his convention or his current wife to show up for his criminal trial.
Speaker after speaker reminded us that this election is about who we want to be as a nation. And it caused me to reflect on a moment earlier this week when Pennsylvania auditor general candidate Malcolm Kenyatta held the hand of his husband, Dr. Matt Kenyatta, while journalist Don Lemon sat nearby as Michelle Obama spoke a few feet away on stage.
There we were: four Black gay men front and center listening to a powerful Black woman from Chicago extol the virtues of a powerful Black woman from Oakland who had just been nominated to be the Democratic candidate for president of the United States.
I took it all in and said to myself, “This is the America I want to live in.”
St. Louis native Keith Boykin is a New York Times–bestselling author, TV and film producer and CNN political commentator.