The Republican National Convention came to a close Thursday night after four days of calls to "Make America Great Again," criticisms of presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, and chants of "blue lives matter." The RNC's nightly themes were all modeled after Donald Trump's campaign slogan — "Make America Safe Again"; "Make America Work Again"; "Make America First Again"; and "Make America One Again." Now, the Democratic National Convention is approaching; how do the DNC's nightly themes stack up?
The DNC is set to take place from July 25 to 28 in Philadelphia, and like the RNC, it will have four different nightly themes. The first day, "United Together," will feature First Lady Michelle Obama, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, and DREAMer Astrid Silva. On the second day, "A Lifetime Of Fighting For Children And Families," we'll hear from former President Bill Clinton. That day will also feature Mothers of the Movement — mothers of black people who were killed by gun violence and/or police brutality — including the mothers of Trayvon Martin (Sybrina Fulton), Sandra Bland (Geneva Reed-Veal), and Michael Brown (Lezley McSpadden).
The third day's theme is "Working Together," and this day will include speeches from President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden while highlighting Clinton's qualifications for the presidency. Finally, the last day's theme will be "Stronger Together" — Clinton's latest campaign slogan — and both Clinton and her daughter Chelsea will speak.
These themes provide a pretty interesting contrast to the RNC themes. Whereas Trump's slogan and each of the RNC's nightly themes seem to hearken back to an America most marginalized people would not want to remember, Clinton's slogan and the DNC's nightly themes seem to follow a "build bridges, not walls" formula that calls for national unity. "Stronger Together" isn't necessarily the most effective slogan, but Clinton spent quite some time finding a slogan that would stick, and this one certainly speaks to her pragmatism.
The RNC called for unity, too — this was particularly evident in House Speaker Paul Ryan's speech — but the "unity" that party leaders were calling for unsurprisingly did not include everyone, and many Republicans are still struggling with party unity because of Trump's candidacy. What remains to be seen, however, is whether Clinton's calls for both party and national unity at the DNC will be successful with the Democrats, especially among progressives who rallied around Sanders during the primaries.
