(Editor’s Note: Today’s report on the National Democratic Convention is written by Delegate Alvin Leaphart, a Jesup attorney and occasional editorial contributor to GwinnettForum. A GOP Gwinnett delegate was to write a report on the Republican convention, but on return from Cleveland was felled with a virus. He tells us that he anticipates writing a GOP convention report for the Friday edition. —eeb)
By Alvin Leaphart, Jesup, Ga. | Regardless of your political views, attending this convention to help select our nominee for the President of the United States is one of the many aspects that makes our nation unique in the selection of our leader. In most of the world, a change in government is made through some sort of coup, either military or assassination.
Leaphart
Americans do it through signing a document or punching a button on a machine. My wife, Beverly, and I felt extremely honored to be members of a group of 117 Georgians representing over 4,000,000 Democrats of Georgia.
On Monday, Beverly and I attended a breakfast for the Georgia Delegation. Dubose Porter, the chairman for the Democratic Party of Georgia, Calvin Smyre, chairman emeritus, along with several others, spoke.
The convention opened that afternoon with a bang. There was immediate contention between the Clinton and Sanders delegates. Within the Georgia delegation, there were 87 Clinton delegates, 29 Sanders delegates, and one abstention. As in most situations, few among many can appear to create chaos, and if the remainder falls for their actions, it can work. The Clinton delegates, for the most part, ignored the outbursts, and as the afternoon and evening wore on, with speaker after speaker seeking to unite the delegates, the outbursts became less and less. Then when Michelle Obama and Bernie Sanders addressed the crowd, everything made a drastic turn toward unity, with only a handful of core protestors left. By Thursday, the crowd appeared more united and with the common purpose of electing the party ticket.
At breakfast Tuesday, Daniel P. Malloy, governor of Connecticut, and Jason Carter spoke. The convention reconvened that afternoon, with speeches by Former President Bill Clinton; Donna Brazile, interim party chair; former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America; and former President Jimmy Carter, who spoke by video.
On Wednesday morning, Congressman John Lewis spoke, after which there was a book signing of his acclaimed graphic novel, March. Wednesday afternoon the speakers were phenomenal, including Vice President Joe Biden and Vice President Nominee Tim Kaine. President Barack Obama stressed that the United States is already great, and that we are the greatest and most powerful nation in the world, second to none. Hillary Clinton was a surprise guest that night.
On Thursday night, speakers pointed out that Donald Trump has never accomplished anything on his own. He is third generation wealth, never been broke, and never had to struggle to eat or find a place to lay his head. And he knows nothing of middle class America, much less the struggling lower socio-economical level of our society. He has failed to deliver, went bankrupt and walked away with millions in his pocket leaving people who trusted him, investing all they had and making them penniless, while he strode away, stating, “It’s just good business.”
Many Democrats, and more and more Republicans, feel that Trump is emotionally unstable, dangerous and should not have his finger on the nuclear trigger. They also agreed that he is an untruthful elitist who has no knowledge of government, how to conduct foreign policy and has not a clue as to the needs of the middle and lower class societies in our nation, and could care less.
The convention ended on a positive note with the delegates for both Clinton and Sanders uniting for a common purpose to elect the party nominee, Hillary Rodham Clinton, as president.
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