Speakers during Wednesday’s proceedings at the Democratic National Convention tugged at the militaristic and conservative wings of the party, eliciting jeers from progressives, which, in turn, led to Trump supporter-style chants of “USA! USA!” from the pro-Clinton contingent.
Day three of the DNC in Philadelphia included voices such as former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and billionaire former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. It was a rightward lurch from Monday, when the party yielded to lefty speakers like Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
Convention goers noticed, and some weren’t pleased.
As Panetta, a prominent liberal interventionist, pitched Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy credentials on stage, he was confronted with loud booing alongside chants of “No more war!”
“Donald Trump asks our troops to commit war crimes, endorses torture, spurns our allies from Europe to Asia, suggests that countries have nuclear weapons and he praises dictators from Saddam Hussein to Vladimir Putin,” Panetta said, rising his voice over the protesting delegates.
The appeals from peaceniks, however, were quickly drowned out by the much larger base of nationalistic Clinton supporters in attendance, who chanted “USA! USA!”—a call reminiscent of what attendees at a Trump rally or a professional wrestling event might hear.
The Guardian reported that convention organizers moved to further silence dissenters during Panetta’s speech by cutting out the lights in a section of the arena.
Along with the erasure of anti-war voices, the DNC also insulted populist Democrats by giving a platform to Bloomberg.
A plutocrat who is open about his desire to undermine the social safety net while privatizing the commons, the choice of Bloomberg was particularly awkward, when paired with DNC drumbeating about Trump’s embrace of authoritarianism and white supremacy.
As mayor, Bloomberg championed “stop-and-frisk” policies, that allowed New York police officers to randomly detain and search city residents–most were completely innocent young men of color. Bloomberg also presided over the NYPD infiltration of Muslim student groups and was unapologetic about it.
“Democrats wrongly blame the private sector for our problems, and they stand in the way of action on education reform and deficit reduction,” Bloomberg told the convention in remarks that went over much better than many journalists who has received an advanced copy of the speech had anticipated.
Liberal commentators remarked that the Democrats’ strategy for the evening demonstrated an undeniable play to the right.
“This is the obvious way for the political party to go,” Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson said on MSNBC Wednesday night. “Some of the Bernie backers will not be that happy about it because the obvious play is to take the center.”
“Because, you know, it’s Donald Trump,” he added.
In the same telecast, MSNBC host Joy Ann Reid outright praised Bloomberg, calling his remarks “great.” In the same breath, she described the “No more War!” chants as a “sour note” for the convention.
The Bernie Sanders flank did, however, receive one prominent shout out on the night: from the headliner, President Obama.
“If you agree that there’s too much inequality in our economy, and too much money in our politics, we all need to be as vocal and as organized and as persistent as Bernie Sanders’ supporters have been during this election,” the President said, in a nod to the crowds who had been shouted down and put in the dark just hours earlier.
“That’s right, feel the burn,” he added.
