Three Major Lessons as the Historic 2024 DNC Concludes

To win in November, Democrats must address these three big issues

“Careful,” a friend texted me a moment earlier, “There’s a massive riot police presence at the entrance.”

As I left the 2024 DNC Convention at the United Center and approached the perimeter set to block out protestors, the bustling night filled with screams of “STOP THE GENOCIDE” and “ISRAEL IS AN APARTHEID STATE.” I looked up to see a cacophony of protestors, some donning a keffiyah, other donning a yarmulke, and still others donning both as they stood shoulder to shoulder.

I had just witnessed Kamala Harris, the daughter of an Indian immigrant woman and Jamaican father, make US history as the first Asian and first Black female nominee for President of a major party. Her acceptance speech capped a whirlwind not just of the last four days of the DNC convention, but the last 4 weeks since President Biden announced he would not seek re-election.

The 2024 DNC featured a wide array of speakers from both major parties and virtually all races and backgrounds. Virtually. The speakers proudly contrasted the Democratic vision of democracy and pluralism to the MAGA GOP vision of dictatorship and oppression. While the DNC convention energy was off the charts, there is still work to be done. Here are the three main takeaways from the DNC on what Democrats must do if they expect to win in November. Let’s Address This.

1. Domestic policy focused on social service

Kamala Harris’s domestic policy platform was a bold vision for the future, and nearly perfect. She emphasized the need to close the wealth gap by increasing access to homeownership, decreasing childcare costs, decreasing healthcare costs, decreasing taxes on the middle class, increasing taxes on billionaires, and increasing the living wage for working people. She recognized the existential threat of climate change on the United States, and the need to shift to renewable energy while creating millions of new high paying jobs. Harris championed reproductive rights, an issue more than 70% of Americans support, and the dire need to protect public education—especially against the onslaughts of Project 2025. Harris painted a vision focused on strengthening the middle class with meaningful policy changes, not empty rhetoric.

The Exonerated Five speak about their journey towards justice at the 2024 DNC. Photo Credit: Me

Where Democrats and Harris must improve is on police funding and immigration reform. Harris proudly declared that she increased police funding, but as I’ve written before, the scholarship is clear that more police does not equal more public safety. Indeed, to beautifully celebrate the Exonerated Five cannot be a mere display, it must follow comprehensive police reform and comprehensive funding of social service programs.

Likewise, while it is easy to call out Trump for derailing the bipartisan immigration bill, his malicious intent to do so does not necessarily make Harris’s promise to sign that particular bill into law a win. Don’t just take it from me, a literal human rights lawyer, take it from the nation’s leading immigration advocates who warn that this bill will violate the Refugee Convention, exacerbate the humanitarian challenges at the border, make asylum largely inaccessible to those who need it most, and enrich the private prison industrial complex. Meaningful immigration reform requires policies that uphold human rights, not those that betray them.

2. Foreign policy focused on justice

On foreign policy, Kamala Harris’s acceptance speech put on display two major wins, and one majorly missed opportunity. First, Harris committed to strengthening NATO and contrasted her platform with Donald Trump’s threats to withdraw from NATO if elected again. This is a critical reassurance to our European allies that the United States has no intention of becoming isolationist in our advocacy, economy, or security. Next, Harris committed to supporting Ukraine against Russian aggression, and likewise standing up to fascist dictators like North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, and contrasted her platform with Donald Trump cozying up to dictators like Un, Orban, and Putin. Again, a welcomed declaration to strengthen global peace and security.

Uncommitted Delegates silently protest outside the 2024 DNC. Photo Credit: Me

The missed opportunity is regarding Israel and Palestine. And it wasn’t so much what Harris did say, though that’s a conversation worth having, but more so what Harris didn’t do. The Democratic Party’s ultimate refusal to allow a Palestinian-American speaker to speak from the DNC stage was an unforced error. As I wrote before, it was meaningful and heartfelt to hear from the parents of an Israeli hostage because it humanized the struggle the hostages are suffering through. Palestinians deserve that same humanity. The Democratic Party had an opportunity to demonstrate the humanity of both Israelis and Palestinians, and their choice to only platform Israelis sends a clear message—Palestinian lives are not as important.

The point is not that the Democrats didn’t have to platform Palestinian Americans, the question is, why didn’t they want to? Polling shows that ceasefire and cessation of arms to Netanyahu is wildly popular among Democrats and Independents, particularly in swing states, and will emphatically increase turnout for Harris and increase her chances to win. For example, as first reported by Zeteo, Among Georgia Democrats and Independents:

• 44% are more likely to vote for Harris if Biden secures a ceasefire, while just 2% are less likely.

• 39% are more likely to vote for Harris if she pledges to stop weapons to Israel, and just 5% are less likely.

Why not avail ourselves of those much needed votes in what will undoubtedly be a close election? And this brings me to my final takeaway from the 2024 DNC. What does it mean to be a big tent party as we head into the most consequential election in US history?

3. Truly embrace being a big tent party

The Democrats have long branded themselves as the ‘big tent party.’ A party where, as Coach Walz has repeatedly and rightly declared, “you don’t have to agree with each other on everything to get along and work together.” This philosophy has kept the Democrats at the forefront of expanding civil rights, immigration rights, LGBTQ rights, and women’s rights to ensure each demographic enjoyed equal justice and humanity in the United States. Thus, the choice, and it was a deliberate choice, to platform an Israeli American family while denying a Palestinian American voice, appears a clear betrayal of those Democratic party values of equal justice.

This may upset some of my readers, but I hope you keep reading for a moment. We cannot justly condemn Republicans and their refusal to call out Trump when he acts unjustly, and then get upset at fellow Democrats for having the conviction to call out injustice within our own party. How else do we become ‘more perfect Union,’ if not by upholding justice in all matters? A big tent party means we must allow, even encourage, robust dialogue and debate within our party—not to tear down people, but to lift up ideas.

Indeed, this is what one sees when they read the proposed DNC remarks written by Georgia State Representative Ruwa Romman, a Palestinian American, that she had hoped to deliver. You can read the full remarks here, but this concluding paragraph says it all:

Let’s commit to each other, to electing Vice President Harris and defeating Donald Trump who uses my identity as a Palestinian as a slur. Let’s fight for the policies long overdue—from restoring access to abortions to ensuring a living wage, to demanding an end to reckless war and a ceasefire in Gaza. To those who doubt us, to the cynics and the naysayers, I say, yes we can—yes we can be a Democratic Party that prioritizes funding our schools and hospitals, not for endless wars. That fights for an America that belongs to all of us—Black, brown, and white, Jews and Palestinians, all of us, like my grandfather taught me, together.

Imagine what could have been. Imagine the viral positive impact of a Palestinian American elected Democrat, proudly endorsing Harris, while elevating the humanity of Jews and Muslims alike, and from a swing state no less? Truly, a missed opportunity. If the Democrats expect to win in November, then the phrase ‘big tent party’ cannot be lip service. It must be about action, even when it is uncomfortable, because that is how we grow and develop. This is our opportunity to stand shoulder to shoulder to uphold international human rights law, domestic law, and human dignity for all people. We must not let it go to waste.

If the Democratic Party can embrace these principles, not just in word, but with actions, then victory is not only possible, it is inevitable for the White House, the US House, and the US Senate. Indeed, that is how to enact what VP Harris declared when she concluded her acceptance speech that, “together, let us write the next great chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told.”

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