The woman who so many people wanted to draft to run for president — the author and speaker who enchanted a whole generation of women and helped us understand where we belong in modern society — began her speech Tuesday night at the Democratic National Convention talking about feelings.
Former first lady Michelle Obama spoke of the magical feeling in the air, the power of grief and the sense that as a country we can be better than what we have been.
Michelle talked us through the national trauma we experienced under former President Donald Trump — “the dimming of our light” and how Trump’s continued pursuit of power gives a “palpable sense of dread about our future.” And then she reminded us that hope is still alive.
Michelle gave us a way to heal and laugh, not by going low but by going in hard.
Sitting in the convention audience once again, Michelle spoke to me more personally. Eight years ago, I was massively pregnant with my first child and optimistic that women were going to shatter the thickest glass ceiling of all. We have all experienced a lot of life since the moment when the former first lady reminded us that “when they go low, we go high.”
One global pandemic, a domestic insurrection and dozens of personal crises later, Michelle spoke to women across the country to remind us of the power we share, a power rooted in our connections to one another.
It isn’t “enough for our kids to thrive while everyone is drowning,” she said, and I am reminded of the father who turned back in the roiling Rio Grande to try to rescue his 2-year old daughter, only for them both to drown. Kids in cages and stories of children dying in the Middle East are no longer policy problems to wrangle; I am now more than a diplomat and policy wonk — I am a woman and a mother who sees my hopes and dreams in other people, too.
Michelle reminded us that Vice President Kamala Harris’ story is “my story, our story,” and she’s right. Our mothers — mine in Pakistan, Michelle’s in Chicago, Kamala’s in India — vast oceans and cultures apart — had been single-minded in telling their daughters to “do something” and lift up the people around us.
Michelle gave us a way to heal and laugh, not by going low but by going in hard, using Trump’s insecurities and insults against him, reminding everyone that before Trump was in the White House, the presidency was, indeed, “one of those Black jobs.” She called out Trump for trying the “same old con” of racism and misogyny and noted how the rest of us don’t have the benefit of generational wealth and skating around multiple bankruptcies.
And Michelle gave all of us who have been heartbroken by our disconnected communities, by the smallness of people like Trump continuing to seek power, a way to fight back without going low because “our mothers taught us better than that.”
“This is the time to stand up for what we know in our hearts and minds we know is right. … This is the time to do something.” And to those dragging their feet, Michelle said, “There is no time for that kind of foolishness!”
Yes, indeed, America, hope is making a comeback. And that feeling of hope will turn into action because of the fighting power of women.
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