Nate Knows Nada

Just returned from the floor of the convention hall here.  Sheer
madness, just above the level of slightly organized chaos.  (As
“press,” bloggers can check out floor passes for an hour.  There’s
this whole hierarchy of pass colors.)

I wandered around the California and Massachusetts delegations (my home
and my current residence states) for a while, during Calif. Sen.
Barbara Boxer’s speech to the convention.  Just so they get some
name credit (I’ll write more about our conversations later), I talked
with Lisa Mead (the mayor of Newburport, Mass.), Michael Lysobey,
Davids Bliss, and Emily Weinstein of California. 

All of the Californians are fairly new not only to California politics,
but to being part of political or civic associations in general. 
They all said that they had grown concerned with the shape of foreign
policy under the Bush administration, and, to a lesser extent, various
domestic issues (stem cells, economic policy, and governmental
secrecy).  So, from being fairly uninvolved a year ago, they
decided to do something.  And now they are delegates.

Mead’s a bit different.  This is her third DNC, and she used to be
field director for John Kerry, so she’s personally acquainted with the
candidate, describing him as “strong, big-hearted, and smart.” 
Most impressive for her about the convention was last night’s parade of
retired generals who support Kerry because of the direction military
policy has taken under the Bush administration.  In reference to
former JCS Chair John Shalikashvili’s speech last night and the retired
top generals who supported Kerry on stage: “Here we have a general
who’s been Chair of the Joint Chiefs, fought in wars, and served
several presidents, and he’s supporting Kerry.  And to have these
eight or nine generals support Kerry, you just don’t see that very
often with retired generals.  That speaks volumes about the
current administration.”

All that aside, the floor gives off an incredible vibe.  People
are packed in chock-a-block (even when it looks empty on TV or from up
here in the balcony, it’s still extremely busy), with reporters, TV
infotainer journalists, delegates, national politicians, poster brigade
members and security all moving seemingly randomly.

The “bowl” is the center of the beehive.

I was remarking to Becky G, of American Street
last night (she’s a delegate), that we’re living in this strange
parallel universe of Convention Land.  I live here in Boston, so I
wander in and out of it every day.  I wake up, read a little news
(a very little),
drink some
coffee, and blog.  Then I go to Copley to get the day’s media
credential, hang out with the Librarian, and make my way to the Fleet.
Inside, there’s bad food*, no real windows, lots of noise, speeches,
lots of Democrats talking about the party’s chances, and difficulty
actually thinking to be able to write a coherent post.

Then I go home at night, blog a bit more, and go to bed.  BF is
already asleep, and he gets up early to go to his summer work.  So
even though we live in the same house, we haven’t seen each other in
three days. 

My house, in fact, has become a staging area for coming and going.

But I know so little of what’s going on outside the bubble of the
convention.  Literally, when I am talking with people now, it’s
all about the convention, because when I’m not there, I’m either alone
or asleep.  Even when I talk to BF or friend Matt on the phone,
it’s about how the latest speech played on the TV, as opposed to in
person.

* I want to note that the bad food is at different prices, if you’re
willing to walk downstairs to North Station, which is under the Fleet
and part of its complex.  An iced Dunkin Donuts coffee is about
$4.50 upstairs, but $2.35 at the bottom.  Same with other similar
food products.  Is it any wonder that it’s always crazy down there?

“I have enough trouble figuring out how to get married that I don’t need the federal or state government telling me what to do.”
– Actor Ben Affleck, discussing gay marriage at Wednesday’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Caucus meeting.

One of Democratic bigwigs who was at the lunch yesterday, but did not
speak or have a high-profile role, was Mike McCurry, the former Clinton
press secretary.  McCurry’s a United Methodist, a Sunday School
Superintendent in his church, and was a delegate to this year’s UM
General Conference, which is the denomination’s national
gathering. 

He was one of the most high profile people at the caucus lunch (along,
perhaps, with Jean Carnahan, former senator from Missouri), and so I
spoke with him for about 15 minutes.  Here’s something of a
transcription of the interview, with my comments to follow.

Like many of the speakers, McCurry echoed a dismay that the Democratic
party has not embraced the religious communities of America. 
Partly, he says, this is because there is something of a discomfort
among the party’s secularists, and this discomfort arises for a number
of reasons.  For many of the party secular activists, it’s because
of the way that the religious right has co-opted the part that religion
can play in the civic life of our country.  For others, it’s
because they have an experience of life in the American religious
right, and they have been burned or hurt pretty hard.

McCurry noted that when he was in the White House, he and George
Stephanopoulos were not really “out” (my term, not his) to each other
about their faith and the role it played in their public life. 
(Stephanopoulos, while a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, studied theology,
and his father is a Greek Orthodox priest.)  McCurry said that he
spoke about that faith with Stephanopoulos after his book came out, and
they found that they had had some of the same struggles living out
their faith life as public servants.

McCurry noted that part of this occurs because the intersection of
religion and politics in America has become fairly nasty in recent
times.  “There are unfortunately some place in the [Democratic]
party where religion equals red state equals Republican.”

McCurry thinks that religions can offer a powerful force to help our
civic life. “Our institutions of the political system are badly
broken.  But the Church [and by this he seems to mean the
'universal' church of all Christians and all religious believers, in
some way. -Ed.] is the place of sanctuary, where we can acknowledge our
differences but also acknowledge our common belief in God.”

“If you want to solve conflicts, the Church has a great historical legacy of bringing people together.”

An informal poll of those of us up here in Blogger Central (a couple of the gay guys and the librarian) have decided that Adam, “the tech guy”, is “adorable” (as Librarian put it). See for yourself.

Go to Boston.com‘s front page right now, or to this specific link, and see a story on John Ardis, pastor of John and Teresa’s parish on Beacon Hill.

Make no mistake: The Rev. John B. Ardis, the Catholic priest whom
Senator John F. Kerry has chosen to give the benediction at tonight’s
closing session of the convention, opposes abortion.

But he also opposes capital punishment, the war in Iraq, and public policies he views as unjust toward the poor or hungry.

Although several Catholic cardinals have declined to speak at
Democratic conventions because of the party’s support for abortion
rights, Ardis, the director of the Paulist Center of Boston, will speak
tonight without reservation, noting that neither the Republicans nor
the Democrats are fully in step with Catholic teachings.

Exactly. If the rageful Christian Right focused on any issue besides
abortion, virtually all national politicians would be sorely lacking.

Speaking at the convention is not Ardis’s first bold move. In April,
just before Easter, Ardis said he would welcome Kerry to Communion,
despite declarations by some bishops that they would deny Kerry the
sacrament because of his support for abortion rights. Ardis instead
cited the position of other bishops, including O’Malley, that
individual Catholics should examine their consciences to decide whether
to seek Communion.

“We will not deny Communion to anyone who presents themselves in a respectful manner,” Ardis said.

Not the whole story.  The day before Easter, when the controversy
was at its highest, the Paulist Center received a call from the
archdiocese, instructing them to not deny the Eucharist to Kerry. 
I’m sure that the archdiocese would deny this if you were to ask them,
but they made it very specific that Kerry be able to receive the
Eucharist if he presented himself.