Thank You, Thank You, Thank You Friends, From Your Wonkette

Wonkette accepts the nomination *of your hearts*.

1. Rebecca, Doc and Shy. 2. Evan and Rebecca. 3. CNN Anchor Dana Bash. 4. Vivek Ramaswamy 5. David Hogg. 6. Justin Jones. 7. TN state rep. and US Senate candidate Gloria Johnson. 8-9; People at the DNC.

People crying and 7. Rep. Lucy McBath

Sen. Mark Kelly waves from a livery with his wife, gun violence survivor and former Rep. Gabby Giffords.

Rebecca here to put some words on Dominic’s beautiful photos. I was going to tell you the long version of last night — how many tears we shed; how we made Elizabeth Warren cry with our MASSIVE LOVE; each thing that made us lose our minds; an idiot I met whom I was so mean to, it was amazing (I might circle back to her later), and a man walking his dog who told me that watching along on TV, he’d cried too; every nit we wanted to pick (that national defense block could have gone another night we bet); and and and and — but here we are at 6:30 local and there wasn’t a lot of sleep had last night.

I know I’ll be taking my daughter and my granddaughter to the inauguration come January. I remember how excited to death I was when I was eleven, and Geraldine Ferraro was going to be the FIRST! WOMAN! VICE PRESIDENT! I was eleven, and I’m 51 years old now. It’s here, it’s real, this is — finally — happening.

I wish Kamala Harris’s campaign had accepted this beautiful speech from Georgia state Rep. Ruwa Romman. It is true and it is beautiful.

My name is Ruwa Romman, and I’m honored to be the first Palestinian elected to public office in the great state of Georgia and the first Palestinian to ever speak at the Democratic National Convention. My story begins in a small village near Jerusalem, called Suba, where my dad’s family is from. My mom’s roots trace back to Al Khalil, or Hebron. My parents, born in Jordan, brought us to Georgia when I was eight, where I now live with my wonderful husband and our sweet pets.

Growing up, my grandfather and I shared a special bond. He was my partner in mischief—whether it was sneaking me sweets from the bodega or slipping a $20 into my pocket with that familiar wink and smile. He was my rock, but he passed away a few years ago, never seeing Suba or any part of Palestine again. Not a day goes by that I don’t miss him.

This past year has been especially hard. As we’ve been moral witnesses to the massacres in Gaza, I’ve thought of him, wondering if this was the pain he knew too well. When we watched Palestinians displaced from one end of the Gaza Strip to the other I wanted to ask him how he found the strength to walk all those miles decades ago and leave everything behind. 

But in this pain, I’ve also witnessed something profound—a beautiful, multifaith, multiracial, and multigenerational coalition rising from despair within our Democratic Party. For 320 days, we’ve stood together, demanding to enforce our laws on friend and foe alike to reach a ceasefire, end the killing of Palestinians, free all the Israeli and Palestinian hostages, and to begin the difficult work of building a path to collective peace and safety. That’s why we are here—members of this Democratic Party committed to equal rights and dignity for all. What we do here echoes around the world.

They’ll say this is how it’s always been, that nothing can change. But remember Fannie Lou Hamer—shunned for her courage, yet she paved the way for an integrated Democratic Party. Her legacy lives on, and it’s her example we follow.

But we can’t do it alone. This historic moment is full of promise, but only if we stand together. Our party’s greatest strength has always been our ability to unite. Some see that as a weakness, but it’s time we flex that strength. 

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.

The idiot I met last night, she didn’t understand all that. She and her fellow protesters hounded out of the punk bar where we’d stopped to nightcap the most beautiful woman — Persian-American maybe, with long glossy brown tresses setting off her Suffragette White dress — because, they said, she just loved to murder all the babies. And they knew she did because she was happy and proud — elated, I’d wager! — to vote for Kamala Harris.

The idiot told me she’s a Republican. She told me she wasn’t voting for Trump again. It was a long conversation of mutual disrespect. She kept saying idiot things, and I just kept reacting like “oooooh Jill Steiiiiinnn, enjoy your 1.5 percent” and “you voted for Trump, what awesome judgment, ooooooh you’re really smartttt.” It was, truly, devastating wit. (No, it really was.) The idiot said Kamala Harris should have stopped the war already, because she totally knows how everything works.

I talked later to her companion, a tall elf man who kept trying to interject with “we should really police our language here” when she was being a particular idiot. I explained where I hope Kamala Harris will differ from Joe, and I explained the litany of what I can’t believe the Left doesn’t see when they look at Joe Biden. Put aside Israel just for a moment (I know it’s an ask). Did our tall elf man friend defend Joe Biden when he stopped our Forever War in Afghanistan and from that day on never regained the popularity the media thought he no longer deserved? Did he say one word on Joe’s behalf? Did he even think it?

How about finally, after seven decades of the Left begging for it, forcing Big Pharma to negotiate for Medicare patients? How about the antitrust shit from Lina Khan’s FTC?

The tall elf man told me hey, that idiot (he did not call her an idiot) used to be a Republican and now she’s out here advocating for Not Trump And Jill Stein Instead And Not Killing Any Babies, and, he said, he’ll take that as a win.

Actually, I think he’s pretty right about that.

Well I guess I did give you the long version after all.

So what I meant to say was, and I’m glad it was in the headline because I almost forgot:

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for supporting us all these years (12 years now, four presidential elections, my god). Thank you for making it possible to bring Dok and Evan and Dom and Shy and myself (Robyn lives here already) to Chicago to be part of this magnificent thing, and to do so in a snazzy manner! I know we didn’t always cover everything fastidiously, and sometimes we stayed home and sometimes you had to wait all morning for a post while the staff slept it off. But I do hope you had a good time with us. We had a marvelous time doing it for you.

Once again today we’ll call an early lid for a travel day. We’ll post your happy hour in just a couple of hours.

And we’ll be back with normal weekend posting for you tomorrow. Because we’ve got however many days to WORK and DO SOMETHING. And we’ll sleep when we’re dead.

Wonkette is entirely supported by you. Thank you for the flights, the apartment, the many Ubers to cram six people in, and some damn fine Chicago dining and drinks.