GOVERNMENT

First Reading: Democratic National Convention fails to ignore Texas

Jonathan Tilove
jtilove@statesman.com

Texas, for all its size and ego, can be terribly insecure.

But, as it turned out, for all the skittish jitters that, in putting together its big show, the national Democratic Party wasn’t behaving like Texas really is, in its heart of hearts, the biggest battleground state of them all, our state was, if not at the center of things, certainly well-represented Monday at the opening night of the first-ever virtual Democratic National Convention.

There was, to begin with, Eva Langoria, who very smoothly emceed the night.

Her Texas bona fides appeaer to be in order.

From a 2019 interview with the Wall Street Journal:

My family emigrated from Spain to Mexico—then known as New Spain—in the 1600s. In the mid-1700s, my seventh great-grandfather, Pedro Longoria, and his family joined a mission to populate a region in the north to keep the British and French out.

The mission came with an incentive—the promise of land grants that were tax-exempt from Spain for 10 years. My family wound up with 4,500 acres just north of the Rio Grande.

The land was still Mexico then, but after the Texas Revolution in 1836, the border pushed south and their land was in the U.S. So, I’m ninth generation American.

I grew up on a ranch near Corpus Christi, in an area where nine members of my family lived on part of our original land. Most of my aunts were educators.

Our house was small. There was one bathroom and a pond in the back. I loved climbing the fruit trees. We had a vegetable garden and raised chickens and other animals.

My mother, Ella, was a role model. She taught me the importance of a strong work ethic. My father, Enrique, was a mechanical engineer at the Corpus Christi Army Depot. He taught me to hunt and fish before I was 7.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo “flashed across the screen” early on.

Beebe: “All I can think about is keeping our kids safe. It’s a little scary to take my kids back to school with the uprising of COVID-19 cases. I will do whatever it takes to ensure we bring our kids back to school safely. I know Joe Biden will be the one to take us there.”

There were George Floyd’s brothers from Houston, where Floyd returned to be buried.

And former Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo, now the chief in Houston.

There was Fort Wort’s Leon Bridges.

Here are the lyrics of Sweeter

[Chorus]

Hoping for a life more sweeter

Instead I’m just a story repeating

Why do I fear withskindark as night?

Can’tfeel peace with those judging eyes

[Verse 1]

Ithought we moved on from the darker days

Did the words of the King disappear in the air

Like a butterfly?

Somebody should hand you a felony

Because you stole from me

My chance to be

[Chorus]

Hoping for a life more sweeter

Instead I’m just a story repeating

Why do I fear with skin dark as night?

Can’t feel peace with those judging eyes

[Verse 2]

The tears of my Mother rain, rain over me

My sisters and my brothers sing, sing over me

And I wish I had another day, but it’s just another day

[Chorus]

Hoping for a life more sweeter

Instead I’m just a story repeating

Why do I fear with skin dark as night?

Can’t feel peace with those judging eyes

A Texan (along with someone from every other state, territory and the District of Columbia), joined in singing the National Anthem, and if this rendition didn’t stir you, you may really hate America.

The emotional high point of the night belonged Kristin Urquiza, not a Texan.

The outstanding achievement in short documentary film emerged from Biden’s years-long daily commute from D.C.-to-Delaware.

The John Prine requiem for the COVID dead was wrenching and perfect.

The most significant and powerful political speeches belonged to the closers - Bernie Sanders and Michelle Obama.

Yes, it occasionally sounded like pledge week.

Of course, it wasn’t really a flesh-and-blood convention with contending voices.

It was, of necessity, a show.

But it was, on those terms, a success, and, as a diss of Texas, a flop.