Being a liberal means complaining about the Democrats. It’s as axiomatic a law of life as the fatalism of Red Sox fans. More specifically, it means complaining about Democratic messaging: the weakness, the confusion, the inconsistency, the bajillions of opportunities missed when Republicans do something nuts, the backpedaling, the hem hawing, the failure to state principles forthrightly—is that enough? Believe me, I could go on.

Well, I don’t know who exactly is running this convention, in terms of deciding who speaks when and what they say and approving all those little film intermezzos, but whoever you are: kudos. This year’s Democratic Party—Kamala Harris’s Democratic Party—is asserting big, broad principles, redefining them, stealing them from the Republicans after years or decades of intellectually lazy passivity, and it’s an amazing and even historic thing to watch unfold here in Chicago.

It’s best exemplified by Wednesday night’s star, Minnesota governor and vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, and the way he was presented. The idea of getting 15 of his former football players out there on stage with him was brilliant. You think it was hokey? You think football is disgusting and violent? Get over it. There’s a time to have that debate, but it isn’t now. This is stagecraft designed to win an election, to send signals. And the signal this sent to........

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