Everything you need to know about Biden

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was given just 90 seconds to speak at the Democratic National Convention tonight — 30 longer than had been rumored — and she used them to great effect. The Bronx native chose to officially nominate Bernie Sanders in a race we all knew the Vermont senator had already lost. She didn’t have to do so, of course. She could have bowed out, politely stayed quiet, chosen to pass on delivering that roll call nomination. Her early endorsement of the senator didn’t compel her to turn on her camera tonight and appear as a dissenting voice among many other Democrats professing Biden to be “the next president of the United States”.

However, she stuck with her man. Speaking alongside the one other Sanders supporter, Bob King of the United Auto Workers union, Ocasio-Cortez said that she did so because she believes in “21st century rights” and “a movement which strives to recognise and repair the wounds” of the past. She said that she wanted to see “reimagined systems of immigration and foreign policy that turn away from the violence and xenophobia of our past” and referred to the current American economy as one of “unsustainable brutality”. It was a far cry from the “God bless America” and “best country in the world” rhetoric which the rest of the convention pushed relentlessly. The woman known to the world as AOC paused before emphasising that she wanted a president who would deliver “deep systemic solutions to our crises” (left unsaid but heavily implied was “unlike his opponent”.) She was, in other words, playing the long game.

When the Republican Governor of Louisiana Bobby Jindal tweeted earlier today, “Dems only giving AOC 60 seconds to speak tonight. GOP should give her more time at their convention to show voters how crazy Dem ideas are,” it didn’t go unnoticed by the subject of his joke. “If I can regularly roast Trump sycophants in 280 characters or less, I can speak to progressive values in 60 secs (& maybe filibuster a few extra),” she wrote in reply. “Meanwhile, you’re supporting GOP sabotage of people’s medicine, votes, etc by mail bc apparently democracy means nothing to you.”

That clear-eyed passion and articulate commitment to social justice translated to her speech tonight. Almost everyone else was going to fall in line, but AOC was here to demonstrate her loyalty — and to let America know that the future still belongs to her. Not long ago, Joe Biden was the past, and plenty of young Democrats like Ocasio-Cortez are not ready to rejig their timelines and see him as the future. Today, she took the symbolic torch from Bernie Sanders — who has said that he will not run for president again — by appearing and reiterating her support not just for him but for “his movement”.

That probably explains why Bernie sounded so wistful during his less-than-uplifting speech yesterday. And perhaps in 2028 or later, we will see AOC stand for the presidency herself as the Sanders legacy candidate, repeating some of the words she used when Biden ran in 2020. The young people who felt inspired by Sanders this year and in 2016 will remember her loyalty. But it’s a risky game: the moderate Democrats will similarly remember how she quite literally failed to toe the party line.

Of course, when the states flashed up on the screens to vote today, Eurovision-style (“We’re the calamari comeback state!” said the announcer from Rhode Island, while a masked man silently proffered a plate of fish and chips throughout), Joe Biden came out on top. In a small library, Joe and Jill Biden rose from their chairs, surrounded by a modest crop of red, white and blue balloons, and smiled.

A couple of socially distanced supporters set off party poppers behind. “Thank you,” said Biden. “This means the world to me and my family. See you on Thursday.” And nobody can deny that he would make a far, far better president than Donald Trump, who tweeted crankily during the conference’s focus on his failures during the coronavirus pandemic: “Tell the Dems that we have more Cases because we do FAR more Testing than any other Country!” Biden, who pointedly repositioned his face mask over his mouth and nose after accepting, demonstrates more leadership in his left toenail.

Nevertheless, it’s worth remembering that not everyone was on the Biden love train tonight. Former Democratic presidential candidate and source of many tongue-in-cheek memes Marianne Williamson tweeted during the convention: “I’m sorry but they did not address racism. They showed a lot of beautiful pictures of POC and made references to BLM, but there was not one mention of an actual policy to help end systemic racism. It’s like binge-watching a Marriott commercial.” When someone snapped back that she would “fall in line” and that not everyone wanted to call up Jacinda Ardern and say, “You’re on, girlfriend”, she simply responded: “You know what? I was right.” Considering the current global situation, that’s pretty difficult to argue with.

Joe Biden is the short-term future of the Democratic party: that much is obvious. But tonight, AOC and the other women getting accustomed to getting into John Lewis’s “good trouble” gently gestured toward a different kind of long-term future. Like her compatriots — and like Sanders himself — Ocasio-Cortez ultimately congratulated Biden, and made it clear that she would campaign enthusiastically for him from now on. And it is, of course, normal at a convention that not everyone will speak in support of the official nominee. But while the DNC voiceover described John McCain picnicking in Biden’s back yard, others tweeted wistfully about a socialist democratic future. If Ocasio-Cortez’s speech is anything to go by, we know exactly who’ll be leading it.