Hollywood is not helping the Democrats

I cannot be the only viewer who spent most of the first hour or so of the third night of the virtual Democratic National Convention wondering whether CNN was taking an extended commercial break to allow, say, BP to tell you about their commitment to green energy. The extended clip-show format was jarring the first night, tired on the second, and on the third almost indescribably boring.

Thank goodness we have had a succession of celebrity hosts to guide us like Virgil through perdition. Where would the American electorate be without Isabella from The Young and the Restless to remind them of the horrors of income inequality?

Seriously, though: the cameos from allegedly famous persons were even more bizarre than the brief spots on climate change and gun control they interrupted. In common with, one suspects, a sizeable number of ostensibly undecided voters in Midwestern swing states, I had never heard of Billie Eilish until Wednesday. Something tells me that the demographic interested in a YouTube star dressed like it is about to eat spider guts in a Tim Burton movie does not overlap a great deal with the Obama-to-Trump swing voters the DNC is desperate to reach.

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Hollywood is not doing the Democratic Party any favors by turning what should be a straightforward election fought on unemployment, health care, education, and other kitchen-sink issues into a festival of groan-inducing wokeness. This is why the transition to Barack Obama’s sober remarks was so striking. Unlike the goofball the party hired to butcher Ben E. King’s immortal “Stand By Me” with a backing track that sounded like an old Sega game, the former president understands the American electorate.

It has been astonishing to watch the last few nights of this convention under the (admittedly ludicrous) assumption that is meant to speak to the feelings or aspirations of actual voters. For Joe Biden's sake, let's hope his campaign entertains no such illusions.