The Paw Print

By Kieran Blake, Sports Editor

In New York City on July 16, 1992, Bill Clinton, then the governor of Arkansas, accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for the presidency of the United States. He ended his acceptance speech with a sentence that would come to epitomize the Democratic Party to this day: “My fellow Americans, I end tonight where it all began for me– I still believe in a place called Hope.” This line was both a reference to Clinton’s hometown of Hope, Arkansas, as well as his belief in hope itself. Clinton would go on to defeat incumbent President George H.W. Bush in a landslide victory to become the 42nd President of the United States. When it came time for his re-election bid, Clinton again ended his acceptance speech, this time in Chicago, with the same theme: “My fellow Americans, after these four good, hard years, I still believe in a place called Hope, a place called America.”

In 2004 in Boston, an Illinois state senator by the name of Barack Obama gave a keynote address asking those in attendance a question: “Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope?” He then emphasized the importance of hope in America, bringing up the hope of slaves, immigrants, soldiers, workers and (in reference to himself) “a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too.” Obama was elected to the United States Senate that same year, and in 2008, when he launched his presidential bid, a red, white and blue portrait of his face was distributed with one word beneath it: “hope.”

This theme of hope and optimism continued to fill the atmosphere of the 2024 Democratic National Convention. President Joe Biden, in what felt like a farewell address to cap a 54-year career in politics, said, “I can honestly say I’m more optimistic about the future than I was when I was elected as a 29-year-old United States Senator.” This sense of optimism would go on to be a key point throughout the rest of the week, and it provided some much-needed hope and joy for many Democrats who, just a little over a month ago, were distraught at the likely prospect of a second Donald Trump term.

As former First Lady Michelle Obama put it on Tuesday, “Hope is making a comeback.” When she spoke, she rhetorically asked, “Something wonderfully magical is in the air, isn’t it?” She said that feeling was “the contagious power of hope.” However, she also reminded the audience, “As we embrace this renewed sense of hope, let us not forget the despair we have felt. Let us not forget what we are up against.” She urged the audience to “marry [their] hope with [their] action.” With all the hope surrounding the convention, she reminded people that it is necessary to act on that hope in order to “go higher … than [they’ve] ever gone before, as [they] elect the next President and Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.”

When former President Obama himself came out, he too capitalized on the theme of a hopeful future that had gotten him elected back in 2008. He assured Democrats, “If we work like we’ve never worked before, if we hold firm to our convictions … we will elect leaders up and down the ballot who will fight for the hopeful, forward-looking America we all believe in.” This sentiment that if they put in the work, Democrats will be able to win their respective races remained a common theme, and the overall wave of optimism that went along with it was a refreshing feeling for many Harris supporters.

On Wednesday, another former president who had campaigned on hope addressed the convention. When former President Clinton took to the stage, he too reminded Americans of the importance of optimism and joy. “One of the reasons that President-to-be Harris is doing so well is that we’re all so happy,” he said. He went on to tell voters, “If you vote for this team, if you can get them elected and let them bring in this breath of fresh air, you’ll be proud of it for the rest of your life.” He then described himself as “the man from Hope,” before saying that America needed “Kamala Harris, the president of joy, to lead us.”

When TV personality Oprah Winfrey came out to speak, she urged voters “to choose optimism over cynicism, because that’s the best of America.” She described the future as “the sweet promise of tomorrow” and enthusiastically urged voters to “choose joy.” One thing is certain. During the 2024 Democratic National Convention, those in attendance did choose optimism and joy. There was a stark contrast between the energetic roll call in Chicago this week and the more bland roll call in Milwaukee during the Republican National Convention in July.

When Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz closed out the night by accepting the vice presidential nomination, he too honed in on the ongoing theme of hope. The official theme for Wednesday night was “A Fight for Our Freedoms,” and one of those key freedoms was reproductive rights. With the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022 and the more recent blockage by Senate Republicans of a bill intended to protect women’s access to IVF, Walz spoke from experience to rally support for reproductive rights, while also touching on the theme of hope surrounding the convention. He described how he and his wife, Gwen, had struggled with infertility but were able to utilize fertility treatments. He then said, “When our daughter was born, we named her Hope!”

Whether it be in 1992 with Bill Clinton speaking about his hometown or in 2024 with Tim Walz speaking about his daughter, hope has been a key talking point for Democrats for decades now, and after the seemingly dismal prospect of another Trump term, it seems that hope has finally returned to a party that was in dire need of it. Democrats haven’t been this happy or hopeful in a long time. Just a month ago, they had hit rock bottom. They were without hope. They were without joy. Then Kamala Harris and Tim Walz came in, and they rejuvenated the Democratic Party. At the Democratic National Convention, there was overwhelming hope, and there was overwhelming joy. How Democrats choose to capitalize on this hope that many voters felt following the convention’s conclusion will be a major factor in the upcoming election. They’ve capitalized on hope many times before, but the question remains: Can they do it again?