It’s not entirely comfortable, but from the standpoint of political stagecraft, watching a Democratic National Convention that adopted the most progressive platform in the last 100 years also snatch the images of patriotism and military service so effectively away from the GOP is pretty goddamn cool.

The power of some of it is lost on many of us.  There’s no question that watching a woman accept the nomination and give a speech that portrayed her as every bit the POTUS had to be especially powerful for woman who have had to deal with the restrictive power of sexism.

And for many Americans who were not born here, even those who are not Muslim, the words of Khizr Khan were extremely powerful. My very nice friend from the Philippines was in tears this morning talking about that speech. He just signed the papers for his 17 year old son to join the National Guard. So he can easily imagine himself in that place that Mr. Khan is in, having sacrificed his son for his adopted country, and yet having his loyalty questioned.

“You have sacrificed nothing.”

My friend showed me that he keeps his passport with him at all times in his wallet, in addition to his driver’s license, because he’s scared.  Trump’s rhetoric has a real effect on our fellow Americans who don’t necessarily look or sound like somebody’s idea of what an American looks or sounds like. It’s easy to forget how very personal this is for some people.

Trump’s America is not the America that they adopted.

We cannot repeat enough, with heartfelt sentiment, that this is not the America we know.