The wildness of Trump makes it possible for Democrats to try to sell a “safe socialism,” or a politics that is consistently left-wing but doesn’t scare the horses.

It may not have been his intention, but you could be forgiven for thinking that Bill Clinton in his convention speech sought to situate Hillary on the left, while making her sound as boring as someone who has spent the entirety of her adult life attending committee meetings and serving on task forces.

In a campaign against Trump the populist, there was little risk Hillary could go too far left with her VP pick, yet she still opted for the aggressively normal Tim Kaine, a career politician who has maintained the affect of a suburban dad. He comes off like the neighbor you trust to return your borrowed rake.

The self-styled party of normality is even playing the patriotism card. In 2008, Michelle Obama notoriously declared herself proud of her country for the first time. The other day she pronounced us the greatest country on earth (i.e., no need to make it great again). Democrats routinely hit Trump for calling the military “a disaster,” and President Obama, in a speech invoking Reagan’s “shining city on a hill,” all but called Trump un-American.