As you see from the News2Share video, “unity” was hardly the theme outside the convention hall. Protests were sizable. Anger was real (it’s hard to imagine 1968 America outpaced 2024 in quantities of “Fuck you!” moments). I’ll leave judgment about whether or not Milbank was right about the “farce” factor to observers who were there, but I imagine those with memories of the 1968 convention will be able to sniff out some differences just from the above video. A generation ago, protesters of a certain age were more likely to talk about shitting themselves under fire in overseas jungles or at receipt of their draft numbers than after a tussle with Chicago police. Here, instead of “The whole world is watching,” the whole world wasn’t watching a protester comment, “They made me shit my pants! Good fucking job!”

There will be readers who’ll roll their eyes at the ubiquitous hammer-and-sickle signage and other protest tactics shown above, but the crucial fact is that there was a significant protest presence, and it was simply cleaved out of the national discussion. Note also that the Democrats successfully tamed critics like Sanders and booted others like Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to another party, splintering its intramural opposition in advance of what might otherwise have been a far more contentious week.

The 2024 DNC may be remembered not just as a moment when the party conquered the problem of visual protest, but also for the party’s successful restoration of the “smoke-filled room” method of selecting nominees.