Why Hillary Clinton's coronation is so thoroughly depressing

Democrats will put on a happy face at their convention. But they're secretly writhing in agony behind it.

Hillary Clinton has worked toward this for a long time.
(Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Donald Trump's coronation at last week's Republican National Convention was a grim anticlimax to America's national nightmare. But Hillary Clinton's coronation in Philadelphia this week will be deadening and dreadful in its own right.

Whereas Trump is a Republican outsider likely to go down in flames, Clinton is an odds-on favorite who represents the cankered heart of her party at its most derelict, self-serving, and conventional. If the Republicans of 2016 are busy committing suicide, the post-Obama Democrats are on life support, and the nomination of Hillary Clinton confirms they refuse to die with dignity.

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James Poulos

James Poulos is a contributing editor at National Affairs and the author of The Art of Being Free, out January 17 from St. Martin's Press. He has written on freedom and the politics of the future for publications ranging from The Federalist to Foreign Policy and from Good to Vice. He fronts the band Night Years in Los Angeles, where he lives with his son.