Kamala Harris promised Americans a future that neither Donald Trump nor Joe Biden could deliver, showing how profoundly she has changed the 2024 election.
The first Black woman to claim a major party nomination on Thursday styled her “unlikely journey” to the Democratic nod as the springboard to lift the country to a new place after years being torn apart by its bitter divides.
The vice president, who no one thought would be the candidate even five weeks ago, offered voters a clear choice in a steady and patriotic Democratic National Convention address in Chicago.
Americans can take the road of “chaos and calamity” in a new term under Trump, whom she called “an unserious man” who nevertheless poses a “serious threat” to democracy and basic American freedoms.
Or, Harris said, the country can recommit to values that she evoked in detailing her upbringing as a daughter of immigrants nurtured by a loving California community of unofficial aunts, epitomized by “Freedom. Opportunity. Compassion. Dignity. Fairness. And endless possibilities.”
Instead of Trump’s American carnage and threats of retribution, Harris is presenting herself as the catalyst for America’s quintessential capacity to renew itself. The vice president leveraged her past as a prosecutor, pledging to always be “for the people” while accusing the Republican nominee of serving “the only client he has ever had: Himself.”
“With this election, our nation has a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism and divisive battles of the past,” she said.
“So, let’s get out there and let’s fight for it. Let’s get out there and let’s vote for it. And together, let’s write the next great chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told.”
But Harris, the sudden wildcard candidate now topping the Democratic ticket, is not just offering a break from Trump. She is also conjuring possibilities that were beyond Biden.
Overtaken by the ravages of age at the CNN debate in Atlanta, the 81-year-old president could neither convincingly evoke the future nor present himself as the implementer of change that so many Americans crave.
Harris, who is seeking to meet her moment despite a vice presidency that rarely soared, had not previously offered evidence that she could be a transformational political figure.
But Adrianne Shropshire, executive director of BlackPac, a Black-led advocacy organization, explained that Harris was offering a chance for “America to become its best self” after years of discord. “What are our aspirations? Who do we believe ourselves to be? How do we understand the highest ideals of this country in terms of a multi-racial democracy?”
“It’s been eight years of chaos, of destabilization, and Joe Biden became a transition point. And I think what we’re seeing right now is that people are saying: ‘We can be better than the worst version of ourselves,’ which they attribute to the Trump campaign and the Republican Party,” Shropshire said in an interview.
How five weeks can change a race
Harris leaves her convention with an exuberant, united party behind her. Democrats are electrified by the metamorphosis of the ticket, backed by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who has become America’s coach.
READ ALSO: Conservative Republican endorses Harris, calls Trump a threat to democracy
Trump wrapped his own nominating party a month ago certain that his felony-defying White House comeback bid was on course. But Harris’ rise saddled him with huge problems, as he frets over her crowds and bemoans his vanished polling leads but won’t forsake insult politics for the issues that could win him back the White House.
Yet all conventions are self-reinforcing bubbles. For Democrats, preaching joy and partying with celebrities is a risk with many people hurting after years of high prices, economic insecurity and as America’s foreign foes mock its power.
Harris and Democrats offered hope, happiness and harmony, with promises of lower prices and more housing.
Yet her convention was also a festival of style over substance. Harris, who has so far avoided one-on-one interviews and swing state town halls, hasn’t explained how she’d widen access to health care, prescription drugs, affordable housing, cheaper child care, quell corporate greed or save the environment. Voters now know more about second gentleman Doug Emhoff’s rambling voicemail before their blind date and Walz’s high school football plays than how Harris would counter China.
That policy vacuum, as well as the contempt for Trump that radiated for four days, may offer a lifeline to the Republican campaign and the hopes of an ex-president who turned victimhood and a persecution complex into a potent political force. He’s seeking to portray Harris’ proposed use of government to forge social outcomes and to cap grocery store prices as Venezuela-style socialism.
“That dark message really doesn’t gel at all with the idea that somehow the Democrats are the joyful party,” Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance told CNN’s Jake Tapper Wednesday. “There’s a lot of attacks on Donald Trump, a lot of criticism of what he’s done and what he’s said. Not a whole lot of positive vision for how Kamala Harris is going to fix the problems that plague the country.”
It’s important for campaigns to be honest about policy — not just so voters know what they are voting for, but to construct a foundation for the presidency that Harris hopes to lead once the euphoria of the campaign subsides.
Yet elections are also won by emotion, poetry and candidates who offer themselves as inspirational vessels on which voters can imprint their aspirations. This year, a message that proffers voters a way to end Trump’s eight years of daily assaults on the national psyche may get Harris to the 50%-plus threshold needed to win the White House — a level the GOP nominee has never reached.
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