The excitement of starting over, while everything remains to be done and done together. Kamala Harris closed the Democratic Convention, marking the start of a new beginning for the party and the country. “With this election, our nation has a precious opportunity to shed bitterness, cynicism and divisive conflict and chart a new path forward. Not as members of a party or faction, but as Americans,” Harris said, reaching out to all of American society.
The candidate drew a horizon in which all of America is included and in which the end of the polarization that began in 2015 with the emergence of Donald Trump: “Let's write together the next great chapter of the greatest story ever told.” The Democrat took the space that Trump had decided to leave empty during his acceptance speech in Milwaukee: that of reconciliation. After being shot in Pennsylvania, the tycoon was to give a speech calling for unity. But in the end, the only unity he was calling for was his own.
It remains to be seen whether swing voters will finally accept the hand Harris has extended to them. While the United Center State has vibrated with the presidential candidate's every word, the ones he really sought to convince with this idea of turning the page were the voters who are unaffiliated with any party and who will be key in November.
Just as a month and a day have passed since the Sunday afternoon when Joe Biden has announced that he is withdrawing from the election race.Harris delivered her acceptance speech. At their feet, many attendees and delegates were dressed in white, the color of the suffragettes. It was a gesture loaded with symbolism and resonated with the idea that Harris would give women across the country the power to make decisions about their own bodies. An issue that could not be missed during her speech as president, since it was her main portfolio as vice president.
“Believe me, America can only be truly prosperous if Americans are fully able to make their own decisions about their own lives. Today, in America, there are too many women who cannot make those decisions,” Harris defended. Once again, the Democrat approached the issue of abortion from the perspective of the right to liberty.
Throughout her speech, Harris intertwined her personal life with the story of the American dream. The Democrat recalled her origins as the daughter of a mother who left India at age 19 to seek a better life in California. “We’ve always known that a strong middle class is the key to the success of America. This is personal for me, I come from the middle class,” she said.
Among many references to her mother’s lessons, Harris recalled that as an Indian woman “and with an accent,” she never let labels intimidate her. “Don’t let anyone tell you who you are: show them what you are,” the Democrat quoted. It’s a lesson he now wants to apply to a society that tends to pigeonhole others into different labels. Most are based on prejudice. “We’re going to teach each other and the world who we are and what we stand for: freedom, opportunity, compassion, dignity, justice and infinite possibility,” he said.
Her story is that of a young girl, the daughter of immigrants and of modest origins, who could become the first black president of the United States. The contrast is striking with the life path of Donald Trump, born and raised in the abundance of a billionaire family. “Trump is not really fighting for the middle class,” Harris said, promising a tax cut for “the middle class that would benefit 100 million Americans.”
The party of change of power
Throughout her speech, Harris spoke from the perspective of the party of change. It’s one of many parallels Democrats have drawn to Barack Obama’s 2007 campaign. But with a slight and significant nuance: When Obama presented himself as change, he did so after eight years of Republican George Bush’s presidency. Harris is doing so despite her party being the one in power since 2020.
The contradiction is, however, blurred by the sense of fresh air brought by the replacement of Biden by Harris and the fact that Trump's shadow continues to be long. Before ending his term, the former president had the responsibility of leaving behind a Republican-majority Supreme Court. In this way, the continuity of his agenda can be ensured thanks to judicial resources. The repeal of Roe v. Wade -which protected abortion- dates back to 2022, when the Democrats had already been in power for two years, and Trump has always boasted that it was achieved thanks to him.
Unlike Trump, he also raised concerns about a possible second term for the tycoon if he wins next November. “Donald Trump is a very unserious man,” he said. “But the consequences of Donald Trump returning to the White House are very serious.” Among that list of consequences is Project 25, which you cited. He also accused the former president of being an “autocrat.”
Gaza, “devastating” but without the right to speak
The war in Gaza has loomed over the Democratic convention since day one. Pro-Palestinian organizations have taken it upon themselves to bring the conflict to the doors of the United Center. and where the protesters failed to arrive were the 30 delegates for the Gaza ceasefire, the result of more than 700,000 protest votes cast in the party primaries.
After gaining notoriety with the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the progressive wing of the grassroots asked Harris to be more specific. Without departing from the official discourse regarding her partner, the candidate once again affirmed that “the dimension of suffering in Gaza is devastating.”
“President Biden and I are working to end this war so that Israel is safe, the hostages are freed, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom, and self-determination,” he said.
These remarks do not seem credible after the Democratic Party rejected the request of the 30 non-binding delegates to have a Palestinian-American take the floor to speak. These delegates represent more than 700,000 votes in protest of the Gaza war that were cast in the party's primaries.
The denial grew even more serious after Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, one of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas in the October 7 attacks, took the stage Wednesday. The young man's mother spoke for 10 minutes about the hell they have been going through since her son's abduction. The woman broke down in tears on stage as the audience surrounded her, chanting, “Bring them home.”
Goldberg could have explained her suffering, but the Palestinian victims did not. The refusal to allow a Palestinian-American to address the stadium represents the first crack in Harris' presidential image, which seeks to govern for all Americans.