Kamala Harris told the people what they wanted to hear at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and, with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, they have two months to close the deal with the rest of the country.
Some of her top lines in accepting the nomination:
“I promise to be a president for all Americans. You can always trust me to put country above party and self, to hold sacred America’s fundamental principles, from the rule of law, to free and fair elections, to the peaceful transfer of power,” she said.
Harris called Trump an “unserious man,” but said “the consequences of putting [him] back in the White House are extremely serious.”
“Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails and how he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States — not to improve your life, not to strengthen our national security — but to serve the only client he has ever had: himself,” she said.
“We know what a second Trump term would look like. It’s all laid out in Project 2025, written by his closest advisers,” Harris, noted, referring to the Heritage Foundation-led plan for the second Trump administration that the Republican nominee has unconvincingly tried to disavow.
“Its sum total is to pull our country back to the past. But America, we are not going back … We are not going back to when Donald Trump tried to cut Social Security and Medicare. We are not going back to when he tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, when insurance companies could deny people with pre-existing conditions. We are not going to let him eliminate the Department of Education that funds our public schools.
“We are not going to let him end programs like Head Start that provide preschool and child care for our children. America, we are not going back.”
Fears of large-scale protests by supporters of Palestinians did not materialize at the convention. Uncommitted Palestinian-American delegates were upset that DNC organizers wouldn’t give a Palestinian-American delegate five minutes to address the convention. But in her speech, Harris acknowledged the “heartbreaking” scale of the suffering in Gaza and declared that the Biden administration is “working to end this war”—even as the U.S. continues to transfer weaponry to the Israeli military.
“What has happened in Gaza over the past 10 months is devastating. So many innocent lives lost. Desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety, over and over again,” said Harris, who received sustained applause from the convention audience after calling for “dignity, security, freedom, and self-determination” for the Palestinian people.
Harris also pledged to “always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself” amid mounting global calls for an arms embargo.
Wrapping up, Harris called on Americans to “write the next great chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told.”
“It is now our turn to do what generations before us have done,” she said. “Guided by optimism and faith, to fight for this country we love, to fight for the ideals we cherish and to uphold the awesome responsibility that comes with the greatest privilege on Earth — the privilege and pride of being an American.”
“So let’s get out there,” she said. “Let’s fight for it.”
Harris also has consolidated her position in polls, gaining narrow leads in national polls as well as swing states, such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and she is within the polling margin of error in Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina and Georgia. But she clearly has momentum; since she entered the race on July 21, her support has increased from the base Biden left her, up 2.8 percentage points in Wisconsin, where she leads by 3 points in the Washington Post’s average of polls, to 3.9% in Arizona, where she is 1 point behind Trump. She leads Trump by an average of 2 points in national polls, as of Aug. 26.
Harris also beat Trump in the ratings, as her acceptance address was watched by 28.9 million viewers, according to Nielsen data, outdrawing Trump’s speech in Milwaukee, which drew 28.4 million viewers across 15 television networks. That likely will stick in the old man’s craw, as Trump is famously obsessed with TV ratings and the size of his crowds.
Of course, the election should not be close. Harris has served honorably as a California prosecutor, state attorney general, U.S. senator and vice president. She faces a twice-impeached former president who has been convicted of 34 felonies and is awaiting sentencing. Trump also has been found liable for sexual assault and numerous cases of fraud in New York. He faces scores of other felony charges in federal courts in D.C. and Florida and Georgia state court, which he managed to delay past the election.
Trump’s criminal record and his lack of moral character has not shamed the Republican Party. They’ll need a thorough beatdown, up and down the ballot in November, to accomplish that.
Harris and Walz are on the trail.
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We have published The Progressive Populist for nearly 30 years, starting out as a monthly and expanding to twice monthly 25 years ago, covering politics, economics and the arts for working people. The past few years have been a challenging time for publishers, as much of the “content” has moved from newspapers and magazines onto websites.
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From The Progressive Populist, September 15, 2024
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