Donald Trump has been busy lately using the nickname “Comrade Kamala Harris” to suggest his Democratic opponent is an anti-American communist. A Republican charging a Democrat with being a communist or socialist or big government liberal isn’t new. What is new is a Republican Party led by Trump — who has repeatedly made offensive remarks and encouraged outrageous actions — losing the patriotism mantle to the Democrats.
In her Democratic National Convention speech, Harris tried to seize that mantle without wielding any hammers or sickles. Key passages show her redrawing the political lines that used to divide Democrats and Republicans:
• With this election, our nation has a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism, and divisive battles of the past. A chance to chart a New Way Forward. Not as members of any one party or faction. But as Americans.
While Harris avoided any pointed “Sister Souljah” moves (a deliberately picked fight with the left to prove one’s political pragmatism to voters in the middle), she did echo Bill Clinton’s call in the 1992 campaign for a non-ideological “Third Way” philosophy of governance.
She also avoided ideological labels such as “liberal” or “progressive” to describe herself or “far right” or “right-wing” to demonise her opponent. But she did pledge to be “a president who leads. And listens. Who is realistic. Practical. And has common sense.”
When introducing herself to voters who generally don’t pay close attention to politics, she didn’t want to be seen through an ideological lens.
• That’s why we will create what I call an opportunity economy. An opportunity economy where everyone has a chance to compete and a chance to succeed. Whether you live in a rural area, small town, or big city.
Her repeated use of “opportunity economy” is notable because Harris long championed the notion of “equity.” Just last week, Fox News examined Harris’s years-long embrace of equity as a policy goal. She has argued that the concept means “giving people the resources and the support they need so that everyone can be on equal footing and compete on equal footing.” But conservatives attacked her for sounding like Karl Marx.
“Equity” is a polarising concept. So Harris has excised it from her campaign vocabulary in favour of the politically safer “opportunity.”
• [Trump] intends to enact what, in effect, is a national sales tax — call it a Trump tax — that would raise prices on middle-class families by almost four thousand dollars a year. Well, instead of a Trump tax hike, we will pass a middle-class tax cut that will benefit more than one hundred million Americans.
In this passage, Harris condemns Trump’s plans for steep, across-the-board tariffs without using the word “tariff,” raising the spectre of another inflationary spike. The Biden–Harris administration has imposed some of its own tariffs, most recently on Chinese electric cars. But Harris could argue, if pressed, that targeted tariffs can work to level the playing field between American and Chinese companies and workers on certain items without the same risk of inflation from widespread tariffs.
Trump used the tariff issue to convince working-class voters that he wasn’t a traditional Republican who only cared about corporate executives. But after high inflation, working-class voters and consumers may be more open to a price-oriented anti-tariff argument.
Trump, of course, desperately wants Harris to own the high inflation in 2022 and 2023. But she may be able to flip the script.
• Last year, Joe and I brought together Democrats and conservative Republicans to write the strongest border bill in decades. The Border Patrol endorsed it. But Donald Trump believes a border deal would hurt his campaign.
So he ordered his allies in Congress to kill the deal. Well, I refuse to play politics with our security. Here is my pledge to you: As President, I will bring back the bipartisan border security bill that he killed. And I will sign it into law.
I know we can live up to our proud heritage as a nation of immigrants, and reform our broken immigration system. We can create an earned pathway to citizenship and secure our border.
Here’s the one time Harris used an ideological label to praise conservatives willing to cross the aisle and develop a workable border solution. Notably, Harris committed to signing the bill if it reached her desk, and received considerable applause from the audience of Democrats and progressives in the hall.
The mention of a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants surely soothed convention delegates and other attendees. But they signalled a willingness to give Harris political latitude to blunt Trump’s attempt to blame Harris for the past influx of migrants. (Harris did not mention Biden’s recent border crackdown, which is driving down the number of illegal crossings and asylum-seekers.)
• As Commander-in-Chief, I will ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world. I will fulfill our sacred obligation to care for our troops and their families. And I will always honour, and never disparage, their service and their sacrifice…
I will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend our forces and our interests against Iran and Iran-backed terrorists. And I will not cozy up to tyrants and dictators like Kim Jong Un, who are rooting for Trump. Because they know he is easy to manipulate with flattery and favours. They know Trump won’t hold autocrats accountable — because he wants to be an autocrat.
As President, I will never waver in defence of America’s security and ideals. Because, in the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny, I know where I stand — and where the United States of America belongs.
One challenge for a female presidential candidate is persuading voters with overt or latent sexism that she has the strength to handle the job of commander-in-chief. A candidate can assert she would, but voters do not always believe assertions.
And Democrats, male and female, are often charged with being squeamish about patriotism and unqualified praise of America, which can also make voters pause.
Trump routinely denigrates military veterans and has sought closer ties with some of the world’s worst dictators, including the communist leader of North Korea. (Et tu Comrade Trump?) This gives Harris an opening to credibly assert that she is the more patriotic candidate and warrants the trust to serve as commander-in-chief.
• I see an America where we hold fast to the fearless belief that built our nation. That inspired the world. That here, in this country, anything is possible. Nothing is out of reach. An America where we care for one another, look out for one another, and recognize that we have so much more in common than what separates us. That none of us has to fail for all of us to succeed. And that, in unity, there is strength.
Here’s Harris drawing from Walz’s emphasis in his speech on Wednesday, rooting his Minnesota record of progressive legislation in the seemingly apolitical belief that we should “look out” for our “neighbours,” as one does in a small town. She takes the concept further to argue that by looking out for one’s neighbours more, we can strengthen the nation and heal our cultural divides.
If Harris successfully reclaims and redefines patriotism and blunts Trump’s attacks regarding inflation and immigration, thereby redrawing the nation’s political fault lines and earning a decisive victory in November, she may be a better politician than anybody could have imagined one month ago. •
