Harris Takes Charge

Kamala Harris Nomination Acceptance Speech

Chicago IL August 22,2024

The nominee did not wear suffragette white. She settled down the ecstatic crowd with the admonition “OK let’s get to business.” The business at hand was to explain how her upbringing shaped her character, to attest to the absence of character in her opponent, and above all to demonstrate her capacity to wield the powers of the presidency. Her gender and heritage were beside the point and obvious at any rate.

Harris credited her world view and ethic to her mother. She sketched sepia-toned memories of growing up in the flatlands of Oakland CA, where neighbors “tended their lawns with pride.” She recycled her “For the People” verbiage from her 2020 presidential campaign, now adding the contrast between her single career client, the people, with Donald Trump’s, himself. She linked the bio section of her talk to the improbable events of the previous month by noting that she was “no stranger to unlikely journeys.”  

Harris found a new adjective to describe Trump, which was not an easy task after nine years of him and four nights of Democratic vilifications. She called him “an unserious man” and dangerously so. She indicted him for January 6 and for killing a bipartisan immigration reform bill so he could run on the issue, a thrust intended to block that possibility. She spent extra time lighting into his culpabilities and MAGA intentions regarding the retraction of reproductive rights, concluding a policy-specific passage with the punch line, “They are out of their minds.”

Harris was thin on the topic of taxes and spending, laying down a placeholder by pledging her commitment to forging an “opportunity economy” for the middle class that will include a tax cut for them. She said very little as well about climate change, energy, and the environment. She indicated “the way forward” involving policies that benefit working women and children, part of Biden’s original Build Back Better legislation scotched by Senators Manchin and Sinema and never accepted by the GOP. “The way forward,” the umbrella phrase for her policy agenda, pairs well of course with the campaign battle cry “We are not going back.”

The night’s speaking schedule built a ramp for Harris to ascend as the genuine national security candidate in the race. Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta pointed out that she stands squarely within the post-World War II consensus on world affairs along with every other president except Trump. Arizona Congressman and Senate candidate Ruben Gallego recounted his service in combat and brought a veritable platoon of veterans onto the stage with him. Former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger, another veteran, told his party faithful watching at home that the Democrats were just as patriotic as they, to which the audience in the house waved American flags and chanted “USA,” as they had all evening.

As Harris spoke about the military her tone, strong and supple throughout, hardened. (She smiled often but did not uncork one of her trademark laughs. This was a business meeting.) She thundered:

As vice president, I have confronted threats to our security, negotiated with foreign leaders, strengthened our alliances and engaged with our brave troops overseas. As commander in chief, I will ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world.

A few sentences later:

I will never waver in defense of America’s security and ideals, because in the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny, I know where I stand and I know where the United States belongs.

In her peroration Harris fiercely compared the MAGA outlook on America with that of her mother:

You know, our opponents in this race are out there every day denigrating America, talking about how terrible everything is. Well, my mother had another lesson she used to teach: Never let anyone tell you who you are. You show them who you are.

With this sturdy if unlyrical address, and with the convention show as a whole, Kamala Harris showed she has assumed the leadership of her political party. It is an impressive but incomplete achievement. She has yet to assemble a winning coalition of voters. More speaking to come.