The language shift
Seventy-three days to go…
The electricity of the Democratic Convention was palpable and thrilling. We were confident it would be. Old favorites and best orators (Barack and Michelle Obama, Bill and Hilary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey), younger politicians, talented musicians and performers, and impressive Republicans who spoke of their concerns about Donald Trump and their belief in Kamala Harris, whipped up the fervor. President Biden was repeatedly thanked for all he has done. None of this was a surprise.
My favorite speaker was Doug Emhoff, Kamala Harris’s husband and potential first First Gentleman, warm and self-deprecating, who instantly humanized Ms. Harris not because of her story of being raised by an immigrant single mother, but thanks to their romance launched through a blind date, and their ten-year marriage. She fits right in, has won the hearts of step-children, and cooks a mean chili relleno for Christmas and a brisket for Passover. This blended family’s sense of humor and groundedness became much clearer and we loved them for it.
Vice-president Harris’s acceptance speech showed she can command a crowd of 100,000 and is completely in charge when it comes to protecting the oppressed and prosecuting the wicked. She was sent by President Biden to alert President Zelensky to Russia’s imminent invasion of Ukraine and expresses unambiguous commitment to NATO partners. She voiced her deep compassion for the Palestinians of Gaza and determination to get to a ceasefire, while reasserting the US’s longstanding guarantee of the existence of Israel, Israel’s right to defend itself, and the US’s support of that right. With regard to immigration, she will reinstate the bipartisan bill that failed to make it through congress because Donald Trump withheld his nod from his followers. Her economic goals are oriented to the needs of the middle class through an “opportunity economy,” specifically addressing housing, grocery prices, and child allowances.
But the subtext of the Convention, which actually wasn’t a subtext at all but rather a supertext, was the change in vocabulary and messaging. Firstly, patriotism has been reclaimed by the Democratic Party. During the 1960s and early 1970s, with the Left’s opposition to the Vietnam War, the Democratic Party stopped relying on appeals to patriotism and freedom. Over the years, those words have become the possession of Republicans. This week the Democrats took them back and asserted them for all Americans.
Reproductive rights – not a new topic but a tweaking in terminology – were perhaps more publicly asserted than many of us had heard before in such a venue. This is no longer just about abortion or choice. Heart-rending speeches told how the Dobbs decision of 2022, which removed nationwide parameters on abortion that all states had to adhere to, has now left it to states to formulate their own policies on reproductive rights. Twenty-two states have since taken away the right to abortion, a policy so heavily enforced that doctors are frightened to minister to women having miscarriages for fear they will be accused of carrying out an abortion. Some of these same states threaten to make it impossible to seek abortion in another state, and some threaten to take away the right to in vitro fertilization. While many of us would take the view that abortion should be rare, we do not believe the state should have this much control over people’s personal decisions. Three high-profile speakers – Michelle Obama, Tim Walz and Tammy Duckworth – spoke of the pain of infertility and how they would not have their children were it not for in vitro or other similar measures. It was all out there.
Another shift in language appeared in the way the white, rural middle class was honored repeatedly, most notably in the person of Ms. Harris’s chosen running mate, Governor Tim Walz, with frequent references to his plaid shirts, football coaching, high school teaching, hunting, and his winning of his seat in Congress from a traditionally red (Republican) district. Harris, Walz, Emhoff, both Obamas and many others emphasized their roots in families where resources were limited, where hard work, after school jobs, and perseverance were the values that got them through. As they all underlined, it is only in this country that people of such humble beginnings have the real possibility to make their lives count on the national stage. While American success stories are often recounted in terms of accumulated wealth, these people were telling a different American story, of public service and offering a helping hand to others. The emphasis on ordinary folks might seem to be a no-brainer for the Democratic Party. It was germane for Franklin Roosevelt in the Depression years, and is central for President Biden. But this is an absolutely crucial plank for the party going forward. The Democratic Party must turn the page from being understood as the party of the elite, a problem that made it easy for Mr. Trump’s false populism to make false promises to the middle-class and the left-behinds.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, in the past five weeks, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have changed the Democratic Party’s language in relation to Donald Trump. As Ms. Harris said in her acceptance speech, Donald Trump is an “unserious” man, even though the consequences of his being elected would be serious. Harris and Walz have helped the party and the nation joke about Donald Trump. “Weird” was only their first foray in this regard. Barack Obama picked up the theme when he kidded about Mr. Trump’s obsession with crowd size. At one point Harris said, of the Republicans, “They must be out of their minds.” The Democratic Convention broke the spell of heaviness and rancor that Donald Trump has been able to cast over this country.
And then there was the joy. The word “joy” was used repeatedly, perhaps over-used, in the past week. But the eruption of joy was a proclamation that, in the words of Maryland senate candidate Angela Alsobrooks, we are “frozen in fear” no longer.