The Obamas view Harris as the hope of a post-Trump America
Former first lady Michelle Obama speaks during the Democratic National Convention Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Day 2 for the Democrats was still all about the feels. And the Obamas were there to put it all into context.
“Something wonderfully magical is in the air, isn’t it,” Michelle Obama said from the podium of the Democratic National Convention as she began her speech. “We’re feeling it here in the arena, but it’s spreading across the country.”
Michelle Obama said it was a feeling that had been buried for far too long in America. “It’s the contagious power of hope, the anticipation, the energy, the exhilaration of once again being on the cusp of a brighter day, the chance to vanquish the demons of fear, division and hate that have consumed us, and continue pursuing the unfinished promise of this great nation, the dream that our parents and grandparents fought and died and sacrificed for. America, hope is making a comeback.”
The crowd cheered. Michelle Obama was good. But then, Barack Obama went deeper.
Former President Barack Obama speaks during the Democratic National Convention Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
The two key speakers were the one-two punch of Day 2 at the DNC with messages that weren’t just for giddy convention-goers, but for an entire nation seeking to end a post-Trump world.
What would that look like?
Trump World should have ended in 2020, but the events of Jan. 6 meant it never ended. Add all the litigation that came out of the first Trump administration and the Trumpian vibe was like a smoky smell too hard to get out of the American fabric.
The politics of division and hate, kept alive by Trump followers, became the norm. It’s that shared dark vision of America that has people thinking things like: Everything is bad. Drug dealers and gangs are crossing the border. People are lurking in the wrong bathrooms. Men want to compete with women. Immigrants destroying the blood supply. Text books are full of anti-American rhetoric. America is losing and falling fast. And you know we’d be doing much better if we just had a higher birth rate to offset those immigrants!
It’s the fears of those under the grip of Trump, an America of “I win, you lose,” a selfish world where the pronouns are “I” and “me,” and not “we.”
Unfortunately, it’s not the way we can sustain a modern American democracy of hope, choice, freedom, justice and equality.
That’s the frame of the Harris vision of America, and the reason for all the joy and exuberance we’re seeing emanate from Chicago week.
But if the joy and exuberance of Kamala Harris is indeed for real, how are supporters of this campaign to engage all those who doubt her. You know, the ones who listen to Trump and believe it when he calls Harris “unintelligent,” or a “communist,” or when Trump claims he’s “better looking than her.”
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz appear at the Fiserv Forum during a campaign rally in Milwaukee, Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)
Isn’t that last phrase upholding the supremacy of the white patriarchy?
Michelle Obama said she knows all too well about how Trump distorts the truth.
“For years, Donald Trump did everything in his power to try to make people fear us,” she said. “See, his limited, narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hardworking, highly educated, successful people who happen to be Black.”
People laughed and cheered. Michelle Obama tagged it. “I want to know, who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those Black jobs.”
The convention crowd roared even louder.
“It’s the same old con, doubling down on ugly misogynistic racist lies as a substitute for real ideas and solutions that will actually make people’s lives better.”
She said Trump’s ideas like cutting back on health care, or the Department of Education, were hurtful to people and were “unpresidential.”
“It’s up to all of us to be the antidote to the darkness and division,” she said. “I don’t care how you identify politically, whether you’re Democrat or Republican, Independent or none of the above. This is our time to stand up for what we know in our hearts is right.”
Deeper than the heart
Barack Obama said the best approach to deal with your political adversaries is to see them as part of your American family. You tried it last Thanksgiving? Try it again.
Former President Barack Obama walks from the podium after speaking on the second day of Democratic National Convention at the United Center, in Chicago, Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024. (Mike Segar/Pool via AP)
“If a parent or grandparent occasionally says something that makes us cringe, we don’t automatically assume they’re bad people,” Barack Obama said from the podium. “We recognize that the world is moving fast, that they need time and maybe a little encouragement to catch up. Our fellow citizens deserve the same grace we hope they’ll extend us.”
Grace? Somehow we stopped employing that in the era of Trump-infected politics. If we are to have a post-Trump World, we need to do more of that.
“That’s how you build a true democratic majority, one that can get things done. And by the way, that does not matter to the people in this country, the rest of the world is watching to see if we can actually pull it off,” Barack Obama said.
They don’t call democracy an “experiment” for nothing.
Said Barack Obama, “No nation has ever tried to build a democracy as big and as diverse as ours with immigrants over decades coming from around the world,” and where our allegiances and our community are defined not by race or blood, but by a common creed.”
It’s the reason upholding our values makes a difference.
If we fail to do so, Barack Obama was quick to warn of the consequences. “The world’s a little dimmer, and dictators and autocrats feel emboldened, and over time, we become less safe. We shouldn’t be the world’s policeman, and we can’t eradicate every cruelty and injustice in the world, but America can be and must be, a force for good, discouraging conflict, fighting disease, promoting human rights, protecting the planet from climate change, defending freedom, brokering peace. That’s what Kamala Harris believes, and so do most Americans.”
The convention audience roared with approval with each phrase Obama added to his list.
But then he brought it to a dead silence that made people stop and think.
“I know these ideas can feel pretty naive,” he said. “We live in a time of such confusion and rancor, with a culture that puts a premium on things that don’t last. Money. Fame. Status. Likes. We chase the approval of strangers on our phones. We build all manners of walls and fences around ourselves and then wonder why we feel so alone.”
It was more than a swipe at the digital world and enslavement to technology. It was a call for a more human and caring democracy.
“We don’t trust each other as much because we don’t take the time to know each other, and in that space between us, politicians and algorithms teach us to caricature each other, control each other and fear each other.”
The good news, Obama said, is that you can see a resurgence of the “ties that bind” in cities and small towns across America, because “the vast majority of us do not want to live in a country that’s bitter and divided. We want something better.”
Something better is why people were finding joy in the Harris campaign, he said. “We’re not alone.”
Something better is a post-Trump world that is a return to a simpler time where we work together, look out for each other. It’s about being one America.
Barack Obama called it “a restoration of what Lincoln called on the eve of civil war, our ‘bonds of affection’ . . . An America that taps what he called ‘the better angels of our nature.’”
Bonds of affection? It’s a love message. A love of America, of democracy and each other.
“That’s what this election is about,” he said. “If we talk to our friends, if we listen to our neighbors, if we work like we’ve never worked before…we will elect leaders up and down the ballot, who will fight for the hopeful, forward-looking America we all believe in and together, we too, will build a country that is more secure, and more just, more equal and more free.”
There were plenty of other great things on Day 2, like the DJ-accompanied roll call that made vote counting a party; the simultaneous rally in Wisconsin where Harris and Walz beamed in to say hello to conventioneers; the speech of Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, who spoke authentically about his love of spouse in a way you don’t see Trump talk about Melania, and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, talking about her IVF experience while dumping on Trump and his “old cadet bone spurs.”
But on Day 2 at the DNC, it was the Obamas who delivered the soul, as they put all the joy conventioneers were feeling into context.
That’s how high the stakes are in 2024.
Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. He writes a column for the Inquirer.net’s US Channel. See his micro-talk show on YouTube.com/@emilamok1 Contact: www.amok.com
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