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People, future, Trump: Democrats narrow down on convention message
Trump strips away people’s freedoms, Harris has fought her entire career for freedom. A second Trump term will be more extreme and dangerous than the first, Harris will lead America into a brighter future
Chicago: Donald Trump puts himself first, Democrats put Americans first. Trump believes America’s best days are behind the country, Kamala Harris believes the best days lie ahead. Trump strips away people’s freedoms, Harris has fought her entire career for freedom. A second Trump term will be more extreme and dangerous than the first, Harris will lead America into a brighter future.
This four-fold contrast will be the central message during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago that kicks off on Monday night, local time, within the larger theme of “For the people, for the future” that will guide the event, according to the Democratic National Committee.
Outlining the themes of each of the four convention days, a party release said that Monday night will revolve around the Joe Biden presidency and its work for the people. Biden, who unhappily dropped out of the race after sustained party pressure, will be the star speaker of the convention’s first day as the party comes together to mark his term in office and thank him for his decision.
Biden, his wife Jill and former Secretary of State and 2016 presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, will address the delegates, while the evening will be hosted, according to a CNN report, by Tony Goodwin, an actor who played the role of the president in the series Scandal. The night will also see three women who have suffered as a result of the Supreme Court overturning the national protection to abortion narrate their stories.
On Tuesday, the theme is “A Bold Vision for America’s Future”, where the star speakers will be former Chicago residents, Barack and Michelle Obama. “Standing in stark contrast to the Trump-Vance Project 2025 agenda designed to take us backwards, the Harris-Walz ticket presents a brighter vision where everyone will have a chance not just to get by, but to get ahead,” the party release said.
Project 2025 is a document put together by Heritage Foundation, a conservative thinktank, that was first projected as a blueprint for the future Trump administration. But its radical Right proposals, including a complete dismantling of the federal bureaucracy, expansion of presidential power and withdrawal of the abortion pill mifepristone from the market, have alienated swing voters and forced Trump to distance himself from the project and even dismiss it. Democrats have continued to warn that Project 2025 represents the real agenda, claimed it promises a national ban on abortion, and point to the fact that its authors have worked with Trump and he has constantly lauded the Heritage Foundation leadership.
Wednesday’s focus is “A fight for our freedoms”, placing what has become the Harris campaign’s key definition of what’s at stake in this election centre stage. The party release states, “Vice President Harris has spent her entire career fighting for Americans’ freedoms. In Governor Tim Walz, Vice President Harris chose as her running mate a champion for America’s working families and a staunch defender of those same fundamental freedoms. Donald Trump spent his four years in office fighting to strip our rights away, and he’s once again running on an extreme agenda to go even farther in turning back the clock on all the freedoms we hold dear.”
Walz will speak on Wednesday, as the Minesota governor, former Congressman, an army veteran, and a former school teacher and football coach introduces himself to the nation on the biggest stage of his career. The Harris campaign appears to hope that Walz’s cordial and jovial style, midwestern roots, and progressive track record in the state will galvanise voters, especially when pitted against the Republican nominee JD Vance whose past statements have alienated swing voters, particularly women. Former US President Bill Clinton is also slated to speak on the penultimate night of the convention. The Indian-origin actor and producer Mindy Kailing, whose video of cooking dosa with Harris during the 2020 elections went viral, will host the evening.
And Thursday is the final night when Harris will accept the nomination and define her candidacy and the race to the American people. The theme of the evening is “For our future”, with the party claiming that a second Trump term “would be even more dangerous and more extreme than the first one”. The evening will be hosted by actor Kerry Washington.
Asked about her speech during a campaign tour in Pennsylvania, Harris said it was almost done, she would spend the next few days making tweaks, and the speech would revolve around the “promise of America” and how everyone was in it together. Harris also claimed, despite an improvement in the polls and a more optimistic vibe in Democratic ranks, that they were the underdogs in the election. “I very much consider us the underdog. We have a lot of work to do to earn the vote of the American people. That’s why we are on this bus tour today, and we are going to be traveling this country as we have been, and talking with folks, listening to folks and hopefully earning their votes over the next 79 days.”
Harris’s speech will be keenly watched not just for the manner in which she tells her life story to the American people, but also the policy position she outlines. On Friday, in a speech in North Carolina, Harris gave a glimpse into her economic platform with a strong focus on what’s being termed the “care economy”, including child tax credit, and affordable housing, including financial support to first time home buyers. But she has been circumspect about offering more details on issues such as foreign policy, energy and environmental policy, border policy, all of which are central lines of attack from the Republicans.
How Harris balances claiming credit for the accomplishments of the Biden administration while maintaining a degree of distance from its more unpopular legacy, including Israel’s war in Gaza that will draw protesters in Chicago, will also be a test for the new candidate as she gets ready the most important week of her political life.
