Politics
A tale of two closing messages: Harris offers patriotism, rejects Trump’s ‘chaos’
Donald Trump’s Sunday night event at Madison Square Garden quickly became scandalous for a great many reasons, most notably the racist and misogynistic rhetoric peddled by the former president’s allies. But the Republican candidate’s own remarks at the gathering weren’t exactly anodyne.
As we’ve discussed, Trump, among other things, condemned Americans he disagrees with as “the enemy from within,” while describing the media as “the enemy of the people” — a phrase that echoed, among others, Joseph Stalin. The GOP nominee also lied uncontrollably, called the United States an “occupied” country, peddled familiar grievances and conspiracy theories, and presented a vision to the electorate that reflected his radicalism.
As Election Day 2024 neared, this was touted by his own campaign as Trump’s closing message to American voters — who saw a candidate present a dark and ugly platform. The New York Times described it as a “closing carnival of grievances, misogyny and racism.” A CNN report added that the Republican’s anti-migrant rhetoric ranked alongside “the most flagrant demagoguery by a major figure in any Western nation since World War II.”
Two days later, Vice President Kamala Harris stood at the Ellipse, just a block south of the White House, at the spot where her GOP opponent deployed a violent mob to attack his own country’s Capitol nearly four years ago. The Democrat’s closing message couldn’t have been more different from the one voters heard 48 hours earlier. NBC News reported:
Kamala Harris called on Americans to “turn the page” on the Donald Trump era at a rally Tuesday, rallying thousands of voters at the site where the former president addressed the mob that attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6. On a chilly fall evening one week before Election Day, the Democratic nominee criticized her Republican rival as “unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with grievance and out for unchecked power.” She vowed to govern as a pragmatist by listening to everyone, including “people who disagree with me.”
Among other things, I was struck by the patriotism gap. Trump’s closing message is rooted in a fundamentally dystopian vision: The United States, the Republican has begun saying in recent days, is a “garbage can.” Ours is a “failing nation” and a “nation in decline,” he’s declared. Told earlier this month that America is a great country, the former president said — out loud and on the record — that he disagreed.
It was against this backdrop that Harris stood at the Ellipse and told the country, “Nearly 250 years ago, America was born when we wrested freedom from a petty tyrant. Across the generations, Americans have preserved that freedom. Expanded it. And in so doing, proved to the world that a government of, by, and for the people is strong and can endure. … They did not struggle, sacrifice, and lay down their lives, only to see us cede our fundamental freedoms, only to see us submit to the will of another petty tyrant.
“The United States of America is not a vessel for the schemes of wannabe dictators. The United States of America is the greatest idea humanity ever devised.”
As she spoke, many of her supporters waved American flags and signs emblazoned with “USA” and “Freedom.”
But also notable was the way in which the vice president reached out to voters exhausted, not only by the campaign, but also by the kind of politics Trump embraces and represents.
“America, we know what Donald Trump has in mind,” Harris said. “More chaos. More division. And policies that help those at the very top and hurt everyone else. I offer a different path. And I ask for your vote. And here is my pledge to you: I pledge to seek common ground and common sense solutions to make your lives better. I am not looking to score political points. I am looking to make progress.
“I pledge to listen to experts, to those who will be impacted by the decisions I make, and to people who disagree with me. Unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe people who disagree with me are the enemy. He wants to put them in jail; I’ll give them a seat at the table.
“I pledge to approach my work with the joy and optimism that comes from making a difference in people’s lives. And I pledge to be a president for all Americans. To always put country above party and above self.”
Let no one say that the candidates are effectively the same and failing to offer voters a clear choice.
Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an BLN political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”