{"id":605,"date":"2024-11-11T11:12:42","date_gmt":"2024-11-11T11:12:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/a-tale-of-two-closing-messages-harris-offers-patriotism-rejects-trumps-chaos\/"},"modified":"2024-11-11T11:12:42","modified_gmt":"2024-11-11T11:12:42","slug":"a-tale-of-two-closing-messages-harris-offers-patriotism-rejects-trumps-chaos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/a-tale-of-two-closing-messages-harris-offers-patriotism-rejects-trumps-chaos\/","title":{"rendered":"A tale of two closing messages: Harris offers patriotism, rejects Trump\u2019s \u2018chaos\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Donald Trump\u2019s Sunday night event at Madison Square Garden quickly became scandalous<\/a> for a great many reasons, most notably the racist and misogynistic rhetoric peddled by the former president\u2019s allies. But the Republican candidate\u2019s own remarks at the gathering weren\u2019t exactly anodyne.<\/p>\n

As we\u2019ve discussed<\/a>, Trump, among other things, condemned Americans he disagrees with as \u201cthe enemy from within,\u201d while describing the media as \u201cthe enemy of the people\u201d \u2014 a phrase that echoed, among others, Joseph Stalin<\/a>. The GOP nominee also lied uncontrollably, called the United States an \u201coccupied\u201d country, peddled familiar grievances and conspiracy theories, and presented a vision to the electorate that reflected his radicalism.<\/p>\n

As Election Day 2024 neared, this was touted by his own campaign as Trump\u2019s closing message to American voters \u2014 who saw a candidate present a dark and ugly platform. The New York Times described it<\/a> as a \u201cclosing carnival of grievances, misogyny and racism.\u201d A CNN report<\/a> added that the Republican\u2019s anti-migrant rhetoric ranked alongside \u201cthe most flagrant demagoguery by a major figure in any Western nation since World War II.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s Capitol nearly four years ago. The Democrat\u2019s closing message couldn\u2019t have been more different from the one voters heard 48 hours earlier. NBC News reported<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Kamala Harris called on Americans to \u201cturn the page\u201d 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 \u201cunstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with grievance and out for unchecked power.\u201d She vowed to govern as a pragmatist by listening to everyone, including \u201cpeople who disagree with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Among other things, I was struck by the patriotism gap. Trump\u2019s closing message is rooted in a fundamentally dystopian vision: The United States, the Republican has begun saying<\/a> in recent days, is a \u201cgarbage can<\/a>.\u201d Ours is a \u201cfailing nation\u201d and a \u201cnation in decline,\u201d he\u2019s declared. Told earlier this month that America is a great country, the former president said \u2014 out loud and on the record \u2014 that he disagreed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was against this backdrop that Harris stood at the Ellipse and told the country, \u201cNearly 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

As she spoke, many of her supporters waved American flags and signs emblazoned with \u201cUSA\u201d and \u201cFreedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerica, we know what Donald Trump has in mind,\u201d Harris said. \u201cMore 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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\u2019t believe people who disagree with me are the enemy. He wants to put them in jail; I\u2019ll give them a seat at the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cI pledge to approach my work with the joy and optimism that comes from making a difference in people\u2019s lives. And I pledge to be a president for all Americans. To always put country above party and above self.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let no one say that the candidates are effectively the same and failing to offer voters a clear choice.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/picture><\/a><\/div>\n

Steve Benen<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of\u00a0MaddowBlog\u00a0and an BLN political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump\u2019s 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\u2019s allies. But the Republican candidate\u2019s own remarks at the gathering weren\u2019t exactly anodyne. As we\u2019ve discussed, Trump, among other things, condemned Americans he disagrees with as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-trump"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}