The memory of what happened and the warning of what could happen again. Kamala Harris has given her final campaign speech from the Ellipse, the same point on the National Mall where on January 6, 2021, a defeated Donald Trump at the polls shouted to his followers: “If you don’t fight like demons, you will no longer have a country.” .
Then, the agitated mass headed towards the Capitol to storm it. This Tuesday night, a week before the elections, Harris called from there for the unity of the country to preserve the principle of freedom on which the United States was founded.
“Those who came before us […] They did not fight, sacrifice and give their lives just to see us give up our fundamental freedoms. They didn’t do that just to see us submit to the will of another petty tyrant. “This United States is not a springboard for the schemes of aspiring dictators,” Harris defended before an exultant crowd waving American flags and holding signs with the acronym USA. According to the Democrat’s campaign, some 75,000 people were gathered there tonight. Although the previous estimate was about 40,000.
By addressing the nation from the same place where Trump instigated the assault on the Capitol, the Democrat sought to further widen the contrast between her words and those of the magnate: “He is the person who was in this same place almost four years ago and sent an armed mob to the United States Capitol to overturn the will of the people in a free and fair election, which they knew they had lost – the Democrat recalled – It is time to stop pointing fingers and start uniting. It’s time to turn the page on drama and conflict, fear and division. “It is time for a new generation of leadership in America.”
Without needing to use adjectives or accompany her name with any qualifiers, Harris has painted one of the darkest portraits of Trump to date. He is no longer the “egomaniac” who only thinks about himself, or the “grandpa” whose delusions are worrying, as Barack Obama said in Tucson. Nor is he the convicted criminal in front of the prosecutor. He is the man who has a list of enemies for when he returns to power, the one who speaks of the “enemy within,” the individual who watched the assault on the Capitol “from the White House” and when “the staff informed him that the crowd wanted to kill to his own vice president. Trump responded with two words: ‘So what?’”
In recent days, Harris had begun to attack Trump from the same place that Joe Biden had been doing before resigning from the candidacy: fear of his return. With this turn, starting to label the magnate a “fascist”, instead of reducing him to an “egomaniac”, the Democrat ran the risk of repeating the mistakes of her predecessor. But tonight he has been able to point out Trump as a threat to democracy and yet neither his voice nor his message have been overshadowed. On the contrary, above the darkness, he tried to claim the future and hope.
“This is not a presidential candidate who is thinking about how to improve your life. He is someone unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed by resentment and in search of uncontrolled power. Donald Trump has spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other. That’s how he is. But, America, I am here tonight to say: that is not our identity.” Harris has offered herself not as the alternative candidate for those who do not want Trump in power, but as the candidate for those who want to build a new country that leaves behind the polarization that began with the tycoon’s emergence into politics.
When the democrat has pronounced the ““We are not going back.” (We are not going back) did so not as a campaign slogan, but with the desire to build a new movement around a much greater feat: that of choosing between moving forward as a democratic nation or falling into the jaws of a much darker future. Although it is an idea that Democrats have already been promoting throughout the campaign, tonight it resonated much more strongly.
“In less than 90 days, either Donald Trump or I will be in the Oval Office. On day one, if elected, Donald Trump will walk into that office with a list of enemies. When I’m elected, I’ll come in with a to-do list. Full of priorities about what I will achieve for the American people,” Harris said. Although he began his speech by focusing on Trump, he also outlined what kind of project he has for the country. The Democrat is aware that many voters still feel that they do not know enough about her and, once again, she has put her economic and border plan on the table.
“When I am president, we will quickly remove those who arrive here illegally, we will prosecute the cartels and we will give the border patrol the support they so need,” Harris said on immigration matters. This promise to “quickly” remove migrants who cross the border illegally confirms once again the turn toward a heavy hand that Democrats have taken in recent years. Trump, without being in the White House, has been able to continue setting the agenda on the immigration issue. In fact, what Harris has promised is already being carried out: the executive order that Biden signed in June has accelerated deportations to windows of less than 24 hours.
The hardening of positions in Harris’ candidacy, which reflect her desire to occupy a political center to reach the undecided and Republicans dissatisfied with Trump, could also be perceived in other statements such as: “As commander in chief, I will ensure “that the United States will always have the strongest and most lethal fighting force in the world.” The phrase is not new, it was uttered for the first time in Chicago, but it is still surprising that it comes out of the mouth of a Democratic candidate and reflects the change in the American political framework in recent years.
After becoming the generational replacement that the Democratic Party needed, Harris has presented herself as the generational replacement that the United States needs: “I am committed to listening: to the experts, to those who will be affected by the decisions I make and to the people who disagree with me. Unlike Trump, I don’t think people who disagree with me are the enemy. He wants to put them in jail. I will give them a place at the table.”
The image that Harris wants to highlight a week before the elections is that of a strong leader who is capable of leading a transition towards a country that leaves behind the divisions that now seem almost irreconcilable. National polls continue to show a very tight fight, with 48.1% for Harris and 46.7% for Trump, according to the Fivethirtyeight aggregator.
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