The Summer of 24

A trip into America, a nation gearing up for a wild election season

The election season in the US is in full swing and no better evidence of that than walking into a random Wal-Mart and seeing an older lady wearing a t-shirt that read: ‘I’m voting for the felon’. I did not get a chance to snap a photo of her so you have to make do with another piece of Americana, in this case the Hoot Owl cafe in Ponderay, Idaho. It was great to travel around the ‘Gem State’ for a little bit and discover its unique places like this cafe which serves up traditional fare at inflation-proof low prices and insane portion sizes, so if you are ever in that area, go visit it.

So while we had a nice break, the election was of course never far away and driving back last night we took in the Kamala Harris acceptance speech. It was the one thing we’ve all been waiting for as, despite being vice president for four years, no one was really able to define her as a person and politician. That of course was the result of the surprise way by which Joe Biden anointed her to be her successor, no primary season testing was done on Harris, so to speak.

In her relatively short speech which clocked in at a mere 37 minutes, she went out of her way to introduce herself and walked us through her upbringing and career to date. In doing so she built up towards her progressive values while carefully ensuring she did not stray too far to the left. The speech catered not so much to all the excited and energized Democrats in the auditorium, but to the independent voters at home who are still trying to make sense of it all. And in doing that she centred the pitch on the economic opportunity and progress offered to everyone by underlining the uniqueness of the American dream. If you lifted out those parts of the speech, any politician of any stripe could have uttered them.

This was a shortcut to nail down the undecided voters as the speech lacked in real detail. There were no clear pointers as to how that opportunity could be unlocked for the average American. Rumours about ‘price controls’ created a real panic earlier in the week, so Harris last night pivoted to a much safer ‘middle-class’ tax break. Another area where she had to tread carefully was of course immigration and she tried to put the blame for all the failures on Trump who through his proxies in congress had frustrated a bi-partisan deal. That may be true, but it does not let the Biden-Harris team off the hook: they still had a duty to enforce existing laws and Harris will go into a rough campaign season with a questionable record on immigration.

Everyone of course wondered what she would say about Israel and Gaza where again some of the news of Harris meeting with those that want an arms embargo was flying around. She nailed the Biden position with unmitigated support for Israel which got a lot of applause, but followed it up with equal support for a possible Palestinian state which got, somewhat worrying, even louder applause. It was a safe option that took the middle, but it lacked the moral clarity required to define the larger conflict that is enveloping the Middle East. The related Iran reference was weak and unconvincing. That said, she did back up both Ukraine and NATO clearly contrasting herself from the Trump line on foreign policy.

Kamala’s speech tried to play it safe and give everyone the feeling that she can do the job and she may well - based on initial reactions - have succeeded in that. The next ten weeks of campaigning and debating where the outcome is still too close to call (polls narrowed, check the RCP site) may not be enough to bring it home for the Democrats. What Harris will need to do is to deliver the sort of gravity and emotional substance that for instance Obama and Reagan brought to their campaigns. In other words, she needs to demonstrate with detail and composure that she really is what she painted out in her acceptance speech. Last night was an ad, now deliver it. Given the challenging times we are in there is no shortage of material, but she needs to take clearer positions, show her real political colours and in doing that take some necessary political risks. And neutralize the rumours and attacks. You simply cannot look the other way and put your ‘message of opportunity’ on repeat.

Finally, the DNC convention had some unexpected highlights which is what makes these events so worthwhile given that most speeches are a waste of everyone’s time. To me the appearance of Jonathan Polin and Rachel Goldberg, parents of hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin was a moment that stood out in raw emotional gravity. In particular as the Goldberg-Polin’s had been warned that the hall would likely be negative or at best neutral. That is where US politics is at, sadly. But thankfully it wasn’t. Just look at the first minute of this nine-minute not to miss call for the release of the hostages.