Harris-Walz: An Antidote to Trump’s American Carnage

Forty-four yeas ago the American economy was struggling yet Republican candidate Ronald Reagan offered optimism and encouragement and promised that America's best days were still ahead.  Today, those on the political right (Donald Trump in particular) and propaganda sites like Fox News, a/k/a Faux News, offer doom and gloom, depict American cities as hell holes, claim the economy is terrible even though it is not, and use fear and hatred of others as the main motivation to rally the GOP's shrinking and aging base. In contrast, the new Democrat ticket of Harris/Walz - which could not have been envisioned a month ago - is offering optimism and a forward looking campaign that seeks to move the nation forward and maintain democracy.  The difference could not be more striking and many seem thrilled to have an energized alternative to Trump's anti-democracy, fascist  agenda which seems fixated on revenge against opponents and those who do not support "Christian" extremism and white supremacy.  Sadly, due to the flawed Electoral College, the election will come down to a handful of states where Harris and Walz will need to convince voters to embrace their optimism and promise to not take the country backward in time.  A piece at CNN looks at the sharp contrast:

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz want to make America joyful again. The vice president’s rocking rollout of her running mate on Tuesday sent jolts of energy through a huge crowd, as the pair personified the extraordinary transformation of the 2024 election campaign.

Such a scene would have been unthinkable even three weeks ago — in a Democratic Party that believed it was doomed to a disastrous defeat as an aged president resentfully faced a revolt that ultimately ended his reelection bid.

Yet inside Temple University’s packed basketball arena in Philadelphia, activists and Harris supporters beamed smiles of deliverance, marveling at the turn of events and a second chance against Donald Trump they can barely believe. . . . . the fresh vibe in Philadelphia was striking because it emerged after one of the darkest chapters of modern US politics.

Americans have experienced a Trump presidency that threatened to tear the country apart, suffered through a pandemic that killed more than a million citizens and endured grinding years of economic insecurity caused by inflation and high grocery prices. For most of this year, the former president has promised a second presidency of retribution. President Joe Biden, meanwhile, had been delivering searing warnings that his rival was tarnishing the very soul of America, even as the haunting signs of the president’s advancing age became increasingly painful to watch.

“We both believe in lifting people up, not knocking them down,” Harris said of her new running mate, Minnesota Gov. Walz. “Do we believe in opportunity? Do we believe in the promise of America? And are we ready to fight for it?” the vice president asked before adding, “We both know the vast majority of people in our country have so much more in common than what separates them.”

This message is a mirror image of Trump’s political method, which relies on tugging at the fault lines of US society for political gain.

Walz rammed home the point, as if anyone in the packed arena filled by roaring cheers had missed it. “Thank you for bringing back the joy,” he told his new boss, as he riffed through a series of dad jokes about Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, showing why the Harris team thinks he’ll be a hit in the Blue Wall battleground states that will decide the election.

Just a few weeks ago, Democrats dreaded Biden’s small and glum campaign events when the 81-year-old president’s stumbles revived memories of his disastrous Atlanta debate performance.

Now, they have a candidate and a running mate who can draw a massive crowd, inspire the base and project vigor and hope in a way that will take the battle to Trump over the frenetic last three months of the campaign.

Multiple rallygoers Tuesday expressed delight at the extraordinary twist in their fortunes at an event that conjured flashbacks to Barack Obama’s hope-and-change rallies of 2008, especially when the crowd chanted “Yes We Can” when Harris pledged to save the Affordable Care Act.

The optimism, laughter and positive energy in Philadelphia on Tuesday felt like a different planet from the dystopian dirge of Trump rallies, which devolve into festivals of personal vengeance for a candidate who has tripled down on the American carnage mantra of his first inaugural address.

“We are a nation in decline, we are a failing nation,” Trump said at a typical event in Manchester, New Hampshire, in January, portraying the US as a hellscape of energy shortages, drug-infested cities, out-of-control immigration and crime. He added: “We are a nation that has lost its confidence, its willpower and its strength. We are a nation that has lost its way.”

America now has a choice between the former president’s nightmarish vision of national decline that only a strongman can fix and Harris’ optimistic vow that America is still a land of aspiration.

But that dichotomy also points to a huge risk for Harris.

Running a campaign rooted in hopefulness and good cheer at a time when many Americans feel demoralized and tired could backfire. . . . . Without solutions, Harris’ hope-fueled speeches could become bromides by repetition, especially if Trump has more accurately judged America’s collective psyche than she has. Harris is, after all, a key part of an unpopular administration – which, for all its success in passing sweeping legislation that could revive US manufacturing and overhaul the country’s infrastructure, has not been able to convince millions of Americans of the reality of the country’s relatively strong economic rebound after the pandemic.

Tuesday’s rally proved the vice president can draw a crowd and work it — to great theatrical effect. But her most significant assignment in the next two months will come in convincing Americans she can meet building crises at home and abroad . . . Still, in a race likely to be decided across the three battleground states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, Walz may be able to reach rural voters that the California Democrat can’t. While the Minnesota governor is not going to help her beat Trump in his rural heartlands, any trimming of the ex-president’s margins there could complement Harris’ expected high turnout among inner city minority voters and suburban women.

The symbolism of reassurance was strong. A plainspoken, White, Midwestern dad, football coach and high school teacher who reached the rank of command sergeant major in the Army National Guard was vouching for the values and patriotism of a running mate who is being demeaned by Trump as a racial chameleon and out of the American cultural and political mainstream.

Ironically, given the events of the last two weeks, Walz is serving a similar role that then-vice presidential nominee Biden played for future President Obama in 2008.

Walz is sure to reprise his endorsement at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in a couple of weeks — and on pretty much every day until Election Day as he and Harris set off on an exhausting journey.