WASHINGTON — Kamala Harris re-introduced herself to the nation she hopes to help govern as Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton made a dire case about the state of American democracy on the third night of the all-virtual Democratic National Convention on Wednesday.
Democrats showcased the diversity of their coalition, with every race and background represented and musical performances in both Spanish and English, culminating in Harris, the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, accepting her party’s nomination for vice president.
Here are four takeaways:
1. Harris takes a place in history
Americans have never seen a vice president who looks like Kamala Harris, so Kamala Harris gave America a good look at her Wednesday.
In the biggest speech on the biggest platform of her career, Harris told the story of her immigrant parents meeting during the civil rights movement in California and their split when she was young, leaving her mother to raise her and her sister.
“Like so many mothers, she worked around the clock to make it work — packing lunches before we woke up — and paying bills after we went to bed,” Harris said. “She made it look easy, though I know it never was.”
She wove that story into America’s story, which has become so politicized amid Trump-era debates over Confederate monuments and fights over who gets to be a real American. Harris shouted out her black sorority sisters and walked off the stage to Mary J. Blige’s “Work That,” making the case that making the country more just for all is an act of patriotism.
“There is no vaccine for racism. We’ve gotta do the work,” she said. “You are the patriots who remind us that to love our country is to fight for the ideals of our country.”
2. Don’t sweat the policy details
The third night of the Democratic convention offered by far the most policy substance of any night, but that’s not saying much. The convention has focused primarily on President Donald Trump and his failings and on who Biden is as a man — but not what he would do as president
Wednesday’s program featured sections devoted to climate change, gun violence, immigration and more, but moving videos and speeches laid out the problem and mostly insisted that something be done, without really saying what. Even famously plan-loving Elizabeth Warren breezed through Joe Biden’s “really good plans” in one short paragraph.
That may be by design. Biden is trying to stitch together a broad coalition that spans from disaffected Republicans like John Kasich, the former governor of Ohio who spoke Monday, to progressive New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who spoke Tuesday.
They have very different ideas about, say the Green New Deal and Medicare for All, but agree that Trump needs to go, so the convention has stuck to the common ground.
3. The bear (Obama) is loose
“The bear is loose. I broke out of the cage,” Obama liked to joke when he left the White House and armored limousines behind to stroll around Washington as president.
The former president has been in a political cage of sorts for the past few years, mostly biting his tongue on Trump to respect the tradition that former presidents do not criticize their successors, just as George W. Bush had done for him.
But Obama changed his mind. He made clear Wednesday that he has lost any hope of Trump living up to the office he once held, decided some things are more important than tradition and signaled plans to get off the bench to help his former vice president get over the finish line.
“Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t,” Obama said. “This administration has shown it will tear our democracy down if that’s what it takes to win. So we have to get busy building it up.”
4. Hillary: Don’t blow it — again
Russia, former FBI Director James Comey’s meddling, not visiting Wisconsin — it all played a role in Clinton’s loss to Trump in a very winnable election four years ago. But complacency may have been her biggest foe.
Democrats never took Trump seriously. And when nearly every expert was projecting an easy win for Clinton and many voters were disillusioned with the whole system, millions of voters who had turned out for Obama in 2012 decided to stay home in 2016.
Now, polls are once again showing Trump behind and forecasters are once again suggesting the odds are in Biden’s favor. So when she spoke Wednesday, Clinton wanted to deliver one message that only she could: Don’t blow it.
“For four years, people have said to me, ‘I didn’t realize how dangerous he was.’ ‘I wish I could go back and do it over.’ Or worse, ‘I should have voted,'” she said. “Well, this can’t be another woulda coulda shoulda election.”
