Critic’s Notebook: At Democratic National Convention, a Polished and Presidential Kamala Harris Plays It Safe
In the weeks leading up to Vice President Kamala Harris’ speech at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, questions swirled about how she would introduce herself as the person at the top of the ticket. These congregations are an opportunity for party nominees to pitch their vision for the future and audition for the role of president. It is a performance of confidence and, in effect, a ceremony of promise. Who did Harris, whose eleventh-hour entrance into the race energized the slumbering Democratic base, want to be?
Standing at the podium on Thursday evening in Chicago, Harris accepted her party’s nomination while fervently embracing her role as prosecutor in chief. She wore a navy blue suit and a pleated bow tie blouse, both by Chloé. Affixed to her left lapel was a pin of the American flag. Her hair, silk pressed, brushed against her shoulders with its signature effortlessness as she gesticulated, occasionally revealing another Harris staple: a delicate pair of pearl earrings.
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The ensemble relayed the gravity of this historical moment and the vice president’s command of the stage. She, the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, represented the future of America — a nation, per the oft-repeated phrase, that is “not going back.”
If you listen closely to the details of her stories, you’ll notice that Harris seems to have prepared for this role her whole life. She opened her DNC speech with the usual family history: Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, moved to the Bay Area when she was 19 years old with the dream of finding a cure for breast cancer. There, she met Harris’ father, Donald, a Marxist economist. The two married and raised Harris and her sister, Maya, to be fair, forthright and fearless. Those traits became useful when Harris was a teenager and learned that her friend, Wanda, was being sexually abused. A young Harris, as the nominee likes to tell it, jumped into action and encouraged Wanda to move in with Harris and her family. “This is one of the reasons I became a prosecutor,” Harris said in her speech. “To protect people like Wanda, because I believe everyone has a right to safety, to dignity and to justice.”
When Harris delivers this line, the crowd, amped by her presence, explodes into cheers and applause. The vice president’s public performance has come a long way since her first presidential campaign in 2019. Harris looks more comfortable onstage these days — a reflection, perhaps, of the number of crowds she’s had to work. Rarely did her eyes rest on the teleprompter for more than a beat during tonight’s speech. Instead, she surveyed the arena with a quiet intensity, as if trying to make eye contact with every person in the room.
Her storytelling had grown less studied, too, adopting the lithe cadences of executive candidates past and present. Tonight, Harris channeled the agility and forcefulness of her days as attorney general and senator. Plainly put, she appeared presidential.
It’s eerie how the past, present and future can echo one another so loudly. Harris’ vision for America is one of continuity rather than dramatic change. Throughout the evening, an odd procession of speakers graced the stage — members of the Exonerated Five were followed by prosecutors; speeches by survivors of mass shootings came right before those by police sheriffs boasting of larger budgets and safer cities. One might wonder, with the din of “USA” chants in the background, if this was indeed the Democratic National Convention and not a Republican one from a different, less right-wing-extremist era.
As current vice president, Harris is tied to the incumbent. Where another candidate might counter Joe Biden’s decisions and challenge his track record, Harris is unwilling to agitate. The few policy plans she put forward mostly offer a prolongation of the current status quo — a bipartisan border control bill, for example — in order to save America from the threat of a new one. It’s striking the number of times former president and current Republican nominee Donald Trump’s name came up in Harris’ speech and the remarks given throughout the evening. The specter has become an obsession.
When Harris talked about Trump, her speech gained an energy only rivaled by the zeal with which she talked about America’s military prowess. On the ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza — which has become, for many voters, one of the defining issues of this race — Harris offered very little of the kind of imagination and future-forward thinking that had been touted all evening. While repeating the party line about a tireless attempt to reach a ceasefire, she reiterated a commitment to arming Israel while simultaneously gesturing toward a vague Palestinian self-determination.
It was a disappointing moment, considering no Palestinians spoke on the main stage during the four-day gathering, and given that Cook County is home to the largest Palestinian American population in the United States. Earlier on Thursday, as a result of the DNC’s decision not to let a Palestinian speak, Muslim Women for Harris disbanded and withdrew their support for the candidate.
Harris and her running mate Tim Walz have built their campaign as a kind of anti-Trump rainbow coalition of representation. And the vice president completed the assignment tonight, with no shortage of flair. But watching her repeatedly invoke Trump and make overtures toward his more wavering supporters, one might wonder who, as the nation propels forward, gets left behind.
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