Quote of the Day

While (rightly) pummeling the GOP–Donald Trump cult of personality, Democrats have mythologized Kamala Harris and turned her into an alternate-Harris who would have been unrecognizable to Harris herself just a few weeks ago: tough, caring, super-smart, results-oriented. Hillary Clinton 2.0.

But no one has ventured to say what this alternate-Harris would do in office. Or, more broadly, what her party wants to accomplish over the next four years. There is no program.

To be fair, the Republican agenda is a mosh pit of confusions – a free-market, tariff-laden, stick-it-to-the-establishment, fuck-China, go-America mélange of half-baked, sort-of proposals.

But the idea behind that confusion is straightforward. It is America first. Americans first. And every bill, initiative, executive decision can be, should be, viewed through that lens. Whether that amounts to a coherent theory of government remains to be seen. (The Republicans seem to be trying to figure out in real time the how behind the what.) But there is a focal point.

No one says what the Democrats’ North Star is. They have wielded enormous power for most of the past two decades, and they insist they won’t “turn back,” but no one says where we’re going. Or what they want beyond the blandest of platitudes about “freedom” and “choice” and “identity.”

These people know how to throw a fantastic party, and it’s full of flashing lights and smiling delegates and Stevie Wonder and dancers and tears streaming down faces and wild roars of hope and love and drama. But for now, after three days of this four-day convention that is really just a supremely entertaining infomercial, no one can say whether the drama is a three-act play that takes us somewhere uncharted, or whether this is a gilded sitcom.

– Peter Savodnik
Excerpted from “The Democrats Are
Having a Convention About Nothing”
The Free Press
August 22, 2024

NEXT:
Marianne Williamson:
I Hope I Will Hear Things from Kamala
That I Can Full-on Support

Related Off-site Links:
If You’re Looking for Democracy in Chicago, You’ll Find It in the Streets – Iman Jodeh (The Hill via Common Dreams, August 22, 2024).
Palestinian Exclusion Shows the Limits of Kamala Harris’s Politics of Joy – Jeet Heer (The Nation, August 22, 2024).
Harris and the Dems Still Have a Chance to Correct Course on Gaza – Brett Wilkins (Common Dreams, August 20, 2024).
Progressives Back Harris Plan to Raise Taxes on Billionaires – Brett Wilkins (Common Dreams, August 22, 2024).
How Long Can Kamala Harris Avoid the Press? – The Editors (The Free Press, August 21, 2024).
On DNC Sidelines, Progressives Push Democrats to Fight for the Working Class – Jessica Corbett (Common Dreams, August 21, 2024).
Vice President Harris, Here’s How You Can Earn Our Votes – Eman Abdelhadi (Common Dreams, August 20, 2024).
Democracy Despises a Coronation – Hamiliton Nolan (In These Times, August 15, 2024).
Kamala Harris and the Misalignment with Black Voter Expectations – ElleBeah LB (ElleBeah’s Substack, August 14, 2024).
Kamala Harris and the Election of Laughter and Forgetting – Eli Lake (The Free Press, August 10, 2024).
Will Kamala Be Hillary 2.0? – Matt Stoller (Compact Mag, July 29, 2024).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Progressive Perspectives on an American Coronation
• Voices on the Issues That Really Matter
• Active Hope
• Marianne Williamson on ABC News Live – 8/20/24
• History Matters
• John Cusack: Quote of the Day – July 26, 2024
• Memes of the Times
• On This Momentous Day in U.S. Politics, a Visit to the Prayer Tree
• Progressive Perspectives on the Crisis in U.S. Electoral Politics
• Something to Think About – August 15, 2024
• Just Imagine
• Centrist/Corporatist Democrats Have Just Launched “Left Punching” Season