The Witness Chronicles, August 23, 2024

Kamala!

Photo by Alex Livingston on Unsplash

We Were Starved for Something Positive. Kamala and The DNC Delivered

She had hard acts to follow. No problem

After this past week the differences between the two parties could not be more stark. On the right we have flailing desperation, while the Democrats are unified and celebrating their diversity, experience, civility, and power.

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz both showed us who they truly are and Donald Trump can’t handle any of it. As for Vance, it’s pretty obvious that he was a terrible choice made when Trump thought he had it in the bag. But what is really startling is how the Republican Party is still struggling to tell us what they stand for, over thirty days after Harris was anointed by Joe Biden and pulled the party together in less than two days.

The reasons for the GOP’s utter failure to respond effectively lies with Trump and only Trump. His need for unquestioning loyalty has meant any independent thinking associates and advisors have left or been fired. Several even spoke at the Democratic convention this past week.

Those Trump campaign people that are left, like Chris LaCivita, have no ideas other than attempting character assassination, and it’s not working. Harris and Walz actually have character and backbones and the important ability to laugh at the crap being thrown at them.

A narcissist like Trump cannot stand people laughing at him and this week a whole lot of people were laughing at him and his antics. Instead of getting serious, the right response, he went off his rocker, actually calling in to Fox News during Harris’s keynote and being so incoherent that they cut him off.

Yes, Fox News cut Donald Trump off in real time while his opponent appeared on all the networks telling it like it is. He was so desperate for attention that he immediately called Newsmax, another right wing network, and kept his tirade going.

Bear in mind that this was happening while Harris was still speaking. This makes me wonder how he will be able to keep his mouth shut while she is speaking at the upcoming debate. It could very well be his undoing. His skin is so thin right now that anything seems to set him off and it could look demented to many Americans.

My takeaway this week, beyond Trump’s continuous meltdown, was that we will see a significant post convention jump in support for Harris/Walz, especially among young voters who were waiting for someone they could relate to and for someone whose views on Israel and Gaza were flexible.

Somehow Kamala Harris seems to have sent the message that she is not the same as Biden on that critical issue. It was a masterful balancing act considering she is still Biden’s Vice President.

I don’t think Americans believe a Vice President cannot have differing views from the President, in fact I think most have been loyal while maintaining their individuality. They just don’t typically have the ability or platform to express their differences. But Harris is now the candidate and has the bully pulpit. She can and does express what she thinks and a lot of voters needed to hear that.

Last night she delivered, in spades. There was speculation that following amazing speakers like Michelle Obama, Barack, Oprah, Kinzinger (a Republican!) and a host of others, would he a difficult act to follow.

No problem. Harris came out of the shadow of Joe Biden and into the full light of day and you can tell she was ready and loving it. Maybe the operating word there is ‘loving’. There was a lot of it this week at the convention, in sharp contrast with the torrents of hate and fear coming out of the Republicans under Trump.

This thing is far from over. There are a lot of people in this country, for example, who can’t imagine voting for a woman president, much less one of color. But this is where Harris’s choice of Tim Walz provides some cover for those voters. He is textbook middle America, a regular guy, a high school football coach, a good neighbor, and a deceptively easy going white guy.

But his speech on Wednesday night revealed that there is one tough cookie under that all American stuff. The contrast with Trump’s choice of Vance could not be more apparent. Walz brings a lot to the table, Vance effectively scares away a lot of voters, in particular women, who he seems to have some kind of real problem with.

One adds, the other subtracts.

So, the lines are drawn. Positive and forward versus negative and backward. To me it feels like the negative is getting tiring and repetitive while the positive is opening up the minds of voters who were not in the game just one month ago.

I hope I am right.

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