Kamala Harris against Despair
As you know, I’ve been tracking Kamala Harris’ outreach to Republicans, Liz Cheney above all, with a good deal of interest. I’ve spoken about why it makes sense from a demographic perspective; if Harris can attract some of Nikki Haley’s voters, it could put her over the top in these 50/50 states. I’ve described how seeing endorsements from people like Liz Cheney and her father create a permission structure for other Republicans to take the risk of voting for Harris.
More recently, I described that events with Liz Cheney and other Republicans provide a news hook for Trump’s fascism that cannot be dismissed as partisanship.
I’ve even observed (though perhaps only on social media) that events with Liz Cheney provide Harris a way to get out of an ethical dilemma. As Vice President, she should not discuss pending Federal cases against a criminal defendant, including the January 6 case charged against Trump. But Liz Cheney can. And Cheney happens to be an expert. In the events she did and is doing and still will do with Harris today, Cheney prosecuted the January 6 case against Donald Trump. And as she described how Trump sat, doing nothing, as his supporters attacked Congress, one of the people behind the women nodded vigorously.
But I also realized, as I watched the Michigan version of these events today, that Harris and Cheney are also modeling democracy. They are giving people — women who are my age and Cheney’s age and moderator Maria Shriver’s age are the primary but by no means the only target — what they want: a democracy where people talk to one another.
That is, these events, at their most ambitious, are about giving people a reason to defend democracy.
That’s something Harris said as she answered the last question in the Royal Oak event.
Shriver described several people in the audience talking about how scared they are, and she asked Harris how she copes with the stress.
Not eating gummies, Harris responded.
But then, after admitting she wakes up most nights these days, she gave an impromptu speech against despair.
Let me just speak to what people are feeling. We cannot despair. We cannot despair. You know, the nature of a democracy is such that I think there’s a duality. On the one hand, there’s an incredible strength when our democracy is intact. An incredible strength in what it does to protect the freedoms and rights of its people.
Oh there’s great strength in that.
And, it is very fragile. It is only as strong as our willingness to fight for it. And so that’s the moment we’re in. And I say do not despair because in a democracy, as long as we can keep it, in our democracy, the people — every individual — has the power to make a decision about what this will be.
And so let’s not feel powerless.
Let’s not let the — and I get it, overwhelming nature of this all make us feel powerless. Because then we have been defeated. And that’s not our character as the American people. We are not one to be defeated. We rise to a moment. And we stand on broad shoulders of people who have fought this fight before for our country. And in many ways then, let us look at the challenge that we have been presented and not be overwhelmed by it.
The baton is now in our hands, to fight for, not against, but for this country that we love. That’s what we have the power to do.
So let’s own that? Dare I say be joyful in what we will do in the process of owning that which is knowing that we can and will build community and coalitions and remind people that we’re all in this together.
Let’s not let the overwhelming nature of this strip us of our strength.
That’s how I feel about this.
The entire event is worth watching.
But what the Vice President said about despair may well be the nugget of inspiration that moves us forward.
I love the photo on the main page of the blog. It’s wonderful to see everyone smiling. Great unity picture.
This was just the right thing for me at this moment. Thanks, Marcy. And thanks, Maria, Kamala, and Liz.
Fortitude. We can do this!
Here’s where I note that the last vestiges of my concern about her ability to bring this campaign to fruition have vanished.
When Biden’s candidacy was wallowing, I harbored a distinct fear in that regard, borne of having witnessed some of her “word-salad” moments over the past years, including even as recently as a Colbert interview last year. But she is blasting this finish over the scoreboard, it is apparent to me, and she has been scoring hits and runs regularly since her announcement. A few whiffs, of course, but man, that blockquote Marcy posted, from 1:25 to 3:30 in the video, is a grand slam.
She could do much worse than put that into every campaign ad going forward the next two weeks. It just says it all, and it encapsulates the historical moment we’re in, and how bringing the country together is the only way forward.
I really hope you are right and they create an ad from that segment. I watched it in full. It was persuavive, powerful and uplifting. It calmed me down from constant negative Trump assaults on my brain. She is a leader. Trump is a complainer.
Fortitude: strength of mind that enables a person to encounter danger or bear pain or adversity with courage.
Perfect word for these times. Thank you.
I have been suggesting they have this discussion for weeks. Hopefully its going to cost the Republican candidate some voters that switch to Harris/Walz. But its nearly certain that this pathway is going to cost the Republican some half votes.
Thank you Dr. Marcy. Unity and democracy in action. I agree, worth watching. Saw the entire event live. I was moved by her care and compassion for humanity.
Close to the end of the event, the question and story about children having to go through active gun drills in school was heartbreaking. Our children deserve better.
Proud to say I voted early for Harris/Walz today. Took 35 minutes, however worth the time and energy. Looking forward to saying officially “Madam President Harris and Vice President Walz.”
A handpainted sign here in Midcoast ME gently goads:
“If you can’t pronounce ‘Kamala’ correctly,
Try ‘Madam President!’ ”
Another one by a GenY artist friend, that captures the joy component of her campaign:
“We Walz for Kamala”
That was indeed a remarkable moment, and one worth amplifying.
I don’t know if you’ve seen the Pennsylvania stop on this two handed tour.
Liz Chaney as one would expect, was excellent prosecuting the case against Trump as unfit and dangerous. But one of the best moments came after KH concluded a very thorough and compassionate answer to a question on women’s health care, with the final remarks linking in her familiar position on Reproductive Rights, ending with the point that she didn’t believe that people who had strong pro life beliefs had ever imagined the consequences which were now playing out with women dying.
LC chose on that point to seek permission to add her own thoughts
“because that is such an important point,
I think there are many of us around the country who have been pro life, who have watched what is going on in our states since the Dobbs decision, and have watched state legislatures put in laws that have resulted in in women not getting the care they need.
And so, this is not an issue which breaks down on party lines.
What we are seeing is people coming together and saying:
‘What has happened to women, when women are facing situations where they can’t get the care they need, in places like Texas -the AG is talking about suing, is suing to get access to medical records —that is not sustainable for us as a country.’
And it has to change”
1:02:13 https://www.youtube.com/live/6xRTeLp6BpY
But that moment of principled by-partisanship to deal with urgent social issues, made political by extremists demonstrates that the work of coalition needs to be taken forward beyond success in the present election.
Which of course gives the lie to Vance’s cheap attacks on Cheney.
Just watching the WI one. She gave a similar answer there too.
Here in Texas there seem to be many Republican women who are voting for Harris and Allred precisely for the reason Liz brought up. It will be interesting to see the votes totas on the 6th.
Not sure if you saw, but Harris is going to do a Texas stop.
Clip from CNN: “Hear why Liz Cheney is supporting Harris over Trump”.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/21/politics/video/liz-cheney-kamala-harris-pennsylvania-event-digvid
I hope there are Republicans out there, who see clips like this and realize how dangerous it would be to re-elect Trump.
Some Republicans need a permission structure to vote for Kamala Harris, a woman who actually embodies so many conservative values they claim to venerate. Why is it so easy for so many of these so called conservatives to support a man who embodies the opposite of their values? Trump would not be any more powerful than George Wallace or David Duke if mainstream Republicans did not decide to back him despite his views that are as despicable as either Wallace or Duke. I don’t blame the racists and homophobes and misogynists, I blame those who do not subscribe to those beliefs and yet will vote Trump because, what? Taxes?
“I don’t blame the racists and homophobes and misogynists, I blame those who do not subscribe to those beliefs and yet will vote Trump because, what? Taxes?”
I think that you are on to it by identifying racists who hate Blacks et al, homophobes who hate gays et al, and mysogynists who hate women et al.
Here’s where I go off: “I blame those who do not subscribe to those beliefs and yet will vote Trump because, what? Taxes?”.
I believe it is just other hatreds. Trump promises very few goodies for his voters, not even specific tax reduction. Really most of his voters are after just other HATREDS TO BE SATISFIED…ie why should old people get money while I don’t?; why give disabled benefits that I don’t receive:, why protect ‘protected classes’ if I don’t get protection?
I never saw policy differences (your example of tax policy) as the driver. I see resentment and grievance.
Maybe I’m being cranky, but it will matter in how we address this divide.
I think for authoritarian follower types, it’s also fear and frankly laziness. Harris treats people like grown-ups with a responsibility to pitch in to make a better world, Trump is the strong daddy who will fix everything for you in the big, scary world. This is what I see in my own family, anyway.
Interesting tidbit: David Duke endorsed Jill Stein the other day.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/former-kkk-leader-david-duke-endorses-jill-stein-in-us-presidential-race/
Marcy, (blue damselfly),
Nuggets of inspiration, when you find them, touchstone from another time. When you are following the honey path there are objects that guide your journey. If you are quiet and listening you may hear their voices. Thank you for featuring that clip of three powerful authentic women, so powerful at this moment in time. We are all in this together.
Blue damselfly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enallagma_cyathigerum#/media/File:Damselfly_05_(MK).jpg
Here’s another unbelievably strong woman being interviewed by Rachel Maddow earlier today: https://youtu.be/QuiVpoM-tmU
Thanks so much for sharing this. It is very moving.
When I am prone to despair, I turn to C.S. Lewis’s quote about living in an atomic age:
“On Living in an Atomic Age”
(first published 1948)
by C. S. Lewis (1898–1963)
From: Present Concerns: Essays by C.S. Lewis (edited by Walter Hooper; New York:
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1986), pages 73–80.
In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to
live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in
the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you
would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and
cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer,
an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway
accidents, an age of motor accidents.”
In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation.
Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already
sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high
percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very
great advantage over our ancestors — anaesthetics; but we have that still. It
is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because
the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a
world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was
not a chance at all, but a certainty.
This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull
ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that
bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things praying, working,
teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting
to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like
frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a
microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.
Can you please clarify the observation that a sitting VP cannot make public comments about a pending case against a criminal defendant? I certainly get that the sitting President and Attorney General must keep their mouths shut, but why the VP? If it’s about tainting the jury pool, surely the senators or reps for the state in question could do that every bit as much and should also keep silence ??
It suggests undue influence from the government and also, in this case, feeds Trump’s claim that his prosecution is political persecution.
I’m old enough to remember the furor when Nixon was President and said that Manson should be convicted while the trial was still going on.
Them were the days when there was still a veneer of discretion in our politics. (Of course, Nixon got himself elected by getting the South Vietnamese to do a sloooow walk to LBJ’s Paris peace table.)
“I certainly get that the sitting President and Attorney General must keep their mouths shut”
And if Harris wins the election, she’ll be the sitting president and her DOJ will continue these prosecutions. Better to refrain from comment and not complicate the situation unnecessarily.
I early-voted, yesterday. The place was packed with people, a steady stream, coming and going, ages ranging from early-thirties-old folks, like me. Passed people coming in and the smiles were on everyone’s faces, not saying anything, but the vibes were positive with a touch of defiance over the stupid polls. This is Florida: I predict a nice vote count for Kamala.
Here Harris, and also Wheeler, are doing a terrific job of building morale at a threatening juncture not by saying its not threatening but by saying we are enough to withstand it. Thanks to both.
I am reminded that General Washington, asked to march the army on Congress to resolve a pay dispute said “in the name of our common Country–as you value your own sacred honor—as you respect the rights of humanity, & as you regard the Military & national character of America, to express your utmost horror & detestation of the Man who wishes, under any specious pretences, to overturn the liberties of our Country … ”
The VP calls us not only to duty but to honor.
One of the reasons we might feel a sense of despair is the billionaire media including billionaire social media. These toads put TFG everywhere, and donwplay and attack Harris.
I’m avoiding all of it. Moving slowly towards Blue Sky. Cancelled my long term subscription to the NYT. Ignoring the WaPo front page. Haven’t watched cable news except to see weather coverage. I never watch clips of TFG.
Liz Cheney is a masterful speaker. Somewhere in the background Nancy Pelosi is smiling, eating some ice cream and playing the long game
Nancy Pelosi is 84 fucking years old. She’s already played her over-long game and needs to retire.
I’m diggin your profanity, and don’t disagree that Nancy is old, wait a while, old age is coming for us all. Pelosi picked Liz Cheney, out of a crowd, to be Vice Chair of the Jan 6 Panel, and Cheney proved to be as brilliant in that role, as in her support of Kamala. Old Joe Biden picked an equally brilliant lady out of a crowd to be his VP years ago. I think Kamala is going to be the next President on her merits and with the thoughtfulness of some wise old people who went before her, who knew how to play the long game.
Entropy only travels in one direction in this universe — which is why an obvious heir to Pelosi’s seat should already have been recruited, prepped, ready to go *if* Pelosi had been a responsible representative to her district and leader in the party.
If she is disabled or drops dead while serving as a rep — wholly realistic at 84 — who’s the obvious replacement?? It’s not as if we didn’t already go through all this crap with Dianne Feinstein and yet there’s Pelosi, shirking her responsibility and clinging to power.
January 6 committee can’t be an excuse for ignoring reality.
Great discussion by the next President of the United States Kamala Harris about courageously advancing democracy to protect freedom and triumphing over despair in the midst of electoral challenges.