Closing Argument
To paraphrase Winston Churchill, “This is not the end, but it is the beginning of the end.” Last night Vice President Kamala Harris gave her “closing argument”, her final attempt to persuade Americans to support her candidacy. On Sunday, former President Trump did the same, at Madison Square Gardens. From here on in, it’s the last sprint to the finish; desperately trying to get every single supporter to the polls. Persuasion falls to the wayside, now it’s all about encouraging, cajoling, and enticing all “their folks” to vote.
Both candidates carefully chose their venues. Trump picked Madison Square Gardens in New York City. It’s an “all-Trump” venue, one of the most venerable and well-known in the world. For a man who “made his bones” in Manhattan, filling the Garden is a goal in and of itself. While many “knowing commentators” questioned why Trump would come to the center of Democratic New York to make his plea, Trump knew well that “MSG” is a national setting. And besides, filling it to capacity with “MAGA” loyalists (a little less than 20,000) in the heart of New York City sent his message: “no blue territory is safe”.
On the other hand, Harris chose the Ellipse, in sight of the White House Oval Office, and where Trump gave his fateful speech sending the mob to march on the Capitol on January 6th. It too is a “national” venue, even though the District is fully Democratic. Her site choice underlined the decision Harris is asking America to make: Trump represents the upheavals of the past, Harris the promise of the future. And it also allowed the Harris campaign another subliminal “size” dig. Trump had 50,000 on January 6th for “it’s going to be wild”. Harris’s crowd numbered near 75,000 last night.
Into the Darkness
So what did the former President offer Americans in closing? Like his first inaugural address, Trump presents a dark view of a failing America, full of illegal immigrants taking “American” jobs and committing crimes. And he told Americans to be afraid: of the “brown person” down the block, for their child going to school (they might come back a different gender), of the coming multi-cultural America. Instead, Trump offered the “safety” of America that looks like the 1950’s. It was his original message back in 2016, and little has changed (one of my first essays from 2017, Trump World and the Beaver). It’s just darker, more desperate, and more violent.
How does Trump see the Democrats? They are “the enemy within”; subject to every crude and profane insult imaginable. Their leaders should be in jail: “Lock them up!!!”. There is no unity in the Trump message. It’s we win; you lose, and we take what we want. It’s difficult to see the entire extravaganza at Madison Square Garden as “persuasive”. The message is the same as the one he gave on the Ellipse that fateful morning of the Insurrection: “We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” It was a call to arms for his supporters, not an outreach to those unsure Republicans how might still be persuaded (Oh Lindsey, We Thought We Knew Ye).
The Big Tent
On the Ellipse last night, Harris started by holding a mirror up to the Trump Campaign. She presented Americans with a vision: one of the two candidates would, in ninety days, be sitting at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office over her shoulder. She highlighted the chaos of the past, and the dark future, what a Trump authoritarian consolidation of power for four more years might mean.
Then she went on to explain her vision for America. She finally made a clear difference between the Biden Presidency and a Harris Administration. Harris explained that it was a matter of “missions”. The Biden/Harris mission was to recover from the pandemic, revive the economy, and then “land” it from a looming recession (mission accomplished). The Harris/Walz mission is different: it’s to enhance the life of working and middle class Americans. Harris offers an array of changes from tax cuts to child benefits to housing incentives. And she has plans to deal with the many problems America set aside as we’ve centered on our internal conflicts.
She offers an America of diversity, where folks can make their own decisions, about their bodies, their sexuality, and their political views. Harris promises to be a President that can listen to all sides; not just “her supporters”. Her candidacy is a “big tent”, from Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez to Liz Cheney, Bernie Sanders to Dick Cheney. Her final message was: join us for a future together.
There are six days until election day. Fifty million Americans, including Jenn and I, have already cast our votes. There are nearly 170 million registered (out of 244 million who could vote). In 2020, over 158 million voted, the most ever. We are racing to the “finish line” that vague deadline when, finally, all the ballots are counted. That will be sometime in the next few weeks. And then…we will see.
