• 20 Aug, 2024
• Lina Diaz
• No comment

Democrats Celebrate Bold Shift from Biden to Harris

This week, Democrats will mark one of the most audacious power moves in modern political history with a hastily reconfigured convention aimed at propelling Kamala Harris toward a historic presidency.

The event kicks off with President Joe Biden’s speech on Monday night, where he will be lauded for his reluctant decision to pass the torch. At 81, Biden, despite a productive term, faced pressure from his party to end his re-election bid as age took its toll on a career spanning 50 years.

Last month, Biden announced his withdrawal, telling Americans, “The history is in your hands. The power is in your hands. The idea of America is in your hands.” The Democratic response was swift endorsement of Harris, 59, quashing hopes of a multi-candidate race among rising Democratic stars.

With Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz now leading the ticket, Democrats are rallying to prevent Donald Trump’s return to the White House amid fears of a second term dedicated to “revenge.”

Republicans, convinced of an overwhelming victory at their convention in Milwaukee last month, saw their candidate emerge bloodied yet defiant after an assassination attempt. Meanwhile, the Democratic National Convention, initially poised as a grim farewell to an aging president losing ground to Trump in key states, has been revitalized by Harris, injecting new energy and mending potential party fractures.

Harris has gained a narrow lead over Trump in some national polls, tightening a close race and reopening pathways for Democrats to secure the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House. The shift in party sentiment is striking, though significant challenges for Harris remain ahead.

“Originally, they were talking about a re-election bid, a new run. Now they’re discussing something entirely different,” said Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “This is a candidate who has energized the party in a way I haven’t seen since 2008.”

The restructured race has left Trump disoriented and nostalgic for his face-off with Biden, whose campaign hopes dissolved following a disastrous CNN debate performance in June. The former president has faced a series of chaotic campaign events, leading party strategists to urge him to focus. While Harris has yet to face unscheduled tough questions, she has successfully positioned herself as the change agent in a campaign despite her role in Biden’s unpopular presidency.

The party’s late attempt to salvage what many view as the most critical election in a generation carries risks. Democrats have entrusted their fate to a vice president not previously seen as a strong political force. Remarkably, Harris has yet to secure a single vote for president, ending her 2019 campaign before Iowa’s primaries and now achieving the nomination by virtual acclamation rather than a primary contest. She faces a crucial debate with Trump on September 10, and her ability to sustain campaign momentum will be tested in upcoming TV interviews.

The Democrats gather under the historic shadow of the 1968 convention in Chicago, where activist violence over the Vietnam War painted an unflattering image of the party, leading to a Republican law-and-order message. There are parallels with that fateful convention, which featured Democratic Vice President Hubert Humphrey trying and failing to win after incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson’s withdrawal.

Protests are expected next week, particularly from pro-Palestinian groups criticizing Biden’s support for Israel amid the Gaza war. However, it remains unclear if progressive and Arab-American voters who protested Biden in the primaries, especially in Michigan, will similarly threaten Harris’s November hopes.

Harris faces extraordinary pressure in her Thursday night speech to present herself to Americans unfamiliar with her history and ideas. Biden’s Monday night address will be crucial, marking the official handover of party leadership to Harris while he remains president.

To bolster the message, Democrats will turn to former President Barack Obama on Tuesday night. Two decades after his breakout speech at the convention and nearly eight years after leaving the White House, the party will once again rely on Obama’s rhetorical prowess.

Harris has effectively infused her party with Obama-style optimism and hope. A successful convention could project a spirit of unity and boost her campaign ahead of the final stretch.

Benefiting from generational contrasts with Biden, 81, and Trump, 78, Harris is framing her campaign as a fight for America’s future amid historic possibilities: if elected, she would be the first Black and Indian-American president. At a lively Philadelphia rally earlier this month, where she introduced Walz as her running mate, Harris framed her appeal to voters around freedom: economic opportunities, reproductive rights, voting rights, and safety from gun violence. “Tim and I have a message for Trump and others who want to turn back the clock on our fundamental freedoms: we will not go backward,” she said.

Former California Attorney General Harris, who prosecuted financial and sexual offenders, also crafted a new message against Trump, who faces four indictments and awaits sentencing for hush money payments in New York. “I’ve faced perpetrators of all kinds: predators who abused women, scammers who defrauded consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their gain. So, listen when I say: I know the kind of Donald Trump,” she stated.

Two pre-convention polls—from CBS News/YouGov and ABC News/The Washington Post/Ipsos—showed Harris with a narrow lead over the former president. Battleground state polls indicate she is competitive in crucial “blue wall” states: Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Harris has also reopened multiple paths to the White House, including in Sun Belt states previously considered out of reach when Biden was the candidate.

However, Harris is only beginning her confrontation with Trump, who has shown he will do anything, even threatening democracy, to regain power. The former president has labeled Biden’s transition to Harris a “constitutional coup,” raising fears he might challenge another democratic election loss in November.

Trump launched a new attack against Harris over the weekend following her unveiling of an economic plan promising to lower housing costs and crack down on supermarket giants accused of price gouging. Trump seized on conventional economists’ criticisms of the plan as state-driven price controls causing shortages in stores.

Harris’s surprisingly populist and progressive approach is a gamble, as Trump tries to portray her as an ultra-liberal socialist or communist.

Despite employing a controversial economic plan, Harris’s strategy may succeed politically. She is appealing to voters weary of years of inflation and high prices post-pandemic. Most polls still show Trump as more reliable on the economy. However, at his Pennsylvania rally on Saturday, Trump showed signs of concern over Harris’s edge on an issue his campaign has sought to anchor the election. He described her plan as “very dangerous because it may sound good politically, and that’s the problem.”

Biden framed his campaign against Trump as a fight for the soul of the nation and a vital mission to preserve democracy. Yet, he struggled to reconcile his unpopularity, especially on the economy, with a presidency that, legislatively, may be the most prolific Democratic administration since Johnson’s.

His prime-time speech on the first night of the convention—rather than the final night as originally planned, reserved for the nominee—will poignantly underscore the shift in the Democratic formula.

At his first formal event with Harris since withdrawing from re-election, Biden appeared moved by the crowd’s reception in a Maryland suburb. This was likely a preview of the adoration expected to rain down from the rafters of Chicago’s United Center for a president who, despite his reluctance to leave the race, is viewed by his party as a model of political self-sacrifice and patriotism.

“President Biden will go down in U.S. history as one of the most consequential presidents ever,” said Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Sunday. “He made a very selfless decision to pass the torch to Vice President Harris, who is a brave, compassionate, and sensible leader.”

That’s exactly the message Democrats hope millions of Americans will take away from their convention.

Demócratas Celebran el Audaz Cambio de Biden a Harris

Esta semana, los demócratas marcarán uno de los movimientos de poder más audaces de la historia política moderna con una convención reconfigurada apresuradamente para impulsar a Kamala Harris hacia una presidencia histórica.

El evento comienza con el discurso del presidente Joe Biden el lunes por la noche, donde será elogiado por su decisión reacia de pasar la antorcha. A los 81 años, Biden, a pesar de un mandato productivo, enfrentó presión de su partido para terminar su intento de reelección debido al desgaste de su carrera de 50 años.

El mes pasado, Biden anunció su retiro, diciendo a los estadounidenses, “La historia está en sus manos. El poder está en sus manos. La idea de Estados Unidos está en sus manos.” La respuesta del partido fue una rápida adhesión a Harris, de 59 años, sofocando las esperanzas de una carrera con múltiples candidatos entre las estrellas demócratas en ascenso.

Con Harris y el gobernador de Minnesota, Tim Walz, liderando el boleto, los demócratas buscan evitar el regreso de Donald Trump a la Casa Blanca en medio del pánico por un segundo mandato dedicado a la “venganza”.

Los republicanos, convencidos de una victoria abrumadora en su convención en Milwaukee el mes pasado, vieron a su candidato salir herido pero desafiante tras un intento de asesinato. Mientras tanto, la Convención Nacional Demócrata, que inicialmente se perfilaba como una sombría despedida a un presidente envejecido que perdía terreno ante Trump en estados clave, ha sido revitalizada por Harris, inyectando nueva energía y sanando posibles fracturas en el partido.

Harris ha logrado una ventaja estrecha sobre Trump en algunas encuestas nacionales, ajustando una carrera muy reñida y reabriendo caminos para que los demócratas aseguren los 270 votos electorales necesarios para ganar la Casa Blanca.