Harris takes in historic moment
1st woman of color on major ticket accepts VP nomination
WILMINGTON, Del. — The Democrats’ historic boundary breakers joined forces Wednesday night at the party’s national convention, pleading for Joe Biden’s diverse coalition to put voting ahead of everything else this fall to end the administration of President Donald Trump.
Their overriding message: Don’t just complain about Trump and his chaotic leadership; vote because your lives and democracy itself may be at stake.
Hillary Clinton, the first woman nominated for president by a major party, spoke ahead of Barack Obama, the nation’s first Black president, and Kamala Harris, Biden’s running mate and the first woman of color on a major party ticket.
“For four years, people have said to me, ‘I didn’t realize how dangerous he was.’ ‘I wish I could go back and do it over.’ Or worst, ‘I should have voted,’ ” Clinton said. “Well, this can’t be another woulda coulda shoulda election.”
She added: “Vote like our lives and livelihoods are on the line, because they are.”
The third night of the Democrats’ all-online fourday convention focused on the party’s commitment to progressive values on issues like gun violence and climate change, while highlighting speakers most likely to connect with women and people of color, voters whose energy this fall could ultimately decide the outcome.
Democrats targeted Trump’s policies and personality throughout, casting him as cruel in his treatment of immigrants, disinterested in the nation’s climate crisis and over his head in virtually all of the nation’s most pressing challenges.
Above all, there was an urgent focus on voting.
Harris, a 55-year-old California senator whose parents are Jamaican and Indian, made a surprise appearance early in the program, calling on Biden’s supporters to have a specific “voting plan” to overcome the obstacles to voting raised by the coronavirus pandemic and postal slowdowns.
“When we vote things change, when we vote things get better, when we vote we address the need for all people to be treated with dignity and respect,” Harris said. “So each of us needs a plan, a voting plan.”
Harris, who formally accepted the vice presidential nomination, said the nation is at a critical point, struggling under Trump’s “chaos,” “incompetence” and “callousness.”
“We can do better and deserve so much more,” Harris says. “We must elect a president who will bring something different, something better, and do the important work. A president who will bring all of us together — Black, White, Latino, Asian, Indigenous — to achieve the future we collectively want.”
Harris followed Obama in a political hand-off that could help shape the next generation of Democratic politics.
Obama — who remains perhaps the biggest star in the Democratic Party — delivered a live address from the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia.
American democracy might not survive another four years of Trump, he warned. He urged voters to “embrace your own responsibility as citizens — to make sure that the basic tenets of our democracy endure. Because that’s what is at stake right now. Our democracy.”
In remarks remarkable for their dismissiveness of a U.S. president by his predecessor, Obama declared, “Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t.”
He added: “I have sat in the Oval Office with both of the men who are running for president. I never expected that my successor would embrace my vision or continue my policies. I did hope, for the sake of our country, that Donald Trump might show some interest in taking the job seriously; that he might come to feel the weight of the office and discover some reverence for the democracy that had been placed in his care.”
The former president hopes to serve as a bridge between those reassured by
Biden’s lengthy resume and more moderate record, and a younger generation of Democrats agitating for more dramatic change.
Just 75 days before the election, Biden faces the difficult task of energizing each of the disparate factions that make up the modern-day Democratic Party — a coalition that spans generation, race and ideology. And this fall voters must deal with concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic that has created health risks for those who want to vote in person.
Biden leads many polls, but his supporters report being motivated far more by antipathy toward Trump than genuine excitement about Biden, a 77-year-old white man who has spent nearly a half century in politics.
Democrats hope that Harris and Obama in particular can help bridge the divide between those reassured by Biden’s establishment credentials and those craving bolder change.
The pandemic has forced Biden’s team to abandon the traditional convention format in favor of an all-virtual affair.
The Democratic convention will build to a finale Thursday night when Biden delivers his acceptance speech in a mostly empty convention hall near his Delaware home.