Why Chicago Means So Much to Kamala

The Democratic National Convention to be held in Chicago (August 19-22) has very little historical precedent: the delegates were actually Joe Biden’s electors and will now have to approve a new slate, as they say, a new pair of candidates for the White House. It is already known that these will be outgoing Vice President Kamala Harris and current Pennsylvania Governor Tim Walz as her running mate. But, if the candidates have already been decided and there will be no primaries as such, it will take quite an effort to understand their political line. American citizens are finally learning the essence of two leaders who until now have been considered second-rate. In fact, it is Kamala Harris who will have to really explain her intentions and demonstrate her qualities these days. The very intentions and qualities that until a few weeks ago were not appreciated even by her own party colleagues. Not to mention American commentators and political analysts.

The first theme, around which the Democrats’ (and the US) fortunes will play out, is a break with the past of the American economy. People always vote with their wallets, especially in the USA. Harris should distinguish herself from Biden, she should try to present herself differently, and not just in terms of clarity of mind (aided by younger age) or African-American descent. There are at least two issues on which this divide is manifesting itself more and more significantly: the approach to economic dilemmas and politics in the Middle East. Ironically, on these two topics, the new candidate for the White House is not so much against Donald Trump as she is against her own past.

“Now is the time to chart a new path forward,” Harris said at a rally on the eve of the Democratic Party convention. “We must build an America where everyone’s work is rewarded and talent is valued, where workers and companies can work hard to strengthen the American economy, and where everyone has the opportunity not just to survive but to get ahead.” Harris’s campaign managers called it all “opportunity economics.” And as the Politico website notes, it’s just “sensational distancing” from the so-called Bidenomics. Harris also noted the excess profits of large companies, hinting at their responsibility for the painful problem of inflation. Two other slogans that may want to signify her break with the past: addressing more affordable housing for all and lowering health care costs for citizens.

Obviously, it’s not just a matter of proposing something more substantial or unusual than what was in the Joe Biden years. There is also an intention to address the economic and social space that Biden’s America has so far ignored and, in a sense, granted to Donald Trump’s political initiative.

Suffice it to recall the book Hillbilly Elegy by vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance, which made him popular among the poorest and most neglected segments of the working class and rural America. The Italian newspaper Il Foglio wanted to discern the influence of Barack Obama and his advisers on Harris’s economic turnaround, which has become more attentive to the interests of the less wealthy classes and more critical of the giants of big business. Giulio Silvano wrote in Il Foglio: “Kamala is already putting the Obama lesson into practice, which is to try to get some of the Republican vote without alienating the center, without losing the undecideds.”

Obama, though portrayed as a “leftist,” has always been a moderate. And the same goes for Harris. Thus, the Republicans for Harris group has launched, trying to get conservatives who can’t stand Trump, perhaps some former voters of Nikki Haley, the last Republican candidate to try to challenge Trump. Obama is only four years older than Harris – and, as the meme makers point out, Harris is the same age as her partner, Midwestern dad Tim Walz (who is also the same age as Brad Pitt). The differences between Kamala and Barack are many, in terms of career and character, and above all, in terms of fame, but given that the goal of the Democratic Party isn’t so much about politics as it is about avoiding another four years of Donald Trump in the White House, the Democrats will use anything to push through a candidate who was literally hated or ignored until a few months ago and turn her into a rights activist and friend of Hollywood stars. Even at the cost of making her cool with all sorts of newfangled pop gadgets. As the Americans say, “whatever works.”

In a less refined form, Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post ran a headline: “Obama secretly running Kamala Harris campaign.”

Another key topic for the upcoming week in Chicago is foreign policy. First, regarding the Middle East. As with inflation, Joe Biden has left a heavy legacy here too: failure to at least slow down Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s initiatives. Verbal protests, drawn out faces, insults along with arms shipments during all the months separating us from October 7, 2023. Kamala Harris is trying to send different signals from the White House in every way possible and is pushing for a ceasefire in Gaza to happen before the end of the Democratic National Convention or at least as soon as possible. This is a delicate situation because a significant portion of the most militant Democratic electorate is sensitive to Palestinian rights and can no longer tolerate the ongoing slaughter of civilians in Gaza, carried out largely with both American weapons and American financial infusions.

There is also the story of the war in Ukraine. And here, the Biden presidency seems to have led the US down a path obligatory from his perspective that risks only increasing escalation. Kamala Harris is unlikely to stray from that line, but she knows full well that one of Donald Trump’s greatest slogans is the promise of immediate peace as soon as he gets to the White House. And if the diplomatic, as well as the economic, advisers are from Barack Obama’s inner circle, there could be surprises at this point as well. White House foreign policy may finally be out of the hands of the neoconservative dwarves who decided everything during the Biden era, i.e., those who follow the “Strangelove trend” and going into a new Cold War.

One final note: Kamala Harris’s style is coming to the forefront these days. A way of approaching American citizens and world public opinion that has to be said is very different from Joe Biden’s approach. No long press conferences, she says it all and in no uncertain terms. Harris speaks more modernly and aggressively, in short sentences and jokes. There are those in Washington who say she chose Tim Walz as her vice-presidential candidate because of his successful jokes about Donald Trump and J.D. Vance who are “weird,” odd, strange, funny; in Italy we would probably say they are generally unrepresentable.

New York Times columnist Ezra Klein wrote: “Harris holds the camera like no politician since Barack Obama… Gone is the grave, stentorian tone of Biden’s news releases. Harris’s communications are playful, mocking, confident, even mean… Biden’s communications strategy was designed to make Trump bigger. Harris’s strategy is to make him smaller.”

Will Harris really win the party in this media game? There will be one meeting after the Chicago convention that will test Klein’s enthusiasm: on September 10, ABC will air the first televised duel between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. And maybe that’s where we’ll find out how the November 5 vote will end.