Kamala Harris rose to prominence in the Democratic Party, promising unity in America but without giving a voice to Palestine

The excitement of starting over, when everything still has to be done and done together. Kamala Harris has closed the Democratic Convention, making it the starting point of a new beginning for the party and the country. “With this election our country has a precious opportunity to set a new path forward, leaving behind bitterness, skepticism and divisive battles. Not as members of a party or a faction, but as Americans,” Harris said, extending her hand to the whole of American society.

The candidate has drawn a horizon in which all of America fits and in which the polarization that began with the emergence of Donald Trump in 2015 ends: “Let’s write together the next great chapter of the greatest story ever told.” The Democrat has taken the space that Trump decided to leave empty during his acceptance speech in Milwaukee: that of reconciliation. After being shot in Pennsylvania, the tycoon was expected to give a speech appealing for unity. But in the end, the only unity he appealed to was his own unity.

Now we just have to see if undecided voters will ultimately accept the hand that Harris has extended to them. Although the United Center’s position has been shaken by every word of the presidential candidate, they really did turn the page on the idea of ​​trying to convince voters who are not affiliated with any party and who will be crucial in November.

Just one month and one day after Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the electoral race on Sunday afternoon, Harris gave her acceptance speech for the candidacy. At her feet, many of the attendees and delegates were dressed in white, the color of suffrage. It is a gesture full of symbolism and that corresponds to the idea that Harris will give women in the country the option to decide about their own bodies. An issue that could not be missing during her intervention as president, since it has been her main portfolio as vice president.

“Believe me, America cannot truly prosper until Americans are fully capable of making decisions about their own lives. There are too many women in the United States today who cannot make these decisions,” Harris defended. Once again, Democrats have addressed the issue of abortion from the perspective of the right to freedom.

Throughout her speech, Harris has intertwined her personal life with the story of the American dream. The Democrat has recalled her origins as the daughter of a mother who left India at age 19 in search of a better life in California. “We’ve always known that a strong middle class is the key to the success of the United States. This is personal for me, the middle class is where I come from,” she said.

Among countless references to her mother’s teachings, Harris recalled that as an Indian woman, “and one with an accent,” she never allowed herself to be intimidated by labels. “Never let anyone tell you who you are: Show them what you are,” the Democrat quoted. It’s a lesson she now wants to apply to a society that lumps others into different labels. Most are based on prejudice. “We are going to teach each other and the world who we are and what we stand for: freedom, opportunity, compassion, dignity, justice and infinite possibilities,” she added.

Her story is the story of a girl, the daughter of immigrants and of humble origins, who could become the first black president of the United States. The contrast with the life path of Donald Trump, born and raised in a family of billionaires, is striking. “Trump is not really fighting for the middle class,” Harris said, “promising a tax cut for the middle class that would benefit 100 million Americans.”

party of change of power

Throughout her speech, Harris spoke from the position of a party of change. This is one of many parallels that Democrats made with Barack Obama’s campaign in 2007. Although with the slight and important nuance that when Obama presented himself as change he did so after eight years of Republican George Bush’s presidency. Harris does so when her party is in power in 2020.

This dichotomy, however, has been blurred by the sense of fresh air brought by Harris’s replacement in Biden’s place and the fact that Trump’s shadow still looms long. Before completing his term, the former president was responsible for leaving the Supreme Court with a Republican majority. Thus providing continuity to his agenda through judicial resources. Repeal of Roe vs. Wade -which saved abortion- was in 2022, when the Democrats had already been in power for two years, and Trump has always claimed that it was achieved thanks to them.

Unlike Trump, he has also raised fears of a possible second term for the tycoon if he wins next November. “Donald Trump is a very unserious person,” he said. “But the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are very serious.” Among this list of consequences is Project 25, which you cited. He has also accused the former president of being “autocratic.”

Gaza, “devastated” but without the right to speak out

The Gaza war has loomed over the Democratic convention since day one. Pro-Palestinian organizations have been in charge of bringing the conflict to the doorstep of the Joint Center and while protesters did not arrive, there were 30 delegates for a ceasefire in Gaza, a result of more than 700,000 protest votes in the party’s primary.

After raising the profile with a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the progressive wing of the base asked Harris to be more precise. Without deviating from the official discussion about her running mate, the candidate has once again said that “the dimension of the suffering in Gaza is devastating.”

“President Biden and I are working to end this war so that Israel is secure, hostages are freed, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom, and self-determination,” he said.

These words do not seem credible after the Democratic Party rejected a request from 30 non-binding delegates to bring a Palestinian-American man to the stage to speak. These delegates represent more than 700,000 protest votes against the Gaza war that were cast during the party’s primaries.

The denials became even more severe when John Polin and Rachel Goldberg Polin, the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, one of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas during the October 7 attacks, took the stage on Wednesday. The young man’s mother spoke for 10 minutes about the horror she has experienced since her son’s abduction. The woman burst into tears on stage while the audience surrounded her and chanted “Bring them home.”

While Goldberg can explain her pain, that is not the case for Palestinian victims. Denying that a Palestinian-American can address the stadium represents the first crack in Harris’s image as a president who seeks to govern for all Americans.