Confident, Principaled, Presidential. A performance that was uniquely American. Those were the reviews of Kamala Harris’s speech.
As I read the morning opinions, I’m confronted with the unsettling possibility that if Kamala Harris emerges victorious, it will hurry the continuous irrelevance of my beloved journalism. I guess I’m ashamed. The next great commentators will be influencers, not reporters. They seem to know what is going on in our new world.
Witnessing the transformation of Kamala Harris’s story and trajectory is addictive. Once in the shadows, she has stepped into the spotlight as a confident and formidable figure, ready to seize the moment. To her, Trump is an “unserious” man, still a dangerous one.
The so-called experts failed to recognize the brewing revolution. For months, they overlooked the profound change unfolding before them. Change is an easy story to miss if you get too close or lazy (or cheap).
The convention was graced with a series of impactful speeches, all delivered by women. Each speech was a compelling call to action from Hillary Clinton to Michelle Obama, Gretchen Whitney to Oprah Winfrey, and Kamala Harris.
The spirit of Thomas Paine was alive in the convention as these potent and articulate women, who were once denied the right to vote, took the stage.
It was a stirring moment for these women, an opportunity to ignite the revolutionary revolution, which they passionately did. They are formidable warriors, eloquent, tough, and determined.
I have to say Donald Trump does not have a chance to beat this powerful Army.
This is why Kamala Harris will win this election. She’s got it all; the political system’s hoary old machinations are in deep trouble. She is not just an agent of change; she turns out to be change.
“Every night,” wrote a New York Times columnist this morning about the convention, “women have outshined male party stalwarts – sometimes the ones they are married to – in a development that has highlighted the rising power of women in the Democratic Party and left some of the most famous men in politics seemingly playing more of a supporting role.”
Hillary Clinton gave perhaps the best speech of her life. Michelle Obama was not afraid to show the anguish, racism, and cruelty Donald Trump showed her and her husband; he mumbled early this week that he liked and respected the Obamas after insisting for decades that Barack Obama wasn’t even born in America.
She explained exactly what made Trump such a severe threat to democracy, gutting his lies and grievances. She was devastating.
On Wednesday, Governor Tim Walz charmed the convention and the country with his Midwestern charm, but Oprah Winfrey, the most powerful speaker of the day, had already gone. She rocked the convention while she spoke.
“I believe this is the woman’s convention,” said Sarah Godlewski, Wisconsin Secretary of State. Duh, said a bunch of pundits. No kidding.
So that is what all this fuss is about? “Political spouses,” as the term goes, will never be the same.
It was the men who struggled to show their real emotions. Oprah, Michelle Obama, and Clinton have no such trouble. But that makes sense; it’s a women’s revolution, and the father of this one, Donald Trump, and his ideological judges have tried to take women’s right to health care and their own decisions and instead launched a revolution.
They will answer for that.
This is rapidly turning into a nightmare for the self-proclaimed righteous. Paine reminds us that Americans have never really trusted the government; that was the whole idea of the Revolution, and they especially don’t like the government invading their private spaces and decisions.
That was just how the British got in so much trouble. They said their troops could enter people’s houses—and even sleep there—at any time. Or, as the governor said: “Mind Your Own Damn Business.”
The country is shocked by Kamala Harris’s power, eloquence, and authorship.
We’ve been told thousands of times that she is a failure, as dumb as Donald Trump assured us that she is.
That is turning out to be a colossal goof. As usual, Trump has always been his own worst enemy.
He is not Harris’s biggest threat; he is her best friend on the campaign trail. Trump has never understood or respected women; he is sure he is misreading them now, and you can almost hear women all over the country turning to Kamala Harris.
This is a dark moment for journalism, or what is left of it.
This morning, they all warned us this would be a close or scary campaign. Warnings are the bulk of the news they claim to report.
For a while at least, the strong women (and their mothers) stiffened the pines of liberals and progressives, many of whom are still trembling over Donald Trump’s rise and threat.
Meanwhile, the influencers on TikTok and Instagram were beating the brains of the reporters sitting in their booths at the convention itself.
If you spent time on what the influencers were saying or doing on TikTok, you would see they understood what this was all about weeks ago.
They did not spend time in handwringing, clucking, and warnings; they were already hard at work writing their memes and hashtags, buying their beaded necklaces (the camouflage caps are all sold out), signing up volunteers, and grasping Harris’s power and charisma right away.
“…Harris has sometimes seemed like an empty vessel,” wrote Josh Barro. “Now, she has introduced herself in a specific, warm, and uniquely American way, which provides a framework to explain the broadly popular values of freedom and justice she’s espousing.”
“There were so many impressive, effective women presenting, culminating with Harris, of course – that the remarkable almost became unremarkable; I had to force myself to pause and absorb the fact that I was witnessing a revolution.” Yes, and it’s about time.
Do you know what else will have a hard time in the coming weeks?
The media itself: Not so fast, we are warned: “Kamala Harris Faces Challenge of Translating Convention Joy to Fall Momentum.”
In other words, stay scared, no matter what. Harris seems to be off to a brilliant start. Can the media, now being made irrelevant by teenage Influencers, say the same thing about themselves? Harris can take care of herself.
People will be telling you for months how hard it will be, how powerful Trump is, how dirty a politician. I don’t listen to those people anymore. If progressives and liberals – and women – all across the country don’t stiffen their spines now, they will deserve what they get.
For Momen, this is the time, and this is the moment. Six months ago, I wrote on my blog that the women’s revolution needed a reader, a political angel that would come out of nowhere and lead them to the mountain. I don’t lean toward hyperbole, but her speech last night persuaded me that she had finally come, just in the nick of time.
