The prevailing mood of the Democratic National Convention, which concluded Thursday when Vice President Kamala Harris formally accepted her party’s nomination for president, was something a little more complex than mere joy. It was joy laced with playful contempt. Joy that could cut through.
For years, Democrats have been criticized for refusing to stand up for themselves. They have been criticized for going high while their Republican rivals go low.
It’s not that anyone wants Democrats to embrace the kind of invective that GOP officials are throwing around. No, Democratic Party supporters just want their leaders and allies to, as a Beyoncé song goes, take down their haters.
And this week, they did. Their approach seemed tactical — a way to capitalize on the good vibes the party has been generating since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race in July, and potentially boost voter turnout.
“In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man,” Harris said sarcastically. “But the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.”
And Harris, on Project 2025 and Republican leaders’ fight against abortion rights: “Simply put, they’re crazy.”
Harris used her big speech to reintroduce herself to a country that may have forgotten who she is. She drew on how her personal and professional trajectories — being the daughter of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, growing up in a middle-class household, finding inspiration in the legacy of civil rights giants like Constance Baker Motley, climbing the political ladder in California and beyond — have shaped her.
Additionally, Harris echoed themes she emphasized during the campaign, suggesting that her years as a prosecutor gave her a “type” of former President Donald Trump. In a clever move that no doubt angered her opponents, she also reclaimed the mantle of “freedom” from Republicans, noting that the only freedom they care about is the freedom to dominate.
Well, some Republicans. The convention had several GOP members, including John Giles, the mayor of Mesa, Arizona, who feels out of place in a party that has poisoned ideals like freedom and patriotism.
“The Grand Old Party has been kidnapped by extremists and turned into a cult: the cult of Donald Trump,” he said Tuesday. “I have an urgent message for the majority of Americans who, like me, are in the political center: John McCain’s Republican Party is gone, and we owe nothing to what was left behind.”
(Earlier this week, Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, also claimed something else: Fiserv Forum. They sold out a rally in the same arena that hosted the Republican National Convention about a month ago. As one X user put it, “This is diabolical. Filling both the RNC and DNC venues on the same night.”)
Oprah Winfrey took a beating on Wednesday.
“If a house is on fire, we don’t ask the race or religion of the homeowner. We don’t ask who their spouse is or how they voted,” said Winfrey, who, though an independent, is also a longtime Democratic supporter. “We just do our best to save them. And if the place happens to belong to a childless cat lady, well, we try to get that cat out, too.”
The billionaire media mogul’s comment was a dig at Trump’s running mate, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio. In a resurfaced clip, he complained that the country is run by Democrats who are “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are unhappy with their own lives and the choices they’ve made.”
Winfrey ended her speech seamlessly by throwing her arms in the air and singing “Kamala Harris,” as if she was going to surprise the audience with free cars.
But perhaps the most stunning moments of the week came on Tuesday, when the Obamas — paragons of decency — showed that they, too, can clap back.
“There are the childish nicknames. The crazy conspiracy theories. This weird obsession with crowd size,” Barack Obama said, mocking Trump and making an apparent hand gesture. “It just goes on and on and on.”
Before former President Trump was compared to “a neighbor who runs a leaf blower outside your window every minute of the day,” Michelle Obama lobbed some venom at her husband’s successor. Yes, the Michelle Obama who famously advocated taking the high road in 2016.
Read more: Michelle Obama’s poignant speech brings ‘hope’ from 2008 to 2024
“Donald Trump did everything he could to make people afraid of us [the Obamas]she said in her voice-winder. “You see, his limited, narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hard-working, highly educated, successful people who happened to be black.”
Then the former first lady turned the knife.
“I want to know who’s going to tell him that the job he’s looking for right now might be one of those black jobs?” she asked, jokingly, referring to Trump’s bizarre claim in June that immigrants are taking “black jobs.”
Neither the Obamas nor anyone else in the party is as mean or vicious as Trump or his inner circle. But together, this week’s speeches illustrate that Democrats are willing to fight in a way they weren’t eight years ago, while also holding on to their optimistic vision for the country’s future.
“We can be something different”
But the fiery tone this week also seemed strategic — as if it had a purpose: to maintain the dizzying momentum Harris and Walz have created in recent weeks as their electoral prospects have improved.
On the campaign trail, Trump has stuck to a policy of retaliation, vowing to punish his political enemies if he wins in November. He is filled with gloom and doom.
Riding a wave of euphoria, Democrats are offering the exact opposite: hope. It’s a message that resonates with voters at a time of heightened political unrest. It’s also the message Obama embraced during his first run for the White House more than 15 years ago.
“This feels like 2008. And part of it is that people have something to be hopeful about. Trump and the GOP have driven the narrative in this country — and it’s a narrative that’s bleak and dystopian and divisive and hateful,” Adrianne Shropshire, the executive director of BlackPAC, a national organization focused on political engagement, told Capital B.
Read more: Can Kamala Harris revive the political momentum of 2008?
Now, however, there is an opportunity to move in a different direction. And Democrats are seizing it.
“People have this sense of, ‘We don’t have to be this way. We can be something else.’ I really believe that Americans want that. And not just black Americans. All Americans,” Shropshire added. “Americans want to be hopeful and feel good about who we are as a nation. But we’ve been told — for as long as Trump has decided to be on the political stage — that everything is terrible, including us as individuals. I think people fundamentally don’t want that.”
Jovita Lee, the policy director of Advance Carolina, a Black-led grassroots organization, echoed some of these sentiments, highlighting the parallels between 2008 and today.
“A lot of that same energy is there — that hope that people had in 2008 and again in 2012, that sense that there’s something to look forward to and someone to rally behind,” she said. “Before Biden dropped out, things were getting darker and darker, honestly.”
Lee emphasized that her group hopes to maintain this joy by helping volunteers connect with existing organizing networks and systems.
“We’re tapping into the excitement by getting people involved in things like phone banking and voting, and training them to work as poll workers,” she explained. “Everyone’s excited, but we need to turn that into something productive. Divine Nine, do you want to do more? Excellent. We have a Divine Nine program. It’s about helping people find their role.”
With just 70 days to go until November 5, Democrats are counting on them to maintain the enthusiasm that comes with changing the top of their ticket.
But Harris made it clear Thursday that she is the underdog and that winning on Election Day — and with it the chance to create a more inclusive America — won’t happen without a fight.
“So let’s get out there — let’s fight for it! Let’s get out there — let’s vote for it!” she roared. “And together, let’s write the next great chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told.”
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