Fourth night at the Democratic Party Convention: Kamala Harris tells her story

Watching the final speech of a party conference is like watching a movie after reading tweets about it for a few weeks. You find yourself nodding along to the plot points and almost reciting the sentences out loud. Kamala Harris was a prosecutor. Her mother’s name is Shyamala. Yet something felt new, surprisingly new, as Harris took the stage at the United Center on Thursday. History is moving really, really fast.

One month and one day before Harris’ speech, Joe Biden dropped out of the race. 32 days! Harris secured the nomination, chose Tim Walz as her running mate after a quick audition, and experienced an upswing in the polls.

The first thing Harris had to do Thursday was fill in the gaps in her narrative left by her sudden promotion. She began by talking about her mother. Shyamala Harris was a “brilliant, 5-foot-tall woman with dark skin and an accent,” she said. Shyamala Harris came to America from India at age 19 to cure breast cancer. While raising Harris and her sister Maya, she worked all the time.

Throughout the week, speakers had tried to make Harris’ upbringing seem familiar. “Her story is your story,” said Michelle Obama. “She is us,” said Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Harris portrayed her mother as a moral teacher: “Never let anyone tell you who you are. She show them who you are.”

Harris spoke about Wanda, her best friend from high school, who was sexually abused by a relative. Harris told Wanda to come home to her family. This incident inspired her to become a lawyer. Earlier in the evening, the words “The Protector” had flashed on the screen at the United Center.

Biographical sketches are a long-standing part of conventions. Sitting in the upper tier, I wondered how many of these details voters – even the most starved media consumers – knew before Thursday night. Kerry Washington, the evening’s moderator, performed a funny skit with Harris’ great-nieces about how to pronounce “Kamala.” Glancing at the teleprompter, I noticed that Harris’ name was spelled phonetically for certain speakers. At least one “Tim Walls” was also included. For many voters, the Democratic slate consists of two familiar-looking people they are just getting to know.

Harris’ second task on Thursday was to convince voters who a month ago did not think she was a plausible president that she could do the job in January. Her speech was serious. Much of the Night was serious. You don’t put Leon Panetta on prime time if you want to make America laugh.

Political speeches usually contain moments of humor, awkward humor, that give the audience breathing room before the candidate gets to the heart of the matter. Harris’ speech, which she co-wrote with former Obama aide Adam Frankel, had almost none of that.

As SemaforBenjy Sarlin pointed out that Harris spoke like the California prosecutor Democrats expected in the 2020 primary. Harris sounded prepared, precise and, to use her word, lethal. She made her points: about abortion rights, border security, foreign policy, patriotism. When she spoke of the “privilege and pride of being an American” – the most important line of her speech – the crowd waved flags.

On Thursday, patriotism was palpable throughout the hall. What coach talk was on the third night of the convention was flag waving on the fourth night. I haven’t heard so many USA chants since a WrestleMania in the ’80s.

Earlier this month, the chant broke out seemingly spontaneously at the first Harris-Waltz rally in Philadelphia. Now Democrats are trying to chant it as often as possible. The first chant, on Thursday, began after a performance by the Chicago Bulls drumline. At the end of a speech by Ruben Gallego, the Arizona congressman and Senate candidate who served with the Marines in Iraq, the teleprompter instructed Gallego to “start a chant of USA USA USA.” The American flags grew larger as the night went on.

This obligatory patriotic fervor made it seem a little like the Democrats were patting themselves on the hands after leaning on celebrity guests. The big news of the evening was a rare TMZ newsbreaker failure: Beyoncé not come to the convention. Still, Thursday’s non-Beyoncé lineup included Washington, Tony Goldwyn, DL Hughley, The Chicks and Pink. And that doesn’t even include a biographical film about Harris, inevitably narrated by Morgan Freeman. (Question: How many of those people would have shown up to a convention chaired by Biden?)

The seriousness of Harris’ speech gave the convention a kind of narrative structure. Conventions get bigger and bigger the closer they get to the candidate’s acceptance speech. They are not always concentrated– see Donald Trump’s tribute to the excesses in Milwaukee. Harris’ speech was a sober address at the end of a big party. Have a good day until November 5th, okay?

Throughout the history of the resistance, Democrats have struggled to find a way to talk about Trump. In 2016, Trump was portrayed as a moron who could not possibly win the election. Oops. Biden preferred the opposite approach, calling him the killer of American democracy. The slogan, while effective, may not move voters as much as it once did. (A video the Democrats showed, using Capitol Police bodycam footage from Jan. 6, would be a good antidote to anti-democracy fatigue.)

Harris found a good middle ground. “Donald Trump is an untrustworthy man,” she said. But the consequences of his actions are “extremely serious,” she continued. That was better than Barack Obama’s statement that Trump was a stupid neighbor with a leaf blower.

By the time we made it to the fourth night of the convention, it felt like we had reached the end of a long awards ceremony – and not just because of the celebrity crowd. “It’s Thursday,” convention attendees and media representatives said to each other. Of course, Tuesday felt like Thursday.

Together we swallowed one last power-up. At 5 p.m. Central, the upper deck of the United Center was full. I saw several large New York Times Reporters who were sent away by the ushers. Ta-Nehisi Coates was sent away. People without seats positioned themselves in the aisles and on the stairs. They were chased away by ushers and came back after the ushers had disappeared.

As we looked down on Harris, standing on the stage in a ring of shining stars, the moment of her nomination felt inevitable and yet surprising. She is the nominee. She could be the presidentThere are still 74 days until the election.