Behind the rhetoric in the presidential election campaign lies a competition over how to tell the American story

NEW YORK (AP) — Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic nomination “in the name of all whose history could only be written in the greatest nation on earth.” America, Barack Obama thundered: “is ready for a better story.” JD Vance insisted that the Biden administration “is not the end of our history,” and Donald Trump called on his Republicans to to “write our own exciting chapter in American history.”

“This week,” comedian and former Obama administration speechwriter Jon Lovett said Thursday on NBC, “it was about a story.”

In the discourse of American politics, this kind of discussion from both sides is not surprising – indeed, it is appropriate. Because in the 2024 election campaign, the term “story” is omnipresent, just as it is in the fabric of American culture as a whole.

This year’s conventions were, like so many of their kind, curated collections of sophisticated stories, carefully spun to achieve one goal: getting elected. But behind them lurked a bitter, high-stakes battle to tell the greatest story of all – the story about America, which should be, as Harris put it, “the next great chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told.”

American history – an improbable tale full of twists and turns that sometimes feels, as so many like to say, “like a movie” – is at the core of American culture for a unique reason.

Americans live in one of the few societies built not on centuries of shared culture, but on stories themselves – “the shining city on the hill,” “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” “all men are created equal.” Even catchy advertising campaigns – “Experience the USA in your Chevrolet” – are part of it. In a sense, the United States – not coincidentally the place where the pioneer myth, Hollywood and Madison Avenue were born – has achieved its existence and meaning by repeating its history over and over again.

The campaign teams understand this. That’s why they are presenting voters with two different – some would even say completely opposite – versions of American history.

How the two parties use stories

Republicans offer a different version of the story: They insist that to make America great again in the future, we must fight to revive traditional values ​​and reclaim the moral strength and bravery of past generations. In his speech at the party’s convention last month, Trump invoked three different conflicts – the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and World War II – to evoke the glorious achievements of American history.

To support their vision, the GOP used musicians such as Kid Rock, star wrestler Hulk Hogan and Lee Greenwood to sing “God Bless the USA.” Trump knelt in front of the fire equipment of Corey Comparatore – Translationwho had been killed in an assassination attempt on the candidate a few days earlier. Vance spoke of “villains” and told the coming-of-age story of the Appalachian he told in “Hillbilly Elegy”.

Republicans, as they often do, used military storylines and brought in the families of killed soldiers to criticize President Joe Biden’s “weak” leadership. And they did everything they could to influence their electorate. Vance’s wife Usha, who is of Indian descent, praised him as “a down-to-earth guy” – a classic American cliché – while stressing that he respected her vegetarian diet and had learned to cook Indian food for her mother.

“What could I say that hasn’t been said before?” she said, introducing Vance. “After all, the man has already been the subject of a Ron Howard film. ”

And the Democrats? Their convention last week focused on a new and different future, full of “joy” and free from what Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called “Trump’s politics of darkness.” It was a hinted “Star Wars” metaphor if ever there was one.

It was hard to miss the fact that the Democrats were not only rallying around the multi-ethnic and multicultural nation embodied by Harris, but that they were also systematically trying to reclaim those blunt parts of American history that had been in Republican hands in recent years.

The flag was everywhere, as was the idea of ​​freedom. Tim Walz entered to the tune of John Mellencamp’s “Small Town,” an ode to the vision of America that Usually the Republicans trumpet. Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota explained the qualities of a regular guy that Walz embodies – someone who can change a car light, a hunter, a “dad in plaid.”

The former geography teacher They also explored the history of football coaches, and burly guys in Mankato West Scarlets jerseys streamed onto the stage to the sounds of the marching band The Halls of Montezuma. They even enlisted a former Republican congressman to reinforce all the imagery by saying the quiet part out loud.

“I want to let my Republican colleagues in on the secret: Democrats are just as patriotic as we are,” said Adam Kinzinger, a Trump-critical Republican from Illinois.

Bringing it all together

Watching the videos and testimony from both conventions, one narrative technique stood out: what journalists call “character-driven” stories. Whether it was advocating for abortion rights, warning against illegal mass immigration, or spreading anger about inflation, “ordinary” Americans became the narrative building blocks for national concerns.

Historian Heather Cox Richardson put it this way in her Substack post about the DNC: “Letters from an American”, last week: “The many stories in which ordinary Americans rise from adversity through hard work, decency and service to others implicitly conflate these individual struggles with the struggles of the United States itself.”

In the last generation, the tools of storytelling have become more democratic. We are all publishers now—on X, on TikTok, on Instagram, on Truth Social. And we are all storytellers, telling mini versions of the American story however we choose. Perspectives that have long been silenced and suppressed are finding their way into the light.

Putting aside questions of truth and misinformation, how can a unifying American story be evoked when hundreds of millions of people today can tell it differently and from their own perspectives? Democratization is beneficial, but it can also be chaotic and difficult to understand.

“A people that cannot stand together cannot exist at all,” Poet Amanda Gorman she said in her speech to the DNC. But is unity more difficult than ever, given the many stories to think through? Is there even a single, unifying “American story”? Should there be?

Ultimately, this election is more about storytelling than ever before. Because the loudest, most compelling story – cleverly told using the high-performance communications tools of the 21st century – is likely to win.

In the meantime, attempts to co-opt and spread versions of this story will continue through Election Day and beyond. As long as there is an American nation, millions of people will try to explain to us what it means – desperately, angrily, optimistically, urgently. Stories are a powerful weapon, and also an effective metaphor. As Walz said of the passing of Trump and Vance, “I’m ready to close the chapter.”

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Ted Anthony, director of new storytelling and newsroom innovation at The Associated Press, has been writing about American culture and politics for 35 years. Follow him on https://x.com/anthonyted