Vice-President Kamala Harris used her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday to present herself as a pragmatic leader who could unite all Americans behind a “new way forward,” painting her opponent, former President Donald Trump, as a dangerous and “unserious man” whose election would alter the foundation of American democracy.

With a steady voice and a straightforward gaze, Harris, a former prosecutor, presented the lengthiest and most serious case she has made against Trump as a presidential candidate.

At each turn of the nearly 40-minute address, Harris warned that the former President’s truculent behaviour belied a serious and substantive threat to Americans, whether they are seeking access to reproductive health care, concerned about the safety and stability of diplomatic relationships, or worried about the flow of immigrants across the nation’s southern border or about the health of democracy.

“With this election, our nation has a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism and divisive battles of the past,” she said. “A chance to chart a new way forward. Not as members of any one party or faction, but as Americans.”

Speaking to thousands of supporters at the United Center in Chicago, Harris acknowledged that her candidacy was not the one her party was expecting as little as a few weeks ago. But she told the crowd that she was “no stranger to unlikely journeys”, describing herself as the daughter of an Indian scientist whose dreams of a new life in the US became the catalyst for Harris’ legal and political career. Her mother, she said wryly, taught her to “never do anything half-assed”.

Yet Harris did not try to sell her supporters on a presidency that would be wildly different from the one held for the past three-and-a-half years by President Joe Biden, who, as a candidate, fought against a Leftward drift in his party during the 2020 presidential race and later pulled Harris onto the ticket. Biden, 81, also promised to be a uniter at a time when the country was deeply divided and reeling from the coronavirus pandemic.

On Thursday, Harris promoted policies that would address housing affordability, ideas that amount to incremental change from those Biden has laid out. But what is different now is not the policies — it is the candidate, a 59-year old woman who took the stage to rapturous applause and vowed to push her party forward.

For weeks, Harris had approached the biggest speech of her political career knowing that she needed to reintroduce herself to Americans who may know her only as the Vice-President who ascended to the top of the ticket after Biden botched a debate and abandoned his candidacy.

The speech contained the most extensive remarks on foreign policy that Harris has delivered as the presidential nominee. She presented herself as a deliberate and forceful leader and a defender of traditional alliances, in contrast to Trump’s whim-based decisions and coddling of overseas autocrats, while declaring herself prepared to handle the crisis in the Gaza Strip that sapped Biden’s popularity.

“I will not cozy up to tyrants and terrorists, like Kim Jong-un, who are rooting for Trump,” Harris said. (Trump, for his part, responded to the speech on his social media site by saying, “The tyrants are laughing at her, she’s weak and ineffective.”)

New York Times News Service