CHICAGO — Vice President Kamala Harris only entered the presidential race a month ago, so it's unsurprising to see trace evidence all over the Democratic National Convention of the original plans for when President Joe Biden was the presumptive nominee. The order of the states for the ceremonial roll call, the choice speaking slots for folks like Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, and even a party platform so hastily rewritten it mentions Biden's "second term": all ghosts of the convention that would have been if Biden hadn't stepped down. Unsurprising, the most prominent relic of the alt-history convention was Biden's Monday night speech, which focused on the theme of his now-deceased campaign: "clear and present threats to our very democracy" from Donald Trump.
"Democracy has prevailed, democracy has delivered, and now democracy must be preserved," Biden declared. In contrast, the Harris campaign has downplayed the "democracy" talk in favor of another word: freedom.
"In this election, many other fundamental freedoms are at stake," Harris said in her convention speech Thursday night, listing everything from reproductive rights to the right to vote. But she connected it into a larger, more aspirational vision. "Here in this country, everything is possible. Nothing is out of reach."
Citing a lesson from her mother, Harris told the nation, "Never let anyone tell you who you are. You show them who you are."
Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, Harris' running mate, struck a similar tone in his 16-minute speech Wednesday night. "When Republicans use the word freedom," he said, they mean freedom "to invade your doctor’s office," "to pollute your air and water," and "to take advantage of customers." Democrats, in contrast, "mean the freedom to make a better life for yourself and the people that you love."
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Harris even uses "Freedom" by Beyoncé as her walk-on music. The watchword of the defunct Biden campaign — "democracy" — has faded into the background as this "freedom" messaging takes over. And some political observers are worried about this change.
"Harris should not abandon democracy as a campaign issue, but rather double down on it," Vox's Zack Beauchamp wrote, citing studies suggesting that "democracy" messaging works well on "moderate Trump-skeptical Republicans." He argued that such a message could be folded into the "freedom" message by "highlighting attacks on democratic freedoms," such as the "freedom to vote."
By recentering the conversation onto "freedom," Harris has made the conversation about goals, not processes.
It's overstated to say Harris' campaign has abandoned the "democracy" language. The week's program, for instance, featured speakers and segments on the January 6 insurrection. In her convention speech, Harris reminded the crowd of Trump's coup, arguing he "fanned the flames" of the riot. Multiple speakers at the convention highlighted how the vote was hard-won for certain Americans. But the campaign does seem to feel that "democracy" is too abstract. Americans support democracy in theory, but in practice, it can be confusing or opaque. Many voters can't say who their governor or senator is, much less their local representatives. "Democracy" is a word that may sound soaring to political junkies, but feels bureaucratic and frankly bloodless to many others.
"Freedom," in contrast, is an idea more people can wrap their hands around, especially with MAGA Republicans openly gunning to take away freedoms that protect the most intimate parts of people's lives, like who they marry or when they have children. The path between your vote and the end goal of policies can seem byzantine. But losing the right to abortion is immediately visceral. Most everyone knows how life-derailing an unwanted pregnancy or medical emergency can be.
When Salon asked delegates and other attendees at the DNC what they think makes MAGA "weird," few of them mentioned the Capitol riot or Trump's attempted coup, though both are abnormal in American history. Instead, most folks cited the obsessive way that MAGA leaders like Trump or his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, want to control the daily lives of everyday Americans. They cited book bans, abortion bans, the rejection of gay rights, the bans on trans health care, and the attacks on women who choose not to have children. One attendee flagged Trump's hostility towards interracial couples like Harris' parents. Multiple people brought up Project 2025's voluminous suggestions for policies meant to dictate everything from what you're allowed to read to who you're allowed to marry.
So much of what the right, especially the MAGA right, wants is to rob people of their right to be themselves.
In all the hosannas to democracy from Biden and the political elites at MSNBC, what is lost is that democracy isn't an end in itself, but a means, ideally toward more good for more people. People want freedom and security, and democracy is a system that offers the best shot at getting what we want. Biden certainly understands this, which is why he often speaks of how democracy "has delivered." Unfortunately, that message often gets lost when he loses the specifics of what, exactly, democracy has delivered.
By recentering the conversation onto "freedom," Harris has made the conversation about goals, not processes. In doing so, she's making a stronger case for democracy. She's explaining why anyone should care to defend it: to protect the freedoms they care deeply about. Former President Barack Obama laid this argument out more clearly than anyone else at the convention. "Democracy isn’t just a bunch of abstract principles and dusty laws," he told the crowd. "It’s the values we live by, and the way we treat each other — including those who don’t look like us or pray like us or see the world exactly like we do."
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This latter point, about respecting differences, resonated strongly with the convention-goers. What so often gets minimized by Beltway pundits as "identity politics" is experienced as freedom by ordinary people. So much of what the right, especially the MAGA right, wants is to rob people of their right to be themselves.
The popularity of this simple "freedom" framework can be seen in how flatfooted the Trump campaign has been responding to Harris's nomination. Both Trump and Vance clearly want to attack her in boldly misogynist terms, going after her for having dated other men before marrying her husband or not having biological children. But Vance deeming her a "miserable cat lady" backfired, only drawing more attention to how Republican leaders want to micromanage the uteruses of America. As Kate Riga of Talking Points Memo pointed out in a recent podcast, "We haven't even really seen discussion about the fact that she kept her last name" when she married Doug Emhoff. It's a sign that even the Trump campaign is starting to worry that the obsession with controlling women's personal choices might hurt them politically.
Ultimately, the choice to go with "freedom" over "democracy" does come down to vibes. This irritates some pundits, as "vibes" are hard to measure. But that doesn't change the fact that vibes — or what might have been previously called the national mood — matter quite a bit. The "democracy" framework has a seriousness to it that verges on dour. In 2020, during a deadly pandemic, that tone was effective. In 2022, with the loss of abortion rights and January 6 still fresh in people's minds, a downbeat message still had resonance. In 2024, however, it seems people are tired of the negativity and want something more upbeat. Freedom isn't just something to protect, but aspirational. Harris and Walz are projecting an image of a country where we all get to do our own thing, and people chill out, accepting not everyone has to be exactly the same. It's a lovely message of acceptance and peace. Only weirdoes could have a problem with it.
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