Order or chaos, freedom or tyranny. "This election is probably the most important vote you have ever cast. This election goes beyond choosing between two parties and two candidates. It is a choice about whether we want a country with freedom for all or one governed by chaos and division." That is the message Kamala Harris delivered on Tuesday from the heart of Washington, in her most crowded and widely covered rally, with the White House behind and the grand obelisk in front. "We are not just a vehicle for the plans of a wannabe dictator. The U.S. is the greatest idea ever conceived by humanity," she said in response to the new mantra of the Republican leader, who believes the nation has become "a huge garbage can."
There are few places in the world as laden with symbols and symbolism as the Washington DC Mall, the area that stretches from the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol and from the White House to the Jefferson Memorial. It is the first thing that comes to mind for millions of Americans when they think of the federal government, the Founding Fathers, and the notion of homeland and freedom. It is where institutions are honored, where presidents take their oath of office, where discontent is expressed, where wars and injustices are protested. But also where, in times when peace is not guaranteed, resources are mobilized and the most important messages are sent.
When Charles L'Enfant presented his Plan for the U.S. capital to President George Washington, he included all kinds of geometric figures. The most well-known today are the Federal Triangle, the Pentagon, the Octagon House Museum, the Washington Circle, and, of course, prominently, the Ellipse, although its current shape, south of the White House, was outlined in the late 19th century. Soldiers and livestock were stationed there during the Civil War (1861-1865), depots and barracks were set up in World War I, and emergency offices and anti-aircraft batteries in World War II. And it is where on January 6, 2021, Donald Trump, on one of the darkest days in the country's history, urged his supporters to march on the Capitol to not accept the election results: "We fight with all our might. And if we don't fight with all our might, we will no longer have a country," he said, urging them not to accept defeat.
When Trump finished his speech at 1:10 p.m. that day, the assault had already begun. They informed him immediately, but it was not until 4:17 p.m. that he sent a message to his supporters using his Twitter account to ask them to withdraw. Those 187 minutes of infamy are what the country's vice president and Democratic Party candidate in the elections, Kamala Harris, referred to repeatedly in her anticipated 'closing speech' before more than 75,000 people, according to the organization. "Almost 250 years ago, the United States was born when we wrested our freedom from a petty tyrant. Throughout the generations, Americans have preserved freedom, expanded it, and in doing so, have shown the world that a government of the people, by the people, and for the people is strong and can endure. Those who came before us, the patriots of Normandy and Selma, of Seneca Falls and Stonewall, on the farms and in the factories, did not fight, did not sacrifice, and did not give their lives just to see us relinquish our fundamental freedoms, just to see us submit to the will of another petty tyrant," Harris said, eliciting the loudest ovations.
'Closing arguments' they call it in American politics, using courtroom terminology, something familiar to the former California prosecutor. An argument that is not actually the last, as the campaign continues until next Monday, but it is the most symbolic. Historically, it has been when the candidate summarized their strategy, priorities; recapped their virtues and promises. But also the occasion to present their rival for judgment.
Harris started this strange, atypical race in July with a message focused on optimism, hope, recovery, and unity. But now, with less than seven days left until the elections, she has regained the essence that Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden used with very different success before: Trump is "a fascist," a "danger," the "greatest threat to the history of democracy". And that, in this country, and in that almost sacred place, is significant.
Tactically, it does not make sense a priori for a Democratic candidate to campaign in the capital, a 'blue stronghold,' especially when there is so little time left and so many swing states at stake. Seven, no less: Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, and especially Pennsylvania. But if there is one thing that sets Harris apart from Biden, at least in electoral terms, it is that she has shown that symbols and their two main themes of discourse, abortion and the attack on institutions in 2020 (the only truly solid ones, where she does not waver, change her mind, or need a prompter to speak) are truly a priority.
That's why she went to Houston, in the heart of Texas, last Monday to talk about reproductive rights alongside Beyoncé, even though they have no chance of winning that state. That's why she went to Florida before on the 50th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, the ruling that from 1973 to 2022 laid the legal foundation for abortion in the U.S., until the Supreme Court controlled by the conservative majority overturned it. Or to Tennessee to talk about gun control. Victory on those days was not in the polls, as it is not this Tuesday in Washington, a completely Democratic territory no matter what happens. But it is in the media coverage, in the country's attention, in not letting the issue fade into the background. That's why Harris chose the Mall, chose the Ellipse. And that's why tens of thousands of people decided to join her on a November afternoon.
Jennifer O'Malley Dillon, her campaign manager, explained hours before the vice president took the stage, with the White House in the background but no sign of Joe Biden, mercilessly sidelined from rallies, that the message was aimed at the millions of undecided voters, in whose hands everything lies. The goal was to offer them "a new generation of leadership", completely removed from Trump, but also distant from Biden, both politicians around 80 years of age.
Her intervention generally followed the classic script, as seen from coast to coast. A touch of her biography, daughter of immigrants and middle class. A touch of what inspired her. Promises of an economic agenda of opportunities and future, with an affordable cost of living. And the commitment, similar to that of any candidate, always, to unite the country and overcome partisanship. But the core was the frontal opposition to the Republican project. While she insisted that the U.S. is the best country in the world, and asked for the trust of the undecided to "begin writing the next chapter of the most extraordinary story ever told," her rival, at a rally in Pennsylvania, insisted on the dystopian and apocalyptic vision of a U.S. turned into a "garbage can," insecure and dangerous, dominated by criminal gangs.
Harris targets almost all possible groups, from African Americans to Latinos, but especially white women with higher education and white men in general, the key demographic in most of the states in play. The notable absentees are Arabs and Muslims, important in Michigan, for example, whom they systematically ignore because support for Israel is non-negotiable and without any possible nuance. The best example was represented by the protests in several areas of the Ellipse, even some just meters from Harris, who were promptly removed by security as soon as they spoke out calling for an embargo on both or an end to military aid to Tel Aviv.