By all accounts, Kamala Harris’ acceptance speech at the conclusion of the Democrat National Convention last week was well-written and well-delivered.
It did what it was designed to do: complete the wondrous transformation — achieved in record time by the Democrat Party elite with extensive help from the mainstream media — of a ridiculed and unpopular sitting vice president into a charismatic candidate for the presidency. (READ MORE: The Democrat Party is a Cult)
Kamala Harris also benefited from that most subtle of advantages: the blessing of low expectations. Lampooned for years for her inane word salads, she stood and delivered with the sudden skill of a pool shark finally playing for money after previously demonstrating clumsiness on the felt.
Those who would poke holes in the speech whether as not her words, as nearly empty of actual content, as unnecessarily nasty to her opponent, or as consisting largely of platitudes, miss the point.
A huge swathe of the American electorate today forms its opinions of candidates on totally different grounds from how past generations evaluated whom they would vote for. A politician’s actual ideas, intelligence, record, or character count for little if anything.
From a People of Reason to a People of Feeling
That is because, as a society, we have largely transitioned from a people of reason to a people of feeling. And when it comes to important political speeches, the combination of packaging and feelings (cue all the DNC references to “joy”) easily overpowers statements of fact or appeals to logic.
Political analysts often fail to see the societal wood for the electoral trees. The wood in which this election is being fought is a fundamentally changed America. One in which past political assets are no longer relevant, replaced by new must-haves in the battle for the nation’s hearts (and not so much its minds). (READ MORE: Märtha and Durek Cash In on Their Wedding)
It’s not just feelings instead of facts. It’s very much identity (what you are, not who you are) over substance. Emotion over policy. Newness over experience. Positivity over pragmatism. Niceness over abrasiveness. Brevity over length. Memes over depth. It’s all about the “vibes.”
The Democrat Party understands this. And they have been very quick to realize that, suddenly blessed with all the hardware advantages (woman, bi-racial, attractive, relatively young) that neither Biden nor Trump possess, all they had to do to make Kamala Harris very much electable was to write — quite literally — the right zeitgeist software on which she would operate.
Republicans Should Engage In the Democrat Campaign Game
Of course, software programs are not the same as ChatGPT. They can’t adapt to new situations, answer queries, and elaborate on statements on the fly. And given Harris’ unhappy experiences with off-the-cuff public and media speaking in her current position, the input — the speechwriting — thus becomes not just a valuable element in her campaign, it becomes her campaign. Hence the rigorous avoidance of press conferences, media interviews, or unscripted public events. The teleprompter is in a sense the real candidate, Kamala Harris its human form.
The debate in September will indeed at long last put Harris on a stage fully exposed to the elements. But here too one can imagine Harris — intensively and ably coached by Team Obama talent — maneuvering the battle to terrain favorable to her, that of personality and emotion. After all, who can remember what was said in the Reagan–Carter debate of 1980 except Reagan’s devastating dismissal of Carter taking point with his genial, “There you go again…”
If the Republican Party can start fighting fire with fire — countering effective words with even better words — and focus on emotions, symbolism, values, and on painting a convincing picture of a more promising future (which is what Trump was able to do with disaffected “flyover country” voters in 2016) it has a chance to make this, at the very least, a closely contested election. (READ MORE: When It Comes to Israel, These People Are Idiots)
Words have always mattered in politics. But the ears receiving them are different now. Clarity, brevity, positivity, projecting likeability, and speaking the new language of persuasion will be key to winning this election. Carefully written and rehearsed speeches are now the key players, in and of themselves.
The Democrats just proved that. Can Trump and the Republicans now figure out that they must not just walk the walk, but also talk the talk?