by Randy Shaw on August 12, 2024 (BeyondChron.org)
A Vision of a Positive Future
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are promoting joy, freedom, and a hopeful future for America. Their optimistic tenor about the nation’s present and future echoes Ronald Reagan’s 1984 re-election campaign. The difference, of course, is that Reagan’s assessment of the nation was a sham. Harris-Walz is backing a progressive agenda for working people and all who believe in democracy and civil rights.
Reagan’s legendary theme was encapsulated in the one-minute television ad declaring it “Morning in America.” Reagan won 49 states in defeating Democrat Walter Mondale.
The 1984 Democratic Convention was in San Francisco. I attended with my press pass from the Tenderloin Times newspaper. This was the convention where New York Governor Mario Cuomo gave his fabled “Tale of Two Cities” keynote.
Cuomo spoke for many Democrats in piercing Reagan’s phony talk about shining cities on a hill: “There is despair, Mr. President, in the faces that you don’t see, in the places that you don’t visit in your shining city. In fact, Mr. President, this is a nation—Mr. President you ought to know that this nation is more “A Tale of Two Cities“ than it is just a “Shining City on a Hill.”
Democrats loved it. Cuomo’s message was music to the ears of those outraged by Reagan’s creation of urban homelessness, slashing programs for seniors, disabled and the poor, and massive tax cuts for the rich. It left many wishing he was the presidential candidate rather than Mondale (Cuomo declined to run).
But American voters didn’t buy it. They preferred Reagan’s message of good times and a brighter future over Cuomo and Mondale’s harsh though more complete diagnosis of the nation’s problems.
Harris-Walz understands that American presidential elections are typically won by the side offering voters a more positive future. That’s why they keep using that phrase. Perhaps not since 1984 has the contrast between one ticket promoting hope and the other fear been clearer.
Voters Reward Hope over Fear
In 1992 the Clinton-Gore campaign ran for the White House on the optimistic vow to “Put People First.” Its music theme highlighted the future: “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow.” This joyous campaign brought Democrats their first presidential victory since 1976 (Michael Dukakis’s 1988 Democratic presidential campaign was not joyous).
Despite two strong economic terms under Clinton-Gore, in 2000 Democrats allowed Republican George W. Bush to be the candidate of fun. The media favorably described Bush as the candidate with whom voters most would want to share a beer.
Al Gore was parodied as Al “Earth in the Balance” Gore for prioritizing climate change (that was the name of his book). If you think today’s voters don’t care enough about climate change, far fewer cared in 2000.
Climate change isn’t “fun.” Gore was said to be too serious. A more joyous and positive Democratic campaign likely would have prevented the Republican-majority Supreme Court from being in position to hand the election to Bush.
Obama’s 2008 campaign was all joy. Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign was not.
Biden’s 2020 campaign resembled Kerry’s near victory in 2004. Both were primarily targeted against their opponents. The Harris-Walz approach has a much greater upside.
Voters Want to Believe
Young voters in particular want to believe in something. They did not see President Biden, for all his great accomplishments, as representing the future. Biden emphasized the fear of losing democracy, a dark theme mentioned but not at the center of Harris’s campaign.
Kamala Harris has instead made it clear: “We’re Not Going Back.” Her goal is to leave attendees at her rallies feeling hopeful and energized, not fearful for the future. In sharp contrast, Donald Trump portrays a nation on the brink of WW III, and of economic collapse.
Today’s Donald Trump is not the Donald Trump 2016. The earlier Trump tried to be funny. He was not as angry as he is today. Trump’s fear-driven campaign themes in 2024 have typically lost to candidates optimistically running for a positive future.
Ronald Reagan told the nation that it was Morning in America. Meaning the nation’s greatest days were just beginning. Donald Trump started his press conference last Friday with ““We have a lot of bad things coming up.”
Democrats Embrace “Freedom”
Harris-Walz has also taken the “freedom” mantra from the Republican Party. Reagan and both Bushes talked in moving tones about freedom even though it meant the same anti-abortion, anti-gay rights policies that most Republicans espoused.
The difference now is that Harris and Walz are openly turning GOP hypocrisy about freedom against them. Walz talks about J.D. Vance wanting the “freedom” for the government to enter your doctor’s appointment and the “freedom” to decide what books you can read.
It’s a savvy move.
Harris has also turned Reagan’s “Big Government” bogeyman against Republicans. Many voters who like Reagan’s policy of getting government “off our backs” extend this to not wanting the government to tell them who they can marry. Or government requiring victims of rape and incest to give birth.
Many had the most fun political experience of their lives volunteering on Obama’s 2008 campaign. We’re seeing a repeat of this for a new generation as the Harris-Walz campaign takes off.
Randy Shaw
Randy Shaw is the Editor of Beyond Chron and the Director of San Francisco’s Tenderloin Housing Clinic, which publishes Beyond Chron. Shaw’s latest book is Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in the New Urban America. He is the author of four prior books on activism, including The Activist’s Handbook: Winning Social Change in the 21st Century, and Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century. He is also the author of The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco
