Kamala Harris 2024 Convention Speech: Tradition and Progress

Kamala Harris

“We are,” said Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris in her August 22, 2024 acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, “the heirs to the greatest democracy in the history of the world.” Harris’ liberal policies emerged from an ideology of constitutional tradition. Harris gathered her progressive policies and grounded them in a tight net of conservative values. Like many liberal speakers before her, Harris called on the United States of America to live by its traditional values, such as freedom, opportunity, and dignity. 

People do not remember presidential nomination acceptance speeches for the policies that they mention. No, it is the speaker’s values that resonate. 

In contrast to the conservative view, however, Harris’ tradition pointed to a positive future, a future in which we all can triumph, while some conservatives cling tenaciously to a past that never really existed. The progressive idea of tradition echoes from the Declaration of Independence, stating that we are all equal, but there is also a tradition which holds (to paraphrase George Orwell), that some people are more equal than others. Tradition’s duality resonates throughout our history. 


Harris Rejected Zero-Sum Politics

Politics often seems like a game, in which some people win while others lose. Should we put the tax burden on working people, or soak the rich? Do we support immigration or reject immigrants? Do we give minority people a chance? Or do we fear and reject them? Harris rejected that entire attitude.

Those of us who study political discourse know that voters only pretend to vote based on issues. Values drive the voters. So, Harris spoke for: 

“An America, where we care for one another, look out for one another, and recognize that we have so much more in common than what separates us.” 

Harris went so far as to accuse conservatives of running down the nation that they claim to praise:

“… none of us has to fail for all of us to succeed. … in unity, there is strength. Our opponents in this race are out there every day, denigrating America, talking about how terrible everything is. Well, my mother had another lesson she used to teach. Never let anyone tell you who you are. You show them who you are. America, let us show each other and the world, who we are and what we stand for: freedom, opportunity, compassion, dignity, fairness, and endless possibilities.”

“In unity, there is strength,” she said, and that unity was found in traditional values like “freedom, opportunity . . . and endless possibilities.”

Harris Spoke for Liberty and Equality

Continuing, Harris reminded her cheering crowd that the United States’ basic values are “freedom and liberty,” and that we must look forward to a growing future:

“... on behalf of our children and our grandchildren, and all of those who sacrificed so dearly for our freedom and liberty, we must be worthy of this moment.”

“Heirs,” she said: we have an inheritance to preserve. “Our children and our grandchildren,” who should share that inheritance – in the future. Although many people reflect fondly about the wonderful past, Harris asked us to look forward. But she did not ask us to look forward with blindness. Instead, she said to let the founding values guide us toward an even better future:

“It is now our turn to do what generations before us have done, guided by optimism and faith to fight for this country we love, to fight for the ideals we cherish, and to uphold the awesome responsibility that comes with the greatest privilege on earth: the privilege and pride of being an American.

“So let’s get out there. Let’s fight for it. Let’s get out there. Let’s vote for it. And together, let us write the next great chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told. Thank you. God bless you and may God bless the United States of America.”

Harris looked hopefully toward a better future: “the next great chapter.” In contrast, her opponent Donald Trump preaches: “Make America Great Again.” Make America great again is the motto of someone who thinks America’s greatness rests in the past, while Harris’ “the next great chapter” says that the greatest days lie ahead. Despair versus hope. Look backwards for guidance, but to the future with confidence?

So, Harris came back to the starting point! Her traditional values lead to the future. Trump’s traditionalist anxiety, she implied, leads into the past – to restore what we he thinks we once had.

If we stay mired in the 18th century clinging to the past, as Trump calls us to do, equality for all is lost, abandoned. The United States of America’s founding values created a vision of a new kind of nation – “conceived in liberty,” said Abraham Lincoln. If Harris is right – and I think she is – we should let our values, not our fears, move us forward to face our problems and improve our lives. 

For, contrary to her critics, Harris’ speech did not reject the values of United States of America's founders. She embraced those values. She called for the United States to choose those values – freedom, opportunity, and equality. She argued that those values would determine, not only the election, but the United States’ future. She offered an idealistic vision for our cynical age. Harris presented her candidacy as a chance to remember the old values.

Other Posts About 2024 DNC and RNC Convention Speeches

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at the 2024 Democratic National Convention

Trump's "Jekyll and Hyde" Convention Speech Promised Fierce Leadership

Did West Virginia Governor Jim Justice Just Advocate Violent Revolution?

by William D. Harpine

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Research note: the argument from tradition is more helpful than many people realize. I’ve written about tradition in some of my academic publications; check the link to “William D. Harpine’s Publications” above. Readers might also want to look at James Darsey’s prize-winning book, The Prophetic Tradition and Radical Rhetoric in America. Darsey argues that radical speakers often tie their policies to tradition by quoting the Hebrew prophets. Also see a superb prize-winning monograph, The American Ideology: Reflections of the Revolution in American Rhetoric, by my mentor Kurt W. Ritter and his colleague James R. Andrews, which shows how the ideologies of freedom and liberty have permeated American rhetoric throughout history. Although it is out of print, most large research libraries should have it on their shelves, and don't forget about used bookstores.  

Special thanks to rev.com, a commercial transcript service, for preparing quick and accurate transcripts of this and many other public speeches. 

Copyright © 2024 by William D. Harpine

Image of Kamala Harris: official White House photo, public domain