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| Kamala Harris |
A simple message bears repeating. Needs repeating.
Harris visited Eastway Middle School in Charlotte, North Carolina on January 11th, 2024, to host a Roundtable Discussion on Gun Violence Prevention in Charlotte, North Carolina.
After meeting privately with a group of students, Harris delivered a brief, thoughtful speech in which she thanked community leaders for trying to protect our children from being shot. She gave the kind of straightforward message that jaded audiences tend to ignore. Can Harris give her simple message more force? Yes, of course she can, but there is a “but.” The “but” is that they need to repeat their messages, over and over, because, as the saying goes, quantity has a quality all its own. Harris’ speech, by itself, gained little attention, but a speaking tour might. So, after discussing Harris’ comments, I’ll go back in history to show how a politician can gain attention by calmly repeating a message.
A Simple, Profound Message
Now, during her brief speech, Harris gave her key point in one simple, stark, quotable statement:
Harris used the power of her office to remind all of us of one basic, fundamental danger. She calmly made a positive point about community involvement and children’s safety. She stated the simple fact that gun violence is the greatest threat to children. Will that be enough?
Harris’ speech received some attention in the press, although not as much as the issue deserves. While the nation grows breathless over migrant crossings at Eagle Pass, drag shows, or Donald Trump’s latest rant, why do we pay so little attention to the gun violence that poses, by far, the greatest threat to our nation’s youth? “Ho, hum,” Americans say, “a dozen children were shot dead yesterday. Ho, hum.” For, although the issue remains important, Harris does not try to draw all of the air out of the room by spreading hysterical conspiracy theories. Will her message have a long-term effect? If she and other advocates pound away on this issue often enough, will the public begin to take it more seriously?
How McKinley Did It
Yet, simple messages can succeed if the speaker is persistent. History teaches this lesson. In 1899, with the Spanish-American War safely in the history books, President William McKinley faced the daunting task of convincing the United States to become a world imperial power by annexing the Philippine islands. Many Americans, especially in the conservative South favored letting the Filipinos have their own government. McKinley went on a series of speaking tours through the nation, particularly in the hostile South (McKinley was a Union Civil War hero!), to sell his ideas. He avoided startling language. His policy discussions were vague and safe. His speeches were calm and dignified. He gave his respects to dead Confederate soldiers. He often traveled with General Joseph Wheeler, a southerner who was a hero of both the Civil War and the Spanish American War. Even Southerners who didn't like McKinley cheered for Wheeler. McKinley's tours gained public support and the Senate ratified the treaty.
I'll write some more about McKinley in the future. In the meantime, here are the lessons:
1. A speaker can gain attention without screaming like a lunatic.
2. A speaker who wants to sell a contentious idea can't just talk to supporters. A speaker also needs to reach out to unfriendly audiences. That takes determination.
3. Traveling not only gives the speaker new audiences, but also access to the local press. More local papers (today, more local TV coverage)—more attention!
4. It is rare for one speech, no matter how good, to do the job. Persistence means success.
Back to Harris
So, it is fine for Harris to give calm, safe, speeches. Democrats don’t need to act like Republicans. Harris just needs to give more calm, reasoned speeches, and to give them in more places to more audiences. Sadly, few Americans even know that she went there. However, people would eventually notice if she toured many middle schools to talk about gun violence.
Overall, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are giving good speeches to good audiences, and they are making good points. They just aren't doing it enough. Speakers do not need to draw all the oxygen out of the room. They don't need to scream conspiracy theories. They just need to make sense, over, and over, and over again. As much as anything, speakers need to be persistent.
After all, when Harris said that, “the number one killer of our children in America is gun violence,” that powerful statement should terrify any parent. But to say it only once, or only a few times? Never enough. Why isn’t she giving three or four speeches a week about gun violence, across the country, including at least some speeches at events and schools in the gun culture regions? A speaker needs to be heard.
______________
Earlier Post: Kamala Harris' Speech at West Point: Tradition and Innovation
Earlier Post: Kamala Harris' College Speech: Voting is the Way
Harris visited Eastway Middle School in Charlotte, North Carolina on January 11th, 2024, to host a Roundtable Discussion on Gun Violence Prevention in Charlotte, North Carolina.
After meeting privately with a group of students, Harris delivered a brief, thoughtful speech in which she thanked community leaders for trying to protect our children from being shot. She gave the kind of straightforward message that jaded audiences tend to ignore. Can Harris give her simple message more force? Yes, of course she can, but there is a “but.” The “but” is that they need to repeat their messages, over and over, because, as the saying goes, quantity has a quality all its own. Harris’ speech, by itself, gained little attention, but a speaking tour might. So, after discussing Harris’ comments, I’ll go back in history to show how a politician can gain attention by calmly repeating a message.
A Simple, Profound Message
Now, during her brief speech, Harris gave her key point in one simple, stark, quotable statement:
“…in the United States of America today the number one killer of our children in America is gun violence — not car accidents, not some form of cancer. Gun violence is the number one killer of the children of America.”That simple fact should, in principle, fill parents with fear. Yes, parents might worry instead about what books their children read, what clothes they wear in school, and who they make friends with. Some parents are terrified that children might see a drag show or learn about Jim Crow laws. We have become so numb to school shootings and random drive-bys that we easily forget that the main danger that children face in the United States is that someone will shoot them. Harris focused squarely on that simple fact.
Harris used the power of her office to remind all of us of one basic, fundamental danger. She calmly made a positive point about community involvement and children’s safety. She stated the simple fact that gun violence is the greatest threat to children. Will that be enough?
Harris’ speech received some attention in the press, although not as much as the issue deserves. While the nation grows breathless over migrant crossings at Eagle Pass, drag shows, or Donald Trump’s latest rant, why do we pay so little attention to the gun violence that poses, by far, the greatest threat to our nation’s youth? “Ho, hum,” Americans say, “a dozen children were shot dead yesterday. Ho, hum.” For, although the issue remains important, Harris does not try to draw all of the air out of the room by spreading hysterical conspiracy theories. Will her message have a long-term effect? If she and other advocates pound away on this issue often enough, will the public begin to take it more seriously?
How McKinley Did It
Yet, simple messages can succeed if the speaker is persistent. History teaches this lesson. In 1899, with the Spanish-American War safely in the history books, President William McKinley faced the daunting task of convincing the United States to become a world imperial power by annexing the Philippine islands. Many Americans, especially in the conservative South favored letting the Filipinos have their own government. McKinley went on a series of speaking tours through the nation, particularly in the hostile South (McKinley was a Union Civil War hero!), to sell his ideas. He avoided startling language. His policy discussions were vague and safe. His speeches were calm and dignified. He gave his respects to dead Confederate soldiers. He often traveled with General Joseph Wheeler, a southerner who was a hero of both the Civil War and the Spanish American War. Even Southerners who didn't like McKinley cheered for Wheeler. McKinley's tours gained public support and the Senate ratified the treaty.
I'll write some more about McKinley in the future. In the meantime, here are the lessons:
1. A speaker can gain attention without screaming like a lunatic.
2. A speaker who wants to sell a contentious idea can't just talk to supporters. A speaker also needs to reach out to unfriendly audiences. That takes determination.
3. Traveling not only gives the speaker new audiences, but also access to the local press. More local papers (today, more local TV coverage)—more attention!
4. It is rare for one speech, no matter how good, to do the job. Persistence means success.
Back to Harris
So, it is fine for Harris to give calm, safe, speeches. Democrats don’t need to act like Republicans. Harris just needs to give more calm, reasoned speeches, and to give them in more places to more audiences. Sadly, few Americans even know that she went there. However, people would eventually notice if she toured many middle schools to talk about gun violence.
Overall, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are giving good speeches to good audiences, and they are making good points. They just aren't doing it enough. Speakers do not need to draw all the oxygen out of the room. They don't need to scream conspiracy theories. They just need to make sense, over, and over, and over again. As much as anything, speakers need to be persistent.
After all, when Harris said that, “the number one killer of our children in America is gun violence,” that powerful statement should terrify any parent. But to say it only once, or only a few times? Never enough. Why isn’t she giving three or four speeches a week about gun violence, across the country, including at least some speeches at events and schools in the gun culture regions? A speaker needs to be heard.
______________
Earlier Post: Kamala Harris' College Speech: Voting is the Way
______________
Conclusion
Still, Harris focused—and focused precisely—on the danger that firearms pose to children. That represents a step toward raising public interest in the threat. Will the nation listen? Or not?
______________
Research note: I discussed McKinley’s speaking tours in a chapter of Before the Rhetorical Presidency, edited by the late Martin J. Medhurst. Available new or used from Amazon, and can be read in large research libraries. (Disclosure: I do not get royalties from this one, but I was proud to write the chapter.)
Also, here is a full text of a convention paper that I presented about McKinley’s speaking tours.
Click “William D. Harpine’s Publications” at the link above for more of my writing about McKinley.
Still, Harris focused—and focused precisely—on the danger that firearms pose to children. That represents a step toward raising public interest in the threat. Will the nation listen? Or not?
By William D. Harpine
______________
Research note: I discussed McKinley’s speaking tours in a chapter of Before the Rhetorical Presidency, edited by the late Martin J. Medhurst. Available new or used from Amazon, and can be read in large research libraries. (Disclosure: I do not get royalties from this one, but I was proud to write the chapter.)
Also, here is a full text of a convention paper that I presented about McKinley’s speaking tours.
Click “William D. Harpine’s Publications” at the link above for more of my writing about McKinley.
Copyright © 2024, William D. Harpine
Image: Official White House photo
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