Preparations for the Democratic National Convention at the United Center in Chicago on Aug. 15.KENT NISHIMURA/The New York Times News Service
Optimism hasn’t been a hot ticket in politics on either side of the border for a long time. From Donald Trump’s “American carnage,” as he described his vision of the United States at his inauguration in 2017, to Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s poll-leading view that Canada is an economic and social basket case, what’s selling the best in both countries is despair and frustration.
The resort to dark pessimism about the present – and the nostalgia for the past it invokes – will be tested this week during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
The Democratic Party is riding a rogue wave of optimism that is the ripple effect of President Joe Biden’s decision not to run for re-election. Should that optimism continue and translate into victory in November, it would challenge the notion that voters are best guided to the ballot box by outrage and anger.
The Democrats’ optimism begins with Mr. Biden’s decision to step aside and endorse his vice president, Kamala Harris. Whatever calculation may have lain behind it, it remains that Mr. Biden put his party and his country before his own interests, and did it on the biggest political stage in the world. It was a moment that represented politics at its potential best.
Just as hopeful has been Ms. Harris’s easy transition into the role of presumptive Democratic nominee and presidential candidate. While that ought to be expected of a vice president, it’s never a given. But Ms. Harris has quickly grown into the role and craftily turned her ascendance into a moment of new hope – one she re-emphasized by choosing a running mate, Tim Walz, who bleeds sunshine and common sense.
The challenge for Ms. Harris and the Democrats will be to keep this surge of optimism going throughout the long days of the short campaign ahead. The mania surrounding her nomination will die down, and the Republicans will hammer away at her record and qualifications. The attacks will take a toll, which will matter in a race that is likely to come down to a small fraction of votes in a handful of swing states.
Fighting back shouldn’t be too hard a task, though. The U.S. economy is solid and the Democratic platform, such as it is at this point, is a lot more appetizing than Mr. Trump’s promises to use U.S. troops against his own people, to round up and detain millions of undocumented immigrants, to impose inflationary tariffs on China, to give Russian President Vladimir Putin a free pass in Ukraine, to cut social security payments, and to politicize every last desk in the federal bureaucracy.
Mr. Trump also happens to lead a Republican movement that, in some states, tells people what they can and cannot read, denies protections to trans youth and has eliminated access to abortion for millions of women.
The Democrats promise to fight for women’s reproductive rights and trans youth rights, and are proposing a child tax credit for low-income families, better child care and more parental leave, incentives to build affordable housing and an income-tax exemption for money earned in tips, among other things. Ms. Harris has also endorsed the bipartisan border security bill that Mr. Trump called on Republicans in Congress to scuttle out of concern it would harm his election chances.
It’s a stark contrast that, on its own, gives voters a real choice about their future. But what could carry it across the finish line on voting day may well be the early wave of optimism further propelled by this week’s national convention.
The Democrats should take the momentum they are enjoying and use it to reinforce the message of optimism: that the United States is a great country that can do more for its most vulnerable citizens and can continue to be a strong leader in the fight for democracy – if the will is there.
It’s a message wrapped in optimism, as opposed to that of politicians who sell a dark story of a carnage that can only be eliminated by electing them to power so they can reverse the policies of their predecessors and stop the bleeding.
It’s a can-do attitude, as opposed to an undo attitude.
It is absolutely the job of the opposition to attack the policies and failures of the incumbent government. The current trend, though, has been to rely on the notion that the best voters can hope for is politics as analgesic: putting an end to the pain, with no promise of a cure.
The results of the U.S. election in November could well determine how much longer this style of politics remains in vogue.