One word Kamala Harris couldn’t say
Kamala Harris spent 50 minutes trying to persuade Americans to vote for her – but one word was notable by its absence from her speech.
At the Republican National Convention last month, barely anyone – speakers or delegates – said the word “abortion”.
At the jamboree to officially elect Donald Trump as the GOP’s nominee, any detailed mention of abortion was seemingly off limits.
Banning abortion may resonate with the Republican base but the party hierarchy knew it was an election-losing issue.
At last week’s Democratic National Convention (DNC), in contrast, almost every second speaker mentioned abortion and claimed a win for Donald Trump would see it banned nationwide – claims the Republicans have denied.
But the Democrats also appear to have a list of words that were barely audible at the DNC in Chicago.
Not Kamala Harris nor Tim Walz, Bill or Hillary Clinton, Barack or Michelle Obama mentioned the word “transgender,” “gender identity,” or anything similar.
And yet at the RNC in Milwaukee, those words rattled around the stadium and off the stage with regularity. There were dark, hyperbolic warnings that children would fall victim to the gender agenda.
Trans is a phrase that worked wonders for the Republicans and seemed to strike fear into the hearts of Democrats.
Another word that barely cropped up at the DNC was “Gaza”. It wasn’t entirely absent, but it’s an issue tying the Democrats in knots as the Joe Biden administration tries to both support Israel in defending itself and stop the destruction and death in the Palestinian strip.
According to a YouGov survey there are mixed views in the US on transgender rights.
A bit more than half of Americans, including Democrats and Republicans, agree that hate crime laws should include trans people, that employers shouldn’t be able to sack someone for their gender identity and are fine with trans people serving in the military.
But when it comes to other areas, including allowing trans athletes to play on sports teams that do not match their sex assigned at birth, allowing someone to change their gender in documentation and allowing medical interventions for young trans people, a majority of Americans are not in favour.
A Gallup poll in June found a slim majority of Americans still find someone changing their gender remains “morally wrong”.
Avoiding the issue might seem like a wise move for the Democrats then.
The Harris campaign likely doesn’t want to rock this boat.
‘Mind your own business’
Talking to news.com.au, delegates at the DNC were insistent that wasn’t the case.
It wasn’t that the Democrats were avoiding the issue. It was just their side of politics wasn’t obsessed about it.
“It’s not mentioned because people here believe that people should be able to live their lives in a freer way. They should be able to make decisions that impact them, and they’ll have to live with those decisions,” said Michelle Drake from Chicago.
“There has to be a balance between law and order and what’s happening in the world and rules and regulations.
“But I don’t think that the world gets to decide how I rear my child, how I spend time with my family, who I’m in a relationship with – none of that.
“The Republicans only believe in freedom when it suits them,” she added.
Derron Cook of Laplace, Louisiana agreed.
“Mind your own business. That’s the mantra of the party.
“Everyone has the right to live as they choose”.
That’s not to say Kamala Harris doesn’t support transgender rights. You can buy a “Kamala trans pride mug” on the official Harris Walz website.
The DNC also had a “gender-neutral prayer space”.
US campaign group GLAD noted the “inclusion” of LGBTQ people in Ms Harris keynote speech.
But it would be a stretch it to say it was a full-throttled reference.
Ms Harris said that with her as president, there would be “the freedom to love who you love openly and with pride”.
At the Republican National Convention (RNC) in July, Richard Grenell, a former US ambassador in the Trump administration, insisted the party’s candidate was blind to how people chose to live their lives.
“Donald Trump doesn’t care if you’re gay or straight; Black, brown or white; or what gender you are,” he said on the Milwaukee stage.
The crowd, most assuredly, did not go wild.
Also at the RNC, firebrand Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green was vociferous in her disdain of transgender people.
“They promised normalcy and gave us Transgender Visibility Day on Easter Sunday,” she said.
It’s not clear who “they” is but it isn’t the case anyway. Transgender Day of Visibility has always been on March 31. It’s just in 2024 that happened to coincide with Easter Sunday.
But the crowd loved it. And it might resonate with some independent voters too.
Indeed, earlier this month, Mr Trump said Democrat vice presidential nominee Tim Walz was “heavy into the transgender world,” without elaborating on what that meant.
It seemed like a dog whistle to appeal to those Americans who are uneasy with changing gender norms.
‘Gaza’
It would be remiss to suggest Gaza hasn’t been mentioned at the DNC.
It’s cropped up. Here and there.
But the overwhelming impression is that Democrats have tried to mention Gaza, so they can’t be accused of ignoring the conflict, but do so barely and then move on as quickly as possible.
An attempt by a group of pro-Palestine Democrats to get a speaking spot was rebuffed, for instance. They just couldn’t be squeezed into 20 hours of available podium time.
Ms Harris did mention the conflict in her keynote speech.
“With respect to the war in Gaza, President Biden and I are working around the clock, because now is the time to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done.”
She added that Israel had a “right to defend itself”, but “what has happened in Gaza over the past 10 months is devastating”.
It’s a tightrope of a position that may fail to please anyone. But the Democrats know the issue is so fraught they may feel it’s the only position they can get too.
Immediately after her speech, Mr Trump said on social media, in all caps, that “she hates Israel” and noted that Ms Harris failed to turn up to Washington DC when Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu addressed US politicians.
Just like with the Republican convention, the Democratic convention was as much about what was being said as what was not.
The Republicans would rather not scare off voters by digging deep into abortion.
And perhaps the Democrats don’t want to dwell on gender for the same reason.
