Good morning. We're covering the start of the Democratic convention — as well as House Republicans, flash floods and hate-watching.
Progressive patriotismAt her first rally with Tim Walz, Kamala Harris delivered a riff about their quintessentially American backgrounds. She grew up in Oakland, Calif., raised by a working mother, while he grew up on the Nebraska plains, she explained. They were "two middle-class kids," she said, now trying to make it to the White House together. "Only in America," Harris said, as the Philadelphia crowd burst into a chant of "U.S.A.! U.S.A.!" This sort of unabashed patriotism doesn't always come naturally to today's Democratic Party. But it has been central to Harris's presidential campaign. In her ads and speeches, she portrays herself as a tough, populist, progressive patriot. It has made a difference, too. Harris has persuaded — for now, at least — a meaningful slice of swing voters that she is not the out-of-touch California liberal who Republicans claim she is. In Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, she has surged ahead of Donald Trump partly because she is performing better with working-class voters and rural voters than President Biden was (even before his disastrous debate), according to Times/Siena College polls. Across both the Midwest and Sun Belt swing states, she is faring better with independents. Today is my first newsletter after an August break, and I am struck by how much Harris's message has revolved around progressive patriotism over the past couple weeks. With the Democratic convention about to begin, I'll explain why you can expect to hear more of this theme from Harris and Walz. Who's patriotic?I know that many Democrats already consider their party to be the patriotic one. Republican protesters, after all, were the ones who violently attacked Congress in 2021, and Donald Trump regularly portrays modern America as a hellscape. But it also the case that Republicans are more comfortable with many expressions of patriotism than Democrats are. Republican voters are much more likely to describe themselves as "very patriotic" than Democratic voters are, according to YouGov polls. And Republicans are more likely than Democrats — especially highly educated Democrats — to say that the United States is the world's greatest country:
Given all this, it's not surprising that most voters consider the Republican Party to be the more patriotic one:
The far left plays a role here. Parts of it — think of Noam Chomsky — can be disdainful of the U.S., describing it as a fundamentally oppressive country. Liberals, not conservatives, tend to argue that immigrants are forced to move here because of the consequences of American imperialism. Liberals are more likely to have qualms about national institutions like Thanksgiving, the military or the flag. The most prominent left-wing movement of the past year — the Gaza protests — is a case study. The movement has not merely called attention to the high civilian death toll in Gaza; it sometimes portrays the war as an extension of U.S. immorality. Protesters have pulled down American flags and defaced a statue of George Washington with the word "genocidal." The America-skeptical left isn't the Democratic Party, of course. But the left does exacerbate many swing voters' concerns about the party — namely, that it isn't cleareyed about a dangerous world. These same swing voters generally don't like Trump, but they do appreciate his apparent toughness on trade, immigration, crime and more. Harris's shiftHarris has devoted much of her early campaign to narrowing both her party's toughness and patriotism deficits. Her stump speech is organized around the idea of fighting for "the promise of America," and she has made clear that she's willing to take on both the far left and far right. She excoriated Gaza protesters for burning a U.S. flag. She and Walz also cast themselves as defenders of liberty against Republicans who threaten it, especially on abortion rights. As my colleague Katie Glueck wrote, "Using traditionally right-leaning words and phrasing, they are portraying themselves as the true champions of universal American values." Harris combines patriotism with muscular promises to defend the interests of ordinary Americans. "Being president is about who you fight for, and she's fighting for people like you," the narrator in a campaign ad says. Her ads explain that as a prosecutor, she took on murderers, child abusers, drug cartels, big banks and big drug companies. Harris's flip-flop on immigration embodies both the toughness and patriotism themes. As a presidential candidate in 2019 — when the left was more influential in the Democratic Party — she favored decriminalizing border crossings. Today, she promises to protect Americans from gangs and fentanyl flowing across the border, and she criticizes Trump for blocking a border-security bill
In part, Harris's approach is an attempt to combat sexist stereotypes about strength. But gender isn't the main explanation. Patriotism has long been a successful Democratic strategy, for both female and male candidates. The last three Democratic presidents — Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton — all celebrated American ideals while acknowledging the country's flaws. So have successful Democratic Senate candidates in purple and red states, like Arizona, Pennsylvania, Montana and Ohio. "We love our country," Harris said in Philadelphia, with Walz standing behind her, "and I believe it is the highest form of patriotism to fight for the ideals of our country." More on the convention
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