In her speech accepting the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris offered a withering indictment of her opponent that could constitute a case for her candidacy. Donald J. Trump, she rightly observed, is in many ways “an unserious man,” but the consequences of returning him to the White House “are extremely serious.”
She asked her audience to “consider the power he will have, especially after the U.S. Supreme Court just ruled that he would be immune from criminal prosecution. Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails, and how he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States. Not to improve your life, not to strengthen our national security, but to serve the only client he has ever had: himself.”
She introduced herself to voters who might not know her personal history and spoke of “a new way forward. Not as members of any one party or faction, but as Americans.” Harris did not focus on the fact that her election would mean elevating to the highest office in the land a woman of Black and Indian descent, a milestone for a country with a long history of excluding women and racial minorities from political power.
But now that the Democratic National Convention is over, the hard work for Harris begins. She must do more than repeat that Trump is unfit. She needs to make the complete case to the American people that she would do more to improve their lives and livelihoods. She must demonstrate her vision for the country and convince voters that she is prepared to be a “president for all Americans.”
She showed she is capable of this task with her commanding performance that gave the lie to Trump’s childish denunciation of Harris as “a low IQ individual” and conveyed a seriousness that Americans expect in their president.