The Cheer That Made Milwaukee Famous

 

     Earlier today, Vice President Harris delivered a barnburner of a speech in, yes, Milwaukee, the city that hosted the RNC clown show last week. The contrast between her and Biden is, I have to admit, stark, dramatic and refreshing. Plus, the new Reuters poll puts her up two points on Trump and five points when you throw right wing conspiracy theorist RFK Jr into the mix. She'd begun doing exactly what I'd hoped she'd do. 

     She went straight to a battleground state and into Wisconsin's largest city, the site of the RNC convention. She hammered home the need for reproductive rights and to strengthen our democracy. Pretty boilerplate stuff, stuff we've all heard before. Here's the difference:

     Even watching the tail end of her speech, one could sense something... different. 

     Granted, her audience in Milwaukee was the stereotypical choir. I'm sure they were all vetted and cleared by the Secret Service so there'd be no chance of heckling. Kamala Harris suddenly appearing on a stage and giving a barnburner speech campaigning for president had the appearance of someone jumping from the bushes and running the last few hundred yards of a marathon. It just didn't look right.

     And yet...

     Even digitally,  one could sense of the excitement from the crowd. And not only that, but the excitement of hope. I hadn't seen anything like it since Obama first ran for president in '08. That year, Obama ran against another old guy with a previously obscure lunatic for a running mate. 

     One of the most extraordinary things about Harris' fledgling campaign is that she's able to generate so much excitement without a running mate of her own. So much so, in fact, that if it carries over until next month's convention, she may even be able to get away with naming as her running mate a walking snooze fest like Mark Kelly.

     Now, I'm nothing if not a pragmatist. You won't see me putting up ridiculous Photoshopped images of Harris as Wonder Woman or Supergirl like every other Democrat on social media. I'm not going to pretend as if I forgot about the shitty things she did as DA of San Francisco or the AG of California. Kamala Harris is no more a blushing liberal than Joe Biden or Mark Kelly.

     And, as much as I hate being given the choice between vanilla and vanilla bean ice cream every four years by the two monolithic parties, one fact is inescapably clear: As with 2020, this election may be the most important one in US history. One of the biggest reasons beyond actual appeal that Joe Biden got over 81,000,000 votes was the fear of a second Trump term. 

     But this time around, largely through conspicuous relief, Harris injected the Democratic Party with some desperately-needed energy. And one could derive from Milwaukee the type of energy and passion that's been sorely lacking for years. One could sense that Milwaukee was a mere synecdoche of the energy flowing in the other 49 states beyond Wisconsin.

      I'm not going to go overboard and say I'm as excited as the attendees in Milwaukee today. Let's just say that, as all auguries are of good fortune, I'm cautiously optimistic that Harris' candidacy is the shot in the arm that the Democratic Party needs to pull this out yet again.