"We Need a Grown-Up in the White House"

As Kamala Harris and Donald Trump showcase their profoundly different worldviews, a truth-telling Michelle Obama reminds us what's at stake in this election

Will Americans choose hope over fear? Harris in Philadelphia and Trump in New York. (Photos by Andrew Harnik and Michael M. Santiago via Getty Images)

Talk about differing visions. At a Philadelphia rally yesterday, Vice President Kamala Harris shared her commitment to creating unity and building coalitions to solve America’s problems—and doing it with joy. Former President Donald Trump, meanwhile, continued to amp up his hateful, divisive rhetoric—but we’ll get to that soon. First, let’s revisit what Harris—whose lead nationally among likely voters widened from two points to four points (51 to 47 percent) according to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll—had to say.

“We have an opportunity before us to turn the page on the fear and the divisiveness that have characterized our politics for a decade because of Donald Trump,” VP Harris said. “We have the ability to turn the page on that same old tired playbook because we are exhausted with it. And we are ready to chart a new way forward. And yes, we will be joyful in the process….We know that when you care about the people and you understand what you are fighting for, there is joy in that fight. And that is why we are all in this together.”

She emphasized her notion about inclusive power in a democracy, not power based on one man’s rule. “The great thing about living in a democracy—as long as we keep it—is that we, the people, have the power to choose the direction of our country and its leadership. The power is with the people. That is our highest order.”

And that’s why, she said, she’s organized her campaign to be inclusive: “To all the friends here, I say, let's be intentional about building community. Let's be intentional about building coalitions. Let's be intentional about understanding we all have so much more in common than what separates us. We will be the better for it.”

At New York’s Madison Square Garden, meanwhile, Donald Trump not only served up his usual toxic flood of slurs, lies and ridiculous, empty promises, he had a nasty parade of surrogates preceding him. They attacked a make-believe image of the vice president and insulted the very groups they say they want to vote for them.

One of the warm-up acts was a so-called comedian named Tony Hinchcliffe, who had ugly comments about Latinos, African Americans, Palestinians and Jews. Here’s one of his repellant remarks: “I don’t know if you know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”

This “joke”—remember the Trump campaign claims they’re courting Latinos—comes just two days after Trump spewed that the United States is “a garbage can for the world.” This ugly comment was from a man who says he wants to be the president again, which presumably means to lead a garbage can.

Then there was Trump advisor Stephen Miller, a key driver of Trump’s immigration policy and plan for mass deportation. Miller’s comments last night took place in the same hall where a Nazi rally was held in 1939, complete with swastikas and Hitler salutes. “America is for Americans and Americans only,” he ranted.

This from Miller, who only exists because his Jewish immigrant forbearers escaped the pogroms of Czarist Belarus and fled to America via Ellis Island. His words are a direct articulation of the central feature of discriminatory and ultimately murderous Nazi ideology and policy: Nur für Deutsche—that is, “Only for Germans."

And then there was Trump himself, who served up a false and overblown criminal caricature of Harris, sought to frighten his followers with the extreme threat she represents, then promised them a perfect world if he is elected. These were among his early scripted remarks—before the mad rambling started—and he never sounded more like the fascist leader that he yearns to be.

First the pretend criminality: “Kamala Harris has orchestrated the most egregious betrayal that any leader in American history has ever inflicted upon our people. She has violated her oath, eradicated our sovereign border and unleashed an army of migrant gangs who are waging a campaign of violence and terror against our citizens. There has never been anything like it anywhere in the world for any country.”

Next the fear-mongering were she to win: “Kamala Harris is a train wreck who has destroyed everything in her path. To make her president would be a gamble with the lives of millions and millions of people. She would get us into World War III.”

And finally the empty hyperbole for uncritical minds: “I have come with a message of hope for all Americans with your vote in this election, I will end inflation. I will stop the invasion of criminals coming into our country. And I will bring back the American dream…Our country will be bigger, better, bolder, richer, safer and stronger than ever before. This election is a choice between whether we will have four more years of gross incompetence and failure, or whether we will begin the four greatest years in the history of our country. We will achieve success that no one can imagine.”

Let’s not doubt that the Trump cult (which is a minority) relishes this empty hyperbole. They are convinced of his greatness, savor his scapegoating, love his slurs against Harris and the Democrats, and want simple fixes to complex problems that are not easily solved. Wouldn’t it be nice if our leader just took care of it all for us?

Yet while Trump promised that he alone could do everything and anything—including by himself ending the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and “preventing World War III”—Harris summed up her vision like this: “We are fighting for a future of our nation where we tap into the ambitions and the aspirations and the dreams of the American people. We are a new generation of leadership that is optimistic and excited about what our nation can do together.”

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Two of the best. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski /APF via Getty Images)

And then there was Michelle Obama Saturday in Kalamazoo, Michigan. You could call her the warm-up act for candidate Harris. That would be true. But she delivered another barn-burning speech that brilliantly made the case for Harris with a focus on reproductive freedom and the well-being and worth of women.

Allow me to share a few of the many highlights.

On the meaning of our vote: “To anyone out there thinking about sitting out this election or voting for Donald Trump or a third-party candidate in protest because you’re fed up, let me warn you: Your rage does not exist in a vacuum. If we don’t win this election, your wife, your daughter, your mother, we as women, will become collateral damage to your rage.” 

On Harris, the adult: “Unlike her opponent, she’s not ducking interviews or cowering in spaces only with applauding audiences. No, she is showing us what a sane, stable leader looks like. She’s not losing her train of thought or stumbling over her words, and she’s doing it all with vigor and with grace. That’s because Kamala Harris is a grown-up. We need a grown-up in the White House.”

On her fears: “All of my hope about Kamala is also accompanied by some genuine fear. Fear for our country, fear for our children, fear for what is coming our way if we forget the stakes in this election, and y’all, that’s why I’m here today. You all know I hate politics. But I hate to see folks taken advantage of even more. So I wanted to do everything in my power to remind the country that I love that there’s too much we stand to lose if we get this wrong.”

On women’s worth: “Please, please, do not hand our fates over to the likes of Trump, who knows nothing about us, who has shown deep contempt for us, because a vote for him is a vote against us, against ourselves, against our worth. To think that the men that we love can be either unaware or indifferent to our plight is simply heartbreaking. It is a sad statement about our value as women in this world…To the women listening, we have every right to demand that the men in our lives do better by us to make these choices clear to the men that we love our lives are worth more than their anger and disappointment. We are more than baby-making vessels.” 

Finally, on Harris and her pledge to protect reproductive rights: “She will do all of this, not because she’s a woman, but because she’s a decent human being, because she cares about the lives of people other than ourselves…This isn’t just about what we have an obligation to say no to. It’s about what we have the opportunity to say yes to: Someone who had the character and the strength to look at all these challenges and still see a brighter day on the other side.”

After Obama finished, after the former first lady and Kamala Harris hugged, the vice president called her friend a truth-teller. Indeed, she is. May she speak more truths in these final days before Nov. 5. Her voice could not be more important to vividly articulate what the consequences will be if the electorate doesn’t vote for Harris and against Trump.

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