Democrats are done taking the high road

Wednesday night, as I was putting together a new dresser for my two daughters, I had the Democratic National Convention on my television. As I was struggling with an awkward angle with my screwdriver, a thought struck me: the party I was watching on TV had changed. No longer are Democrats afraid to make an argument or to take a rhetorical cheap shot at their conservative opponents.

Throughout the Republican party’s descent into Trump’s MAGA cult, and even back in the Tea Party days, Republicans were never afraid to share ridiculous conspiracy theories or incredibly low blows against Democrats. I’m old enough to remember the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth who served to turn 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry’s Purple Heart from serving in Vietnam into a candidate weakness by lying about his service.

Into the Obama era there were constant lies about America’s first Black president, with conservatives claiming that he was gay, that his wife Michelle was a man, that he wasn’t even a citizen of the U.S. That last claim was what launched Donald Trump’s political career in earnest.

But through it all, Democratic leaders were constantly telling us to hold back, to pull our punches. “When they go low, we go high,” was the Obama-era refrain. It became an applause line in Obama speeches. The message was “don’t respond in kind”—instead Democrats should take the high road, emphasizing politeness and policy over rhetoric.

The convention this week, however, has been marked by speaker after speaker not afraid to lean into attacks on Trump and the Republicans. From Michelle Obama taunting one of Trump’s favourite lines by calling the presidency a “Black job,” to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries describing Trump as a stalkery ex-boyfriend, Democrats came in strong. Even former president Obama himself got in on the cheap shots, using suggestive hand gestures to mock Trump over crowd sizes.

One thing is obvious, the Democratic tone against Republicans has definitely turned.

It’s been a welcome change. For years, I and other progressive-minded folks have watched with frustration as lie after lie from Republicans and joke after joke from conservatives have been laundered into the American psyche with nary a response from Democrats.

With President Biden at the top of the ticket, it felt earlier in the year that we were in store for more of the same this campaign year. Biden is nothing if not an institutionalist, more used to brokering deals with his Senate Republican buddies than dealing with their more outrageous lies. Biden himself has frequently talked about how Republicans are needed in America and how they would come back to normalcy soon.

There are still pockets of Democrats who believe in a Republican recovery. Just a few weeks ago, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg spoke about how he thought the Republican Trump fever would soon break.

But the shift to Vice-President Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket has shed some of that old pretentiousness. It started with VP nominee Tim Walz’s “weird” attack, and has continued into this week’s convention.

For queer and trans people, that has meant a more consistent defence of our rights by tying attacks on us to the larger GOP project of trying to control everyone’s lives to an extreme extent. “Weird” is a particularly flexible attack against modern-day conservatives, applying just as consistently to trans rights as it does to abortion rights or IVF. Democrats are making the argument this week that the government should mind their own business and stay out of people’s personal lives, and it’s clear that this applies to trans people just as much as it does to those who need abortion care.

A CNN article earlier this week shed some light on Harris’s approach to fighting back against GOP attacks. The piece went into detail about a phone call Harris and her top campaign aides had with Biden’s campaign pollsters. The pollsters implored the campaign to ease off the “weird” attacks, calling them too negative and criticizing Harris’s favourite line of “we’re not going back” as not forward-looking enough.

Harris and her team considered the advice but ultimately rejected it. According to the article, “she told them she wasn’t going to listen to the pollsters herself and would instead trust the instincts she had buried under self-doubt for so long.”

Yes! Finally we have a Democrat at the top of the party who is unafraid of offending Republicans even as she brings joy back into politics. Part of what brings joy to folks these days is answering idiocy with mockery and finally Harris has let the dogs loose within her party. It’s about damn time.