CHICAGO \u2014 When President Joe Biden delivered his valedictory address at the Democratic National Convention on Monday night, he invoked the need to \u201cpreserve our democracy,\u201d \u201cvote for democracy,\u201d and confront the \u201cclear and present threats to our very democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saved democracy in 2020,\u201d he declared, \u201cand now we must save it again in 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n
The theme of existential stakes for the American experiment was in keeping with one that Biden has hammered throughout the campaign. But his rhetorical emphasis hasn\u2019t been embraced by the woman he endorsed to take his place on the Democratic ticket: Vice President Kamala Harris. Rather, she has shifted the focus, speaking far less about democracy and far more about freedom.<\/p>\n
Harris on Monday took the stage for a surprise appearance to the rousing beat of Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s \u201cFreedom,\u201d her campaign\u2019s unofficial anthem. She was preceded onstage by a nearly three-minute hype video set to the same song, with the narrator promising \u201cfreedom from control, freedom from extremism and fear.\u201d Together, the night\u2019s speakers referenced \u201cfreedom\u201d more than 100 times. And on Wednesday, the convention\u2019s entire program will be dedicated to the theme \u201cA Fight for Our Freedoms.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since Harris took over as the Democrats\u2019 presidential nominee, much about the campaign\u2019s approach to defeating Donald Trump has changed, from the trappings of its rallies to the size of its fundraising hauls to its tone on social media.<\/p>\n
But the rhetorical evolution is among the most significant, redefining the stakes of the race and giving Democrats a new rallying cry that political practitioners say is far more likely to resonate with voters.<\/p>\n
At 100 campaign events since launching his reelection in April 2023, Biden referenced \u201cdemocracy\u201d 386 times and \u201cfreedom\u201d about 175 times, according to a Washington Post analysis of his speeches. By comparison, in eight campaign rallies since he has dropped out, Harris referenced \u201cfreedom\u201d 48 times and \u201cdemocracy\u201d just nine.<\/p>\n
Where Biden ominously warned that Trump posed a fundamental danger to the future of America\u2019s constitutional republic, Harris has leaned into a term that better fits the more upbeat and optimistic tone she has sought to strike. It can also be applied to a range of issues with a more tangible impact on people\u2019s day-to-day lives, including abortion, education, gun control and the economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always say people sitting around the table talking about democracy. It\u2019s probably because they don\u2019t have to worry about the food they have on the table,\u201d said David Axelrod, a veteran Democratic strategist whose messaging helped propel Barack Obama to the presidency.<\/p>\n
Biden believed the call to defend democracy would motivate voters to choose him over Trump, as they did in 2020. The message was also integral to Democrats\u2019 successful 2022 midterm election, when they fended off Republican candidates in key state races who repeated Trump\u2019s falsehoods denying the results of the 2020 race.<\/p>\n
But in the lead-up to Biden\u2019s July withdrawal, polls showed him significantly lagging and the democracy message not cutting through. In a spring Post poll of voters in six states that Biden narrowly won in 2020, more people said they trusted Trump to handle threats to democracy than Biden. Most said the guardrails in place to protect democratic institutions would hold even if a dictator tried to take over the country.<\/p>\n
Celinda Lake, a longtime Democratic pollster who did polling for Biden\u2019s 2020 presidential campaign, said that \u201cdemocracy\u201d polled well with older Democrats but not with younger ones \u201cwho really don\u2019t think we have a democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe freedom message is just broader, more forward-looking,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said Harris\u2019s campaign had offered \u201cno solutions or policy ideas to fix the problems America faces today. All they have are nonsensical slogans and feel-good platitudes that are devoid of substance and, ultimately, reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump, who has said he would be a dictator on \u201cday one,\u201d has repeatedly argued that he is the true defender of democracy because he is fighting prosecutions that amount to \u201celection interference.\u201d He has also falsely called Harris replacing Biden a \u201ccoup.\u201d The argument has clouded the question of what democracy \u2014 a term that leaves much to the imagination \u2014 even means.<\/p>\n
\u201cDemocracy has almost become trivialized, even though it\u2019s hardly a trivial issue,\u201d Axelrod said.<\/p>\n
Harris still talks about democracy, but not nearly as much as the president, even as she has amped up the centrality of freedom \u2014 a word often more associated with the political right \u2014 as a rallying cry.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe vice president\u2019s fundamental point is the same as those who invoke \u2018democracy,\u2019 but she believes discussing it in terms of fundamental freedoms makes it tangible in terms of what Americans stand to lose under a Trump presidency,\u201d said Brian Fallon, a Harris campaign spokesman.<\/p>\n
Freedom, as Democrats have increasingly used it, can mean saving democracy from would-be autocrats. But it can also refer to protecting reproductive rights, same-sex marriage, access to affordable health care, a choice of what to read at school and safety from gun violence.<\/p>\n
\u201cVoters respond to freedom as a core American value,\u201d said Emma Brown, executive director of Giffords, a gun safety advocacy group. \u201cWhen we can talk about [gun violence] as a freedom issue, we get near universal agreement about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe share this core value of more freedom, not less, and for too long, we\u2019ve allowed the far right to claim they are the party of freedom,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n
For decades, Republicans have adopted freedom as their rallying cry, amplified in recent years by the 2010 tea party movement\u2019s \u201cDon\u2019t Tread on Me\u201d slogan and the 2015 creation of the \u201cFreedom Caucus\u201d by a group of far-right GOP members of Congress.<\/p>\n
Anat Shenker-Osorio, a liberal communications consultant, has been urging Democrats to reclaim the term \u201cfreedom\u201d for several years. In focus groups she\u2019s conducted with disaffected Democrats and swing voters, Shenker-Osorio said people respond more favorably on issues such as voter suppression or gerrymandering when they are \u201cframed through the language of freedom than through the lens of democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere freedom sort of lives inside of the body, democracy is a more abstract idea,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
After the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in 2022, ending the constitutional right to abortion, Democrats began using freedom more in their messaging. Josh Shapiro, who ran for Pennsylvania governor that year against a Republican who had helped orchestrate efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, was among the earliest adopters.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not freedom to tell women what they\u2019re allowed to do with their bodies. That\u2019s not freedom,\u201d said Shapiro, who won his race, in a campaign speech that went viral. \u201cIt\u2019s not freedom to say you can work a 40-hour workweek, but you can\u2019t be a member of a union. That\u2019s not freedom. And it sure as hell isn\u2019t freedom to say you can go vote, but he gets to pick the winner. That\u2019s not freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shapiro, who was a finalist to be Harris\u2019s vice president and will speak Wednesday night, held a \u201creal freedom\u201d happy hour on the first day of the convention. In a brief interview afterward, Shapiro said freedom \u201cis not theoretical. It\u2019s quantitative. Donald Trump took away freedoms and is promising to take away more, and Kamala Harris is promising to expand our freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Keith Ellison, the attorney general of Minnesota and a former Democratic congressman, said the rhetorical pivot is part of a broader shift in mood for the party that coincides with the change in presidential candidates. \u201cThe messaging is a little more electric,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople do operate on fear, but they volunteer out of joy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Down-ballot Democrats have followed Harris\u2019s lead.<\/p>\n
Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Tex.), the first House Democrat to call for Biden to step aside this summer, said he\u2019s started emphasizing freedom more.<\/p>\n
\u201cDemocracy, as vital as it is, may not have been reaching some of the undecided voters,\u201d Doggett said. \u201cFreedom, people can identify with. They don\u2019t want other people telling them how they have to live their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not to say democracy has disappeared from the conversation on the campaign trail or in Chicago. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), during his remarks Monday night, told the story of the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and warned that Trump would \u201cterminate our Constitution\u201d if elected for another term.<\/p>\n
\u201cWelcome to the democracy convention,\u201d he said. Then he added: \u201cWelcome to the freedom convention.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morse reported from Washington.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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