They say that nature abhors a vacuum. Apparently politics does too.
As MAGA Republicans have abandoned the pragmatic center, Democrats have occupied it. And the Democrats’ convention in Chicago — especially the final day — sealed the deal.
The first striking thing about the convention is how patriotic it was. Not blood-and-soil apocalyptic patriotic, but Fourth of July, proud-to-be-an-American patriotic, filled with waving flags, chants of USA! USA!, and tributes to “the unfinished promise of this great nation.” It was optimistic, upbeat and, well, confidently normal. None of this would have been out of place at the McCain Republican convention in 2008.
In fact, Democrats invoked John McCain when they brought on stage dozens of elected Democrats who had served in the military, many of them injured in the line of duty. These people had served regardless of who happened to be president at the time, and their message was, “We put country over politics.”
Democrats capped this off by giving conservative former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) a prime-time speaking spot just a few minutes before Kamala Harris spoke. His message? “The Democrats are as patriotic as us. They love this country just as much as we do. And they are as eager to defend American values at home and abroad as we conservatives have ever been.”
But perhaps the most impressive thing about the convention is what was missing. There was none of the finger-wagging and pronoun-obsessing navel-gazing that we’ve all come to associate with progressives. The only identity politics on display involved convention delegates proudly waving American flags.
Being exposed to the realities of governing has matured Harris. We can argue about exactly how centrist she is now but she is undoubtedly pragmatic, probably the most pragmatic Democratic nominee since Bill Clinton. Her acceptance speech could have been cribbed from former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R). She wants America to have “the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world,” promised a tax cut, swore to confront America’s enemies while “standing firm” with Israel and NATO, and committed herself to order on the border by promising to sign Republican Sen. Jim Lankford’s (R-Okla.) border security bill.
The extremist factions of the Democratic Party still exist, of course, but Harris simply refuses to indulge them. For example, pro-Palestinian Democrats demanded that Palestinian speakers get stage time at the convention to make their case against Israel. They even threatened to disband the Muslim Women for Harris coalition if their demands weren’t met. In the past, a threat like that would have terrorized Democrats. Not this time.
None of this is as surprising as you might think. Harris is a prosecutor, and prosecutors are conservative by nature. The same impulses that made her dedicate her life to putting bad guys in prison naturally incline her to protect the rule of law and defend America against dictators and terrorists.
This isn’t to say that conservative — as distinct from MAGA — Republicans will find themselves in complete agreement with everything Harris says. As much as I’m generally in favor of lower taxes, I’ve got my doubts about no taxes on tips.
But having disagreements like this is the cut-and-thrust of normal politics. Yes, Harris may want to set the corporate tax rate too high, but this is the kind of thing you can fix when it turns out to be wrong. It’s not a deal-breaker.
The vice president is right on the important things, the things that America has invested decades, even centuries, in building and that can’t be fixed once they are broken. These are things like our alliances, our democracy, our place in the world as the shining city on the hill. These things don’t belong to us. We only hold them in trust for the Americans that come after us.
Harris put it much better than I can. “We are the heirs to the greatest democracy in the history of the world. ... It is now our turn ... to uphold the awesome responsibility that comes with the greatest privilege on earth, the privilege and pride of being an American.”
Ronald Reagan famously said that someone who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is not your enemy. I’ll go that one better: Someone who agrees with you 100 percent of the time on the important things is on the same team as you are, even if you disagree about the best strategy for moving the ball forward.
Kamala Harris is not a left-wing lunatic or a communist, whatever you may have read on X or Truth Social. She is squarely in the center of our political traditions and both her personal story and her politics are as American as apple pie.
As a conservative, Harris may not be my dream president. But I have no doubt that she’s a safe pair of hands, and that whatever happens to the corporate tax rate, America’s democracy and its place in the world would sail through four years of her presidency intact. I can’t say the same about four more years of Donald Trump.
If being a conservative is about protecting what’s important, that doesn’t leave us a lot of choice, come November.
Chris Truax is an appellate attorney who served as Southern California chair for John McCain’s primary campaign in 2008.
