NEW YORK (AP) — Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic nomination “on behalf of all whose history could only be written in the greatest nation on earth.” America, thundered Barack Obama, “is ready for a better history.” JD Vance insisted that the Biden administration is “not the end of our story,” and Donald Trump urged his Republican colleagues to “write our own exciting chapter of American history.”
“This week,” comedian and former Obama administration speechwriter Jon Lovett said Thursday on NBC, “it was about a story.”
In the discourse of American politics, this sort of discussion from each side will not be surprising – indeed, it is acceptable. Because within the 2024 election campaign, the term “story” is omnipresent, just because it is in the material of American culture as a complete.
This yr's conventions were, like so lots of their kind, curated collections of sophisticated stories, fastidiously spun to attain one goal: getting elected. But behind them lurked a bitter, high-stakes battle to inform the best story of all – the story about America, which needs to be, as Harris put it, “the next great chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told.”
American history – an improbable tale filled with twists and turns that sometimes feels, as so many prefer to say, “like a movie” – is on the core of American culture for a novel reason.
Americans live in considered one of the few societies built not on centuries of shared culture but on stories themselves – “the shining city on the hill,” “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” “all men are created equal.” Even catchy promoting campaigns – “baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet” – are a part of it. In a way, the United States – not coincidentally the place where the pioneer myth, Hollywood and Madison Avenue were born – has brought itself into existence and meaning by repeating its story over and all over again over time.
The campaign teams understand this. That's why they’re presenting voters with two different – some would even say completely opposite – versions of American history.
How the 2 parties use stories
Republicans are offering a version of the story: They insist that to make America great again in the longer term, we must fight to revive traditional values and reclaim the moral strength and bravado of past generations. In his speech on the party's convention last month, Trump invoked three different conflicts – the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and World War II – to evoke the fantastic achievements of American history.
To reinforce their vision, the Republican Party sent musicians reminiscent of Kid Rock, star wrestler Hulk Hogan and Lee Greenwood on stage to sing “God Bless the USA.” Trump knelt before the firefighting gear of Corey Comperatore, who had been killed in an assassination attempt on the candidate a couple of days earlier. Vance spoke of “bad guys” and told the coming-of-age story from the Appalachians that he told in “Hillbilly Elegy.”
Republicans, as they often do, used military storylines and brought within the families of killed soldiers to criticize President Joe Biden's “weak” leadership. And they did every part they might to influence their electorate. Vance's wife Usha, who’s of Indian descent, praised him as “a down-to-earth guy” – a classic American cliché – while stressing that he respected her vegetarian weight-reduction plan and had learned to cook Indian food for her mother.
“What could I say that hasn't been said before?” she said, introducing Vance. “After all, the man has already been the subject of a Ron Howard movie.”
And the Democrats? Their convention last week focused on a brand new and different future, filled with “joy” and free from what Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called “Trump's politics of darkness.” It was a hinted “Star Wars” metaphor if ever there was one.
It was hard to miss the indisputable fact that the Democrats weren’t only rallying across the multi-ethnic and multicultural nation embodied by Harris, but that they were also systematically attempting to reclaim those blunt parts of American history that had been in Republican hands lately.
The flag was all over the place, as was the concept of freedom. Tim Walz performed to the sounds of John Mellencamp's “Small Town,” an ode to the vision of America that Republicans often trumpet. Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota explained the characteristics of the common guy that Walz embodies – someone who can change a automobile light, a hunter, a “dad in plaid.”
The former geography teacher's past as a football coach was also explored, and burly guys in Mankato West Scarlets jerseys streamed onto the stage to the sounds of the marching band “The Halls of Montezuma.” They even enlisted a former Republican congressman to underscore all of the imagery by saying the quiet part out loud.
“I want to let my Republican colleagues in on the secret: Democrats are just as patriotic as we are,” said Adam Kinzinger, a Trump-critical Republican from Illinois.
Bringing all of it together
Watching the videos and testimony from each conventions, one narrative technique stood out: what journalists call “character-driven” stories. Whether it was advocating for abortion rights, warning against illegal mass immigration, or spreading anger about inflation, “ordinary” Americans became the narrative constructing blocks for national concerns.
As historian Heather Cox Richardson put it in her Substack publication “Letters from an American” last week concerning the DNC: “The many stories of ordinary Americans rising from adversity through hard work, decency and service to others implicitly conflate those individual struggles with the struggles of the United States itself.”
In the last generation, the tools of storytelling have turn out to be more democratic. We are all publishers now—on X, on TikTok, on Instagram, on Truth Social. And we’re all storytellers, telling mini versions of the American story nevertheless we decide. Perspectives which have long been silenced and suppressed are finding their way into the sunshine.
Putting aside questions of truth and misinformation, how can a unifying American story be evoked when tons of of thousands and thousands of individuals today can tell it in another way and from their very own perspectives? Democratization is helpful, but it could even be chaotic and obscure.
“A people that cannot stand together cannot stand together at all,” said poet Amanda Gorman in her speech on the DNC. But with so many histories to think through, is unity harder than ever? Is there even a single, unifying “American story”? Should there be?
In the meantime, attempts to co-opt and spread versions of this story will proceed through Election Day and beyond. As long as there may be an American nation, thousands and thousands of individuals will try to clarify to us what it means – desperately, angrily, optimistically, urgently. Stories are a strong weapon, and likewise an efficient metaphor. As Walz said of claiming goodbye to Trump and Vance, “I'm ready to close the chapter.”
Originally published:
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