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Republicans are accusing elite Democrats and their celebrity allies of trying to sell their newfound patriotism to the American people as a “vibe,” even as Democratic Party insiders tell The Post Kamala Harris’ message about the “promise of America” is winning over undecided voters at the convention in Chicago this week.
Trump campaign operatives said speakers at the Democratic National Convention have talked glowingly about their “love of country” — despite implementing policies that clash with that vision.
“This is being decided right now based on a vibe … based on style over substance,” said Trump surrogate and former GOP presidential contender Vivek Ramaswamy during a Thursday press conference at the Trump Hotel Chicago. “Many voters are going to demand some level of substance that they haven’t gotten yet.”
“I see Oprah Winfrey. I see John Legend. See Lil Jon. Great,” Ramaswamy added, rattling off the sheer star power inside the United Center during Wednesday night’s program. “That doesn’t still tell me what she stands for.”
Harris, 59, is expected to deliver an optimistic message — like her vice presidential pick Tim Walz spoke of “freedom” the night before — about “the promise of America” informed by her own “deep sense of patriotism,” according to the Harris-Walz campaign.
Those remarks will come against a backdrop of thousands of delegates in the preceding nights waving US flags and holding aloft “USA” signs, as well as surprise appearances from beloved American icons like Oprah Winfrey.
“I do think you’re going to see the patriotism message tonight weaved in,” one Democratic campaign operative told The Post, before adding: “The USA signs at the DNC stand in stark contrast to the mass deportation ones at the RNC.”
Follow along with The Post’s live reporting of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
“I think MAGA has just tried to affix patriotism to its cult, accessorize it — so as to try and attract independents, centrists, and women,” a senior Democratic aide assessed of Trump’s Make America Great Again movement. “I don’t think its worked much for MAGA. They haven’t expanded their target market or their customer base.”
“It’s always good to see Americans express a love of our nation,” shot back Trump campaign senior adviser Brian Hughes. “But a party that has thrown open our borders to drugs and crime, diminished our standing as a force for global peace, and made it difficult for fellow Americans to afford the basics of life seems the exact opposite of patriotic.”
‘We love this country’
The criticism hasn’t stopped high-profile Democrats — and some Republican dissenters — who spoke this week from leading with an appeal to voters based on national pride before taking jabs at Trump and his running-mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio).
“We’re all here tonight for one beautiful, simple reason: We love this country,” Walz declared when accepting his vice presidential nomination.
In a speech that paid homage to his rural Nebraska roots, he went on to cast his and Harris’ candidacy as the neighborly alternative to the Republican ticket.
“Growing up in a small town like that, you learn how to take care of each other,” Walz intoned. “That family down the road, they may not think like you do, they may not pray like you do. They may not love like you do. But they’re your neighbors.”
He carefully avoided any mention of Trump’s MAGA movement or the chaos of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, which were typical attacks President Biden deployed during his now-suspended re-election campaign.
Instead, Walz focused on “freedom.”
“When we Democrats talk about freedom, we mean the freedom to make a better life for yourself and the people that you love,” he said. “And no matter who you are, Kamala Harris is going to stand up and fight for your freedom to live the life that you want to lead, because that’s what we want for ourselves, and it’s what we want for our neighbors.”
Talk show host and author Oprah Winfrey in her first appearance at a political convention urged voters to “choose freedom” and cast a ballot for Harris and Walz, as part of a charged speech that also steered clear of mentioning Trump’s name.
“We are Americans. Let us choose loyalty to the Constitution over loyalty to any individual, because that’s the best of America. And let us choose optimism over cynicism, because that’s the best of America. And let us choose inclusion over retribution. Let us choose common sense over nonsense, because that’s the best of America,” Winfrey said, wowing the audience and causing delegates to break out in chants of “we won’t go back.”
“Look, you don’t have to agree with every policy position of Kamala Harris. I don’t,” former Georgia lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan, a Republican, added in his remarks. “If you vote for Kamala Harris in 2024, you’re not a Democrat, you’re a patriot.”
The senior Democratic aide pointed out that the message was part of a strategy shift from “defending democracy” to the “hope” instilled by “patriotism.”
“Democracy survived, in many ways, thanks to an extremely conservative Republican, [former Vice President] Mike Pence,” the aide noted, saying it “gives people hope that patriotism and democracy are tethered.”
‘Policy deficits’
But the strategy will only work without proper vetting of Democrats’ policy stances, according to Republicans, with their party still shifting blame to Trump and Vance a great deal.
“Night Three mentioned Donald J. Trump 87 times,” Hughes noted in the Thursday presser. “They mentioned the word crime five times. They mention the word inflation once.”
“So instead of the major policies that America cares about, they remain fixated on running against President Trump,” he added. “Part of doing that is because they do not stand ready to run on the record of Harris and Biden.”
“Many covered for Joe Biden’s cognitive deficits,” Ramaswamy recalled. “I worry the media is now covering for Kamala Harris’ policy deficits, and Americans are left holding the bag both times over.”
Immigration and the economy have remained particularly potent lines of attack against Harris, polls show, even as veteran Republican pollsters say she is experiencing a “honeymoon” of rising support from voters.
“Right now, we’re experiencing the largest amount of human trafficking in the history of our country,” said Carlos Trujillo, the Ambassador to the Organization of American States under Trump, citing a recent Department of Homeland Security inspector general’s report that revealed nearly 300,000 migrant children were unaccounted for in America.
“Shame on Kamala Harris for that,” Ramaswamy also said of the report’s findings, before laying into her over the deaths of US citizens to criminal migrants. “Shame on her for her failed leadership of the country, and shame on her for permitting the deaths of Americans at the hands of these illegal immigrants: Laken Riley, Rachel Morin, Kayla Hamilton, Brenda Aultman.”
“Kamala Harris did not offer an economic policy until earlier this week when she came out with her Nobel Prize winning suggestion of regulating … the grocery industry with price caps to prevent price gouging by giving the FTC authority to somehow go after vaguely defined price competition,” he went on.
“Those are the two issues that will and should decide this election,” Ramaswamy predicted. “We’ve offered our position on what we think needs to be done about each of those: Seal the southern border, grow the economy.”
“The real dividing line in this country is not really between historical Democrat or Republican, it’s not really even between black or white right now — it is between the managerial class … the people who are offering those false economic statistics from the three letter agencies in Washington, DC, and the everyday citizen who is left holding the bag,” he contrasted.
Republicans said that’s why the Democratic promises of “freedom” may ring hollow to the electorate.
“Tim Walz’s slogan. What does he say? ‘Mind your own damn business,’” Ramaswamy added. “Actually, gotta admit, I kinda like that. I think it’s a message that we espouse ourselves.”
“When it comes to entering your house and taking your gas stove, mind your own damn business; when it comes to letting millions of illegals into this country to commit crimes … we tell them, mind your own damn business; when it comes to actually indoctrinating our children in this country, telling small businesses who they can or cannot hire with the CFPB or the Department of Labor, tracking your gender or race or sexual orientation statistics of your business, mind your own damn business,” he rattled off.
“That is our message to the American people,” Ramaswamy countered. “You know what he said — they’re all words. We’re about action.”
So too is the talk of national unity, according to the onetime-presidential-candidate-turned-Trump-flack.
“Joe Biden claimed to want to unite the country. He failed to do it. Kamala Harris was right there at his side,” Ramaswamy said.
“She owns that national division at her feet,” he concluded. “But if you want a president who’s actually going to unite the country, not through some fake verbiage, not through words, but through action, and I think Donald Trump is going to be the man for the job.”
