CHICAGO \u2014 Kamala Harris concluded her first speech of the Democratic National Convention on Monday with what has become a familiar mantra: \u201cWhen we fight,\u201d she said, \u201cwe win!\u201d<\/p>\n
As Democratic National Committee chair Jaime Harrison spoke that same day, he nodded toward the line to rile up the crowd. \u201cAnd believe me,\u201d he said, \u201cwhen we fight, we win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve Kerr, the head coach of the Golden State Warriors, wrapped up his speech with the same phrase.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we fight, what happens?\u201d he asked to the familiar shouts back. \u201cAnd we are going to win this thing together.\u201d<\/p>\n
All campaigns rally behind certain phrases that become inextricably linked to a candidate. Harris did not coin the phrase: It\u2019s been used for years, and she\u2019s only adopted it recently. But it has become one of her signature lines.<\/p>\n
She included it in her first campaign video, behind the strains of Beyonc\u00e9 singing \u201cFreedom.\u201d She said it as she wrapped up her first visit to the campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Del., to greet the Biden staffers that had become hers. And now it\u2019s written in big bold letters on her campaign website.<\/p>\n
Political slogans date back centuries, and they have long moved American voters and defined elections. In 1840, William Henry Harrison used banners and songs with a catchy, \u201cTippecanoe and Tyler, too\u201d as a reference to Harrison\u2019s role in the Battle of Tippecanoe and his running mate, John Tyler. Herbert Hoover defined his 1928 campaign with \u201cA chicken in every pot and a car in every garage,\u201d and Dwight D. Eisenhower\u2019s simple slogan \u2014 \u201cI like Ike\u201d \u2014 helped him win a 1952 landslide.<\/p>\n
Hillary Clinton cycled through a number of different slogans before settling on \u201cStronger together.\u201d Donald Trump is most identified with \u201cMake America Great Again,\u201d but Republican crowds have also rallied around slogans like \u201cDrill baby drill\u201d and \u201cBuild the wall.\u201d They used to chant, \u201cLock her up\u201d as a reference to Clinton.<\/p>\n
Obama used \u201cYes we can.\u201d But this year, the national mood is more combative.<\/p>\n
After Trump survived an assassination attempt last month, he stood up, pumped his fist and yelled, \u201cFight.\u201d A few days later, Donald Trump Jr. led the Republican convention in chants of \u201cFight! Fight! Fight!\u201d Clinton\u2019s signature campaign song in 2016 was Rachel Platten\u2019s \u201cFight Song\u201d and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) used \u201cDream big, fight hard\u201d during her campaign for the 2020 presidential nomination.<\/p>\n
At this week\u2019s convention, Democrats see the phrase as an inclusive call to action that asks supporters to link arms in solidarity.<\/p>\n
Greg Jobin-Leeds, who co-wrote a 2016 book titled \u201cWhen We Fight, We Win: Twenty-First-Century Social Movements and the Activists That Are Transforming Our World,\u201d traces the first use of the phrase to City Life\/Vida Urbana, a Boston-based social justice organization that has its roots in civil rights and antiwar movements and used the chant in anti-eviction efforts over the past several decades.<\/p>\n
After Jobin-Leeds\u2019s book came out, he set up a Google alert for the phrase to keep track of other uses of it. The musician Rev. Sekou released an album and a song by the same name in 2019. But Jobin-Leeds, by his own account, is getting way more Google alerts now.<\/p>\n
\u201cPart of the sentiment is we don\u2019t always win the legislation or the bill or the labor strike or the immigrant policy that we\u2019re looking for,\u201d he said. \u201cBut you always win your humanity when you fight. And if you don\u2019t fight and you just roll over, you\u2019ve already lost.\u201d<\/p>\n
The phrase uses \u201cwe\u201d twice, and he said it\u2019s a key concept in building a collective rally behind a cause.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou build a \u2018we\u2019 during the fight,\u201d he said. \u201cWhether fighting for tenants\u2019 rights or teachers having adequate pay, you build a unified we. And you build your self-confidence and your ability to fight. It\u2019s in the fighting that you already win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jobin-Leeds has been intrigued to see Harris adopt the phrase, but has mixed feelings about it being used in mainstream politics.<\/p>\n
\u201cGenerally it\u2019s been a phrase of the underdog \u2014 of the immigrant and the tenant and not the billionaire,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s interesting to see it in a political campaign which is more within the Democratic establishment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Delegates here have quickly embraced the phrase, learning to complete the sentence and join along in the chant. Deloris Rome Hudson, a retired teacher from Ohio, said she loved the slogan.<\/p>\n
\u201cOften, in order to achieve what you want \u2014 that\u2019s the fight,\u201d she said. \u201cYou have to get people behind you to be successful. That\u2019s what this is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Terry McAuliffe, the former governor of Virginia and longtime Democratic Party official, called the slogan \u201ca call to action for the grass roots.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody\u2019s unified and jazzed up here. But it\u2019s going to be a tough slog,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen we fight, everybody\u2019s gotta get out there. We\u2019ve got to knock on doors, make the phone calls. We can\u2019t take anything for granted. Because they\u2019re going to fight hard on the other side.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the fight is to energize people,\u201d he added. \u201cYou can\u2019t sit home and complain. You want to get in the game? Go fight. Make calls, knock on doors. That\u2019s what that means.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the past, the phrase has been used as a rallying cry in the labor movement. Jesse Jackson used it during a rally in Wisconsin in 2011. Commentator Van Jones mentioned it in a column in 2012. And the slogan was the theme for the NAACP\u2019s national gathering in 2019. Harris attended that convention as part of her 2020 Democratic primary campaign.<\/p>\n
Harris used variations of \u201cfight\u201d during that race, but her campaign slogan was \u201cFor the People.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier in her vice presidency, Harris had a routine of ending speeches with a riff on common Democratic principles such as freedom and equality, reproductive rights and collective bargaining. \u201cWhen we know what we stand for, then we know what we fight for,\u201d she\u2019d say.<\/p>\n
Over time, she also tacked on the next line: \u201cAnd when we fight, we win.\u201d It was an attempt, Harris aides say, to connect her childhood going to civil rights rallies in a stroller with today\u2019s political battles. During the 2022 midterms, she began regularly taking up the phrase that would become her signature.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know what we stand for. We know when we fight, we win,\u201d she told an audience at a Greater Boston Labor Council breakfast in September 2022. She said the phrase again that month at a Democratic National Committee meeting, again as she rallied Democrats in Texas and Illinois, and again at a Minnesota fundraiser for Gov. Tim Walz, who two years later would accompany her atop the party ticket.<\/p>\n
In 2023, the phrase became her mantra when talking about abortion rights or gun control. She said it at rallies in Michigan and Wisconsin, in Indianapolis and Atlanta. She used it when introducing Walz as her running mate.<\/p>\n
Walz, in his introductory video, concluded with: \u201cLike she says, when we fight, we win\u201d<\/p>\n
And on Wednesday night, he used it as the climax of his speech accepting the vice-presidential nomination, engaging in a call and response with the crowd.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the next president of the United States always says: When we fight?\u201d Walz said.<\/p>\n
The crowd chanted in unison: \u201cWe win!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we fight?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe win.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we fight?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe win.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you. God bless.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
CHICAGO \u2014 Kamala Harris concluded her first speech of the Democratic National Convention on Monday with what has become a familiar mantra: \u201cWhen we fight,\u201d she said, \u201cwe win!\u201d As Democratic National Committee chair Jaime Harrison spoke that same day, he nodded toward the line to rile up the crowd. \u201cAnd believe me,\u201d he said, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8387,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}