A Battle Cry to Save the Republic ‘When we fight, we win!’ Dan Rather and Team Steady Aug 20 Credit: Getty Images Oh, what I would have given to be in Chicago Monday night. I can imagine the energy on the floor of the Democratic National Convention, given what’s happened in the past month. This reporter has long been a political junkie, and trust me, after covering dozens of conventions, television can’t convey the noise and the raw excitement of the delegates as they celebrate their party at this quadrennial event. Or the surprise when the prospective nominee makes an unexpected appearance, as Vice President Kamala Harris did last night. Traditionally, the nominee takes the stage only on the convention’s final night. But the 2024 presidential campaign is anything but traditional. Harris ended her short speech with these words: “With optimism, hope, and faith, so guided by our love of country, knowing we all have so much more in common than what separates us, let us fight for the ideals we hold dear and let us always remember, when we fight, we win!” The crowd was on its feet chanting what has become her battle cry back to her. “When we fight, we win!” Much has been made in the media (including by yours truly) about the joy and exuberance Harris’s presidential campaign has engendered. That enthusiasm has been instrumental in uniting Democrats — and Independents and even some Republicans — around her. But it isn’t enough to defeat Donald Trump in November. Since her first appearance as a candidate for president, Harris has ended her remarks with the strikingly simple but effective declarative sentence “When we fight, we win.” I don’t know if her choice of campaign slogans is based on the 2016 book of the same name. But I would imagine so, since the book is about social movements of the 21st century and the activists who made them happen. That sounds like something she would read. Why is it so effective? It is a call to action. By using decisive action verbs, “fight” and “win,” she is throwing down her gauntlet, making sure there is no room for another outcome. It is unifying. She uses the pronoun “we” rather than “I,” declaring that joining together with a common purpose is better than doing it alone. It is pithy and memorable. It can already be found on T-shirts, hats, posters, and bumper stickers. When you click “Take Action”  on the Harris campaign website, you arrive at a page reading “WHEN WE FIGHT, WE WIN” in big, bold typeface, and then it asks users to sign up to get involved. Not all campaign slogans are winners. I have covered several presidential elections with real doozies. In 1968, Richard Nixon’s was “Nixon’s the One.” Really? And Jimmy Carter used “Not Just Peanuts” as a nod to his farming days, but it doesn’t make much sense. In spite of the less-than-inspired slogans, both candidates won.  Joe Biden’s campaign slogan this year was “Let's Finish the Job.” While laudable, it requires too much thought. What job? How do we finish it? A knock against Biden is that he didn’t hit back hard enough against the deluge of mud slung at him by Donald Trump. When he did fight back against it, Biden’s response was soft, using words like “malarkey” to counter Trump’s litany of lies. More often than not, Biden stayed on the high road. As opposed to Trump who isn’t even on a road but in the gutter with his malicious name-calling and bullying. Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, are hitting back, and hitting back hard and fast, with pointed attacks directed at Trump’s weaknesses. As Harris says, she has taken on “perpetrators of all kinds … Predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump’s type.” In an attempt to reclaim the youth vote that Biden was losing, the Harris-Walz campaign team has upped the snarkiness in its response to the Republican ticket. A recent campaign press release titled “Statement on a 78-Year-Old Criminal’s Fox News Appearance” contained a bulleted list of takeaways from the interview, including that “[Trump] Praised dictators because he wants to be one; Trump is clearly worried he made the wrong pick in JD Vance; Trump is old and quite weird? This guy shouldn’t be president ever again.” No doubt Harris and Walz will fight to the end. But their slogan is aspirational, not a manifestation of what will happen November 5. It doesn’t guarantee that they win. A rejection of Trump with an overwhelming turnout at the polls, especially in key electoral states, is the Democrats’ best hope for that. If you value independent journalism that provides critical information to protect our democracy, please consider upgrading as a supporting member. It allows me to keep Steady sustainable and free for those who cannot afford it, especially in an election season when we need everyone to see it. Thank you.