Electoralism/Democratism

‘Michelle Obama Had the Best Closing Argument of the Campaign

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October 31, 2024
When I heard Michelle Obama’s speech in Kalamazoo, Michigan, this past Saturday, I was shocked to find myself feeling something. It has been a long time since a national figure has managed to convey the emotional currents underlying this struggle for power that we call politics, partly because words have become so devalued in the nearly ten years since Donald Trump first ran for president. Trump can say the most outlandish thing and lots of people simply won’t believe he really means it; on the flip side, his opponents regularly and correctly call him a fascist and a racist, leaving open the question of whether any epithet (serial killer, maybe?) would be enough to change the minds of his supporters. As Rebecca Traister writes in her latest essay for New York, Obama made an argument for women’s rights that was both complex and stirring in its clarity: “At its heart was the simplest and most heartbreaking of contentions — that women are people.” Listening to Obama, and reading Rebecca, I felt that maybe words do matter after all.
—Ryu Spaeth, features editor, New York
 

Michelle Obama Had the Best Closing Argument of the Campaign The former First Lady distilled what this election is really about.
By Rebecca Traister
Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo
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Categories: Electoralism/Democratism

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