This Saturday evening, Michelle Obama avoided mentioning the former president and current Republican candidate by name. Before thousands of worshipers in the swing state of Pennsylvania, the former first lady delivered a speech in which her voice broke at times in defense of empathy and in contrast to the incendiary message of “Kamala’s rival “.
“It is easier to destroy than to build…The destruction is rapid and merciless and no one knows when it will stop,” he said in Norristown, a small town north of Philadelphia, in a speech aimed at refuting Republican insults against immigrants and minorities. women or political rivals. “Maybe you’re a little man trying to feel big by pouring gasoline on other people’s real pain.”
“We are inundated with voices telling us that we should be wary of our neighbors, that military service is for ‘losers’ and that there is ‘an enemy within,'” he said, referring to words used by Harris’ rival. when he was president and now as a candidate. “It’s still not normal. It’s disconcerting. It’s dangerous. And it’s shameful.”
Obama insisted on the danger of attacking “the other”: “One day, he attacks people we don’t know. Maybe it’s immigrants, black people, or trans communities. Then go find your Puerto Rican, Jewish, or Palestinian neighbor, friend, or relative. Then he comes after you.
Michelle Obama remains the Democratic Party’s most popular figure despite her reluctance toward politics and her years-long refusal to run for public office.
At Norristown his speech was interrupted several times by cries of “I love you” And “Yes we can“. To chants of her husband’s campaign slogan, she responded: “Yes, we did it.” And we can start again.
Amid applause, his voice cracked on stage as he spoke of a 100-year-old woman he met a few days ago in Michigan and that what she felt was compassion and compassion. empathy for others after a life in which she participated in the efforts to win World War II and lived through the struggle for civil rights.
This evening, Michelle Obama spoke to thousands of people at a high school field house in Norristown, a town home to about 35,000 people. The participants, a rainbow of ages, genders and races, had lined up for hours, snaking across campus around the institute. Thousands more were left out due to lack of capacity in the pavilion where Obama spoke and in another space to at least see her on screen.
His message embraced thousands of already convinced people. Many had already voted by mail to avoid possible incidents on the (working) day of the election.
country of immigration
This is the case of Meena Raman and Raman Gopalakrishnan, a couple of doctors from a neighboring county who are waiting in line to see Michelle Obama for the first time. They both support Harris, but he’s the more enthusiastic and she wanted to see a rally with her “own eyes.” Meena arrives wearing a Barça t-shirt – she and her family are football fans – and is wearing a “Swifties by Harris”, in reference to the singer Taylor Swift.
Gopalakrishnan, also self-styled Swiftieremembers his first rally in front of Barack Obama in 2008. He says he has always been involved in politics. In a few hours he plans to take volunteers in his car to go door to door to encourage voting and in this election he has already tried making calls to try to help. This year, the stakes are higher for the country than for others.
“It’s a country of immigrants and we were welcomed with open arms about 25 years ago,” says Gopalakrishnan, a psychiatrist who left India with his wife, an anesthetist, to complete his medical studies. “We love this place. It’s a place we call home. And I can’t let a bully take her away. Gopalakrishnan says Harris is “not perfect,” but “at least her head and heart are in the right place,” just like Biden. “It’s a fight between good and evil,” he said.
In the 2016 election, he was unable to vote because he did not yet have American citizenship. Justo got it shortly after the election and received a “welcome” letter signed by President Barack Obama. His wife became a citizen a few days later, when the new Republican president’s term had already begun, and she received no letters. “Only a few days apart… No letter. But we know that we are welcome in the country. It’s the ideals and values that make it different. And it’s something that was born from an idea and nothing can top it. “That’s why we’re involved.”
Meena Raman admits to being afraid of what will happen on Tuesday. “Everyone should go vote. That’s the key. We’re a really important state, we’ll encourage everyone around us to get out and vote,” he says, explaining that his neighbors are also “committed.” Their 22-year-old son has already voted and they are sad that their 17-year-old daughter has not yet reached the minimum age to participate.
Participation in Pennsylvania
Norristown is in a Democratic county north of Philadelphia that Biden won by nearly 30 points four years ago, similar to the county where this doctor couple lives. Participation is now the key to deciding a very close race.
Pennsylvania is the state that made clear the outcome of the presidential elections in 2020, in favor of Joe Biden, and in 2016, in favor of Donald Trump.
The state is particularly important to Harris given the tighter battleground states. No Democratic candidate has reached the White House without winning Pennsylvania since Harry Truman in 1948. However, there are other examples of Republicans who did so, most recently George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004. Biden defeated Trump by about 81,000 votes in 2020. statewide, but, as Michelle Obama reminded this Saturday, it’s such a big state that that means on average each census section was decided by nine voice. From now on, the polls show an equality of voting intentions which makes any prediction of the result impossible.
This evening, the spirit of the majority is euphoric between songs and inspiring messages. “I feel very optimistic. All the gatherings were overflowing, to the limit of their capacities. “It’s a good sign,” says Inga, a county medical center worker, who arrives with her sister, a lawyer, and befriends another group of women waiting in line.
Nurses by Harris
Lexi Abeln, a nurse who works in Harrisburg, didn’t want to risk not voting, as happened to her once when she couldn’t leave the hospital on time, and also voted by mail . She wears a “Nurses for Harris” badge.
“I saw the direct impact of Trump’s first presidency, a negative effect on health care in the United States. And I believe that a new Trump presidency would be absolutely devastating to the health and well-being of American citizens. “I am a mother, I have children and that worries me,” she explains. “Many people don’t realize the extent to which overturning Roe v. “Wade has affected women’s health in a way that puts more lives at stake,” he said, referring to the ruling that has protected the right to abortion nationwide since 1973 and was revoked by the Supreme Court, with a conservative majority, in 2022. She says that at her hospital, she sees people coming in for spontaneous abortions and realizes how serious it is that in other states, “life-saving care at home mothers are refused because doctors are afraid of being punished.”
Abeln’s 25-year-old daughter now lives in Madrid with her partner and voted at the US embassy. Also his son, a college student in Pennsylvania. Abeln reflects on how they experienced the change in the country after 2016. “At the time, they almost only knew Obama as president. They felt so safe and protected that they couldn’t imagine something like this… They fell into depression when Trump won. This is something I didn’t expect. “I don’t want this to happen again.”
