Harris and the Democrats have taken away the Republican Party's “freedom.” Why this matters | John L. Micek

Freedom, it is often said, is not free. But for Democrats in Chicago this week, it was a gift that will bring joy for a long time to come.

From the Beyoncé song that served as Vice President Kamala Harris's entrance music to its strategic use in numerous speeches, Democrats have upended the history of a patriotic noun that once felt like the exclusive property of Republicans.

Instead of freedom from taxes and burdensome regulations or freedom from government gun control, Democrats have given the word a new meaning.

This week, it meant the freedom for women to choose their own health care; the freedom for Americans to choose who they love; and the freedom to not have to worry about getting shot at school.

“Republicans gave them a chance with Dobbs,” said political scientist Ray La Raja of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, referring to the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and unleashed a wave of fiery anger among women that continues to reverberate at the polls today.

“The smart strategy of the Democrats is to portray some of the reactionary measures of the Republicans more generally as restrictions on freedom, because that will resonate not only with women but also with independents,” he continued. “At least in this election they could neutralize the Republicans' claim that they are the party of freedom.”

The numbers prove it.

In an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll released ahead of the convention, 91 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said they would be thrilled or satisfied if Harris were elected.

That's a 19 percentage point difference from the 72 percent of the same cohort who said the same about President Joe Biden.

In total, Democrats used the “F-word” (freedom) more than 100 times during the opening night of the convention on Monday, according to a Washington Post analysis.

And they should dedicate the entire sessions of the party conference on Wednesday to him, under the motto “A fight for our freedoms”.

The same ABC News poll showed a six-point lead over former President Donald Trump on a related issue: protecting democracy.

And even in the massive United Center, where convention delegates waved signs reading “Freedom” in capital letters, the changed message did not go unnoticed – or ignored.

“I think the Democrats earned their freedom with Biden/Harris,” Bob Peters, a delegate from Lexington, told MassLive. “As Mesa, Arizona Mayor John Giles said … the party of John McCain doesn't exist.”

“Without the Biden/Harris administration, [Russian leader Vladimir] Putin would put massive pressure on NATO's eastern flank and if Trump were president, NATO would be in retreat,” Peters said.

Whether Americans want to accept it or not, “Western free economies are closely linked, and we are better off with a strong and free Western Europe where we share common values,” Peters concluded. “That is a freedom agenda. And that is what today's Democrats and Harris/Walz stand for.”

State Democratic Party Chairman Steve Kerrigan, who spoke for the Bay State during Tuesday's statewide vote, confirmed that analysis.

“The MAGA wing of the Republican Party has gone overboard in its attempt to control Americans' choices – about reproductive freedom, about what we read and who we love,” he told MassLive.

“The Democrats have not changed on these issues,” he continued. “Americans see that we are the party that trusts them to make the best decisions – not the government. We have always stood up for individual freedoms – against racism, sexism [and] Poverty. This has been exacerbated by the extreme MAGA agenda.”

“The Dobbs decision changed everything, but it showed us all how far they will go to stay in power,” Kerrigan concluded.

That conversation continued this week at numerous convention events outside the United Center throughout Chicago.

During an event hosted by Everytown for Gun Safety and Planned Parenthood on Tuesday, both Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Planned Parenthood President Alexis McGill Johnson framed the freedom issue in a highly personal way.

“We are in the midst of a radical reorientation of freedom,” McGill Johnson said, according to Vanity Fair, sharply criticizing the “freedom deniers” in the Republican ranks.

She praised the activists “on the front lines of the fight against fascism” and noted that “people value their basic freedoms.”

Whitmer, meanwhile, had a more direct message for those same advocates: “Be brave.”

She urged activists not to treat either issue – reducing gun violence and reproductive freedom – “as a taboo subject that no one wants to talk about,” Whitmer continued, according to Vanity Fair. “We need to engage and talk about it.”

Candy Glazer, a veteran Democratic activist from Longmeadow and DNC delegate, believes no party has a monopoly on the word.

“Anyone can use the word ‘freedom,’” she said.