Political words are meaningless. They’re powerful. But meaningless.

Democracy, patriotism, fascism, socialism, American, homeland, heartlamd, the flag, identity politics, freedom, liberty. All of them.

Political actors work to fill these words with meaning and, in turn, motivate people to follow so that they can implement their version of what the words mean.

(This isn’t a new observation, of course. Orwell’s short essay “Politics and the English Language” is always worth a quick re-read.)

In the United States, there simply is no more innately powerful political word than freedom, along with its close cousin liberty.

The Declaration of Independence – “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness “

The preamble of the Constitution – “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity”

The National Anthem – the highpoint of the entire song lands on “free” (fun fact – this was not officially adopted as our anthem until 1931)

Abraham Lincoln & the Gettysburg Address – “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

FDR’s Four Freedoms – “the freedom of speech, the freedom of worship, the freedom from want, and the freedom from fear”

The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom – “Free at last!”

All of this leads up to my being pleased that the Kamala Harris campaign has adopted freedom as a theme. It was part of her solid first rally in Milwaukee as a presidential candidate, and it’s now repeated in her first TV ad:

In it, the campaign defines freedom as, “The freedom not just to get by, but get ahead. The freedom to be safe from gun violence. The freedom to make decisions about your own body.”

Okay. Not the exact “freedom beats” that I would have hit or that ring my bell overmuch, but at least the campaign is contesting the meaning of the most powerful word in American politics. Hopefully, they’ll stick with this.

P.S. I want to be clear about something – I don’t consider myself to be a partisan. I’m not interested in Harris or the Democratic Party in and of themselves. But I am very much interested in defeating Trump.

Someone who refuses to acknowledge facts when they go against him, someone who ignores the results of the legal system, someone who gins up an attack on the Capitol when he doesn’t like elections results, who is comfortable with people threatening to hang his vice president, then stands by while the attack is happening and, in turn, embraces the attackers and even hints that he’ll pardon them, has no business being anywhere near the presidency. He has already permanently damaged our republic by destroying our unbroken record of peaceful transfers of power. We can’t reward that. If we do, it will become institutionalized. And that’s when it gets ugly.

This is an anti-Trump election – not a pro-Harris or pro-Democrats election. Vote like it.