When President Biden was running for re-election, he repeatedly talked about the dangers Trump and his neofascist buddies in the billionaire class represent to “democracy.” Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz, on the other hand, are using the word “freedom.”

All this week here at the DNC, people have been enthusiastically holding up signs proclaiming “freedom.” The word “democracy,” while not altogether avoided, has been largely absent both from the signage and the presentations of the various speakers.

Vice President Harris’s unofficial theme song has been Beyoncé’s “Freedom”; the three-minute video that preceded her coming onstage Monday night, to that song, even cited, “Freedom from control, freedom from extremism, and [freedom from] fear.”

And last night, Governor Tim Walz threw down the freedom gauntlet: “We also protected reproductive freedom, because in Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and the personal choices they make.… I’m letting you in on how we started a family because this is a big part about what this election is about. Freedom. When Republicans use the word freedom, they mean that the government should be free to invade your doctor’s office. Corporations—free to pollute your air and water. And banks—free to take advantage of customers.

“But when we Democrats talk about freedom, we mean the freedom to make a better life for yourself and the people that you love. Freedom to make your own health care decisions. And yeah, your kids’ freedom to go to school without worrying about being shot dead in the hall.” (emphasis added)

Why the emphasis on freedom rather than democracy? What’s the difference—both rhetorically and practically—between the two, and why the shift by the Harris campaign?

Republicans, after all, have been using the word freedom as if it were their own private logo ever since the Reagan years. There’s the Republican Freedom Caucus in........

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