Last Tuesday at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, as I was getting mic’d up for a segment on CNN’s Inside Politics with Dana Bash, I glanced up at the massive screen above the speaker’s podium and almost spat out my coffee. The convention producers were doing sound checks and toggling through that night’s slogans, one of which, in giant all-caps letters, was “Country First.” Dana and I both chuckled. The two of us were on John McCain’s campaign bus back in 2008, when that was McCain’s slogan, a cudgel deployed by the Vietnam War hero against his liberal, antiwar opponent, Barack Obama. 

Republicans, after all, are usually the ones wrapping themselves in the American flag. But now it’s Kamala Harris, the newly ordained Democratic nominee, who’s running as the tough patriot. In her telling, it’s Donald Trump who would roll back our freedoms, cater to dictators, and undermine the Constitution. ​​“As president, I will never waver in defense of America’s security and ideals, because in the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny, I know where I stand and I know where the United States belongs,” Harris declared in her address on Thursday night. “Fellow Americans,” she continued, “I love our country with all my heart.”