Can Harris give us more optimism?

American political discourse has descended into unbridled meanness, unceasing grievances and self-righteous hate. Those of us who follow it closely — and god help each and every one of us — can recite all the things that either side can, will and has said about the other. It is an atmosphere unconstrained by decency.

Against that backdrop, Harris has an opportunity to turn the campaign into a positive message focused on the future, the possibilities that await us, should we seize them, and a belief in the idealistic optimism of the American people.

It has been my particular joy over the last several days to be listening on Audible to “An Unfinished Love Story,” by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. The book is a personal history of the separate and overlapping journeys she and her husband, Richard Goodwin, made through the 1960s. Each of them worked as writers and key advisors for Lyndon Johnson. Dick Goodwin did the same for John and Robert Kennedy. He is credited with much of the stirring rhetoric contained in speeches by all three of these towering political leaders.

I cannot recommend this book strongly enough. More than read it, I urge you to listen to it. It is shot through with audio excerpts of landmark speeches by Johnson and the Kennedys, and packs an additional wallop allowing us to be ear-witnesses to history.

What is most striking about these three fascinating figures is their optimism and their sweeping call for change — both of which resonated deeply with an America ready to shake off the doldrums of the 1950s.

Optimism about change is central to the lengthy sections on John Kennedy’s speeches about the opportunities and responsibilities of a “new generation of Americans,” on Johnson’s landmark speech about voting rights with the signature line, “We shall overcome,” and his belief in a better America contained in the Great Society; and Bobby Kennedy’s belief in the need for each individual to lift a nation struggling with division, violence, poverty, war and disenchantment.

In their own rhetorical flourishes, they captured the spirit of a generation, and something basic in the American soul.

Ronald Reagan understood this. His own sunny disposition aside, he was a clear and eloquent believer in the American ability to do better, to reach higher. Bill Clinton captured this in his own innate optimism, as did Barack Obama in his message of hope and change.

It is the American nature to be optimistic about the future and our role in it. Rather than see that as a flaw of national ego, all these leaders saw it as opportunity. They spoke to a belief in what was possible, and the need for each of us to take on the responsibility of making a better nation and a better world. That each of us should ask not what our country can do for us, but what we can do for our country.

Just such an opportunity — a choice, really — is present now for Harris.

I hope she will resist the temptation to descend into one anti-Trump statement after another. There has been an arrogance — an air of superiority — among Democrats that voters who support him are suckers, or fools, or some other combination of ignorance and evil. There is a fundamental level at which Trump speaks to something basic about the current condition of many Americans — a widespread sense of social disenchantment and economic dislocation.

Just calling Trump who you think he is does not defeat him.

I would find it more meaningful to hear from Harris a vision for America that is forward-looking, on the move, and looking to take advantage of the changes that are just ahead. Let this stand as a stark contrast to Trump’s apocalyptic vision of “American carnage” — replete with falsehoods about crime, immigrants stealing American jobs and all the other hoo-ha.

Her opponents will attack Harris in the most vicious ways. Heck, they already have.

Let someone else — whoever she picks as her running mate, President Biden, any number of would-be surrogates — be the ones go at Trump on this level.

What can set Harris and her campaign apart — beyond the most obvious factors — is whether she can rise above the political mire and provide a dynamic vision for a better America that embraces who we are at our best.

Mark Simon is a veteran journalist, whose career included 15 years as an executive at SamTrans and Caltrain. He can be reached at marksimon@smdailyjournal.com.