A rally took place last Saturday on Market Square with the focus of electing Kamala Harris as the next U.S. president. Many of the themes from the Democratic convention, which ended just two days earlier, were present in the Knoxville rally, particularly centering on Freedom, with frequent mentions of a woman’s freedom to control her body. Chants of “We won’t’ go back,” “We fight, we win,” Do something,” and more echoed around downtown as they had in Chicago a few days earlier.
I tried, and failed, to remember any other rally to support a candidate of either major party or a third party held on Market Square in recent history. I may be forgetting some, maybe even some I’ve attended. But I don’t recall a Trump, Biden, McCain, Obama, Clinton, Clinton, Bush, Bush, etc. rally being held there with or without the candidate. I do remember one — and the candidate was present, and I was present, though it no longer qualifies as recent history.
In 1984, Walter Mondale was taking a beating as a stiff card-board cut-out kind of guy. He did not seem comfortable on television, and he was running against one of the most television-friendly presidents of all time, Ronald Regan. I ditched work and joined the small crowd on Market Square forty years ago to see what he was like in person. Wearing a flannel shirt, he was as warm, folksy, and approachable as anyone you’d ever want to meet. Unfortunately for him, that side of his personality was never seen by most of the country and he rode his Market Square appearance to an election landslide — winning only one state, his home state of Minnesota.
The rally this past Saturday had a lot more energy than that crowd forty years ago. A jazz combo started the proceedings, and a long series of people pledged, prayed, and exhorted. Many locally elected Democrats such as Mayor Kincannon, Councilperson Tommy Smith, Council Person Gwen McKenzie, State Representatives Johnson and McKenzie, as well as other community leaders spoke. There was dance and there was east African drumming.
The crowd, which probably reached a couple of thousand, stretching nearly to the fountains in the back, reflected about as much racial diversity as a city of Knoxville’s demographics could muster. Otherwise, it skewed female and older. The excitement might have been greater than any real expectation that Harris can win the state, but the day wasn’t about that. One of the points of emphasis was down-ballot and the possibility that some of those candidates might prevail. Jane George, for example, who is running against Tim Burchett (he who famously called Kamala Harris a DEI hire) for U.S. Representative was present.
As I thought about the chances a Democrat taking the state’s electoral vote, my mind traveled back to that election forty years ago. Mondale lost, of course, but a U.S. representative from Tennessee became a Senator that year, as Democrat Al Gore, Jr. began service with that election representing our state from 1985 to 1993. He won re-election in 1990 and only left the senate when he became Bill Clinton’s Vice President.
That was a long time ago, true. But national politics do shift over the years. Will Tennessee ever shift again? We can’t know. That’s what makes politics so interesting. It should be an interesting fall. My suggestion? Vote your conscience and be kind to those who reach a different conclusion. We’re all Americans. And we’re all just people trying to do the best we can and figure things out as we go.