Vice President Harris became the Democrats’ presumptive nominee yesterday when Joe Biden officially withdrew from the 2024 presidential race.
Opinions are @dommah’s and do not necessarily reflect all of the staff at The Nerds of Color. A version of this piece appeared originally on substack.
It’s a little goofy to start the argument with the observation that Kamala Harris can form whole sentences, think critically, and speak to a person without insulting their existence, but if the Republicans insist on running a guy who can’t do any of that stuff, it’s still worth mentioning.
Kamala Harris has a prosecutor’s instincts, and while such instincts may have lent themselves to some objectionable policy achievements, they also will lend themselves to the task of defeating Donny. He insists he didn’t do any of these umpteen crimes; I think we can rely on her (more than Biden) to make a compelling case that he did, using the tools of her exact professional skillset.
Again, the opponent is Donald Trump, not some kind of fourth-dimensional mastermind. Kamala Harris is just one of about a zillion two-thumbed Americans who could talk circles around him, given half a chance.
Donny’s constant blatant racism and sexism will run up against a wall he’s ill-equipped to climb. (A wall that Mexico did not pay for, if I may add.) He’s been slightly getting away with it, I think, because his opposite is another elderly white male, and he has the leeway granted when it’s two older white guys talking to each other. Donny doesn’t know how to be any other way besides grossly racist and sexist, and in any conversation with Kamala Harris those disqualifying flaws are going to stand out, much more than before.
AOC astutely noted that Joe Biden “stomps” (her wording) with the elderly/senior citizen vote, a crucial bloc in any U.S. Election. I’ve no sense of whether Harris does or doesn’t stomp with this demographic, but she could choose a Vice Presidential candidate who does. And I’m pretty sure that overall, the Black women vote stomps for the Democratic Party. Not that everyone just votes what they are, obviously, but in this sense Kamala Harris being a Black woman doesn’t hurt.
Of course, there are the people with biases who would tend not to vote for a candidate who is a woman and a Person of Color. But that’s not some hard uncrossable line, any more than the lines separating us from emancipation, suffrage, and same-sex marriages once were. People can get over it. And the getting-over-it has to start somewhere. Many developed democratic nations have elected women leaders before — England, Germany, Taiwan. The U.S. lags in this respect, and the reason I root for a woman president so hard is, we gotta elect one eventually, to get over our collective anxiety about never having had one! The macro effect would truly lead toward leveling the playing field (that pie-in-the-sky goal ostensibly desired by us progressive types) because then we could move on to worrying less about “First!” and more about the content of the candidate’s character, regardless of gender. But that’s not gonna happen until we successfully elect The First Female POTUS.
To paraphrase my sage brother’s wisdom, on Sunday afternoon, Joe Biden became a legend. He accomplished a lot, he seems to be faltering lately, and he stepped aside at a crucial (and hugely risky) moment to offer space for a new voice. No POTUS really does that, but he did. And let’s be real, any old POTUS can run for a second term and play out his egotistical power fantasy to its utmost to the point where the electorate gets sick of him — that’s what usually happens. This scenario is shockingly different from any that have preceded it.
And that’s why it’s going to get really good ratings. Because it’s SO unusual. And it’s in the field of ratings that Donny thrives, it’s the thing he’s best at generating, and it’s the pressure point at which he’ll feel the most vexed to be defeated. But he will be — because Kamala Harris becoming the Democratic candidate in this manner is so much more interesting than any of Donny’s tired old tricks.
I mean, obviously it could go the other way, and we’ll be in deep trouble, because Donny Part II would be horrendous.
But I’d opine that this is a noble course of action, given the possible feasible scenarios. Kamala Harris might not be my favorite politician up and down the list of policy positions — at this moment, it matters less, because the alternative is unacceptable. She looks like the America I know, and talks like someone interested in having the conversation. Trump doesn’t have conversations, he just emits whatever he emits. And sure, we should’ve been gaming this out two years ago, but at least we’re not doing it two weeks from now.
Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin.
I am more optimistic about the change of candidate than I thought I’d be. Partly because all the key Dems are signing up — infighting would have been catastrophic.