The tables have finally turned as 81-year-old Biden announces he’s taking one for the team and stepping down as the Democratic presidential nominee.
It took weeks of public demand and strong encouragement from high-profile political figures to get him to pass the baton but we’ve eventually made it here. And now the big question is who will take his place.
With Biden’s endorsement for Vice President Kamala Harris as the next nominee, my first thought as a young American woman is to feel a sense of relief. At long last, it looks like the country could pivot in a more positive direction.
Perhaps I’m grasping at straws (as nothing is guaranteed and clearly anything can happen in US politics), but hearing there’s a chance for America to have our first ever female president feels huge. It adds ever so slightly to that small glimmer of hope I’ve been holding onto since watching Biden and Trump’s political campaigns make a mockery of the country.
Assuming that the Democrats do pick up Harris, we’ll be at a bigger crossroads than ever before. We’ll have a choice between someone who says she’ll fight for reproductive rights and national safety, or a misogynistic, convicted felon intent on winning to boost his egotistical agenda.
To me, the right choice is crystal clear, but of course, I’ll be waiting with baited breath to see how the majority of the country responds.
The way I see it, this extreme crossroads could highlight either the very best or very worst of our national interest.
Donald Trump has already lashed Biden’s presidency on his social media platform Truth Social, and told CNN he thought Harris would be even easier to defeat. If this turns out to be true, it would show that the US isn’t ready for progress in any form.
Already, the rhetoric against Harris is rife with sexism, and Trump is beginning his attacks making fun of her demeanour.
“I call her laughing Kamala,” Trump told a crowd on Saturday evening. “You can tell a lot by a laugh. She’s crazy. She’s nuts.”
It’s been predicted that Trump’s revamped campaign angle against Harris will be reliant on race and gender. In more than two centuries of democracy, American voters have elected only one Black president and never a woman.
At this point in history, she’d be a clear symbol of progress if we elected her to be president.
Even more importantly, Harris is qualified to run the country. The 59-year-old former prosecutor and senator is currently serving as Vice President, and has emerged as an articulate critic of the decision to allow abortion to be outlawed by states. She’s also been seen as a hardliner on criminal justice, which is critical as the US grapples with increasing police brutality and gun violence.
According to her, we have nothing to fear, as she has confidently said she’d “wipe the floor” with Trump if the pair ever had to go toe-to-toe in a debate.
We all know this is true, considering Trump has the vocabulary of a fourth grader– something that’s not debatable, research has already confirmed.
The 59-year-old Harris is an articulate woman of colour with a sense of humour, and we need her to get us back on track.
If we’re to look at the positives, Harris could be a unifier of the country as Black voters, women and anyone who regrets not voting for Hillary Clinton in 2016, could back her together.
“I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party– and unite our nation-to-defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda,” Harris said in a statement.
What happens next is that Democrats will hold their convention in Chicago on August 19-22, and there will now be an open contest for nearly 4700 delegate votes, where Harris will have to fight for those votes.
There’s been an influx of support for Harris from high-profile Democrats including Bill and Hillary Clinton and even among progressive politicians like Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, a Biden supporter, who’s previously warned of “enormous peril” for the Democratic party if they tried to find a new nominee at this point in the campaign.
On Monday morning, Ocasio-Cortez placed her support behind Harris, saying: “Now more than ever, it is crucial that our party and country swiftly unite to defeat Donald Trump and the threat to American democracy.”
So this is where we’re at. If the Democratic party wants to win the election, everyone needs to get behind Harris and start fighting the same battle. The reality is that there’s no time left to be hesitant about this.
MAGA supporters are placing Trump on a higher pedestal than ever following his attempted assassination. And while the bandages over their ears means they’ve got one less avenue to hear some common sense, the rest of us need to stay alert.
It’s time to get Harris into office and salvage some national respect.