DRAMATIC TURN IN US POLITICS

Kamala Harris, described as an American woman of African and South Asian heritage, is poised to be nominated as the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party in US elections to be held in November. In slow-motion, over two weeks and more, the effort of President Biden to seek a second term as President, amidst collapsing poll numbers, palpably frailty and a disenchanted Democratic Party base, finally forced him to recognize the unreality of his quest. “Watch me,” he said. But as America watched a crumbling campaign, they were perhaps reminded of the magician’s refrain – ‘the more you watch the less you see.’ Try as President Biden might, vital sections of the electorate could no longer see a way out of the dilemma of his falling support.

No sooner than President Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in a bold, courageous and transformative move, that the Vice President got to work. She framed the confrontation with Trump as one between a ‘prosecutor and a felon.’ She rapidly secured the support of the majority of delegates, thereby ensuring the nomination when the Convention is convened. She inspired the largest donation in a 24-hour period in the history of American politics. This was followed by a record registration of new voters and a flood of volunteers for her campaign. Endorsements, including from President Obama and Michele Obama, trade unions, women’s organisations fighting for the right to choose, are flowing in. Ms. Harris began to articulate her vision for America. She took, or was given, the lead in empathizing with the Palestinian population of Gaza, facing genocide, disease and starvation, after her meeting with war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu. Disaffected Arab Americans might well be persuaded to give Ms. Harris the benefit of the doubt and restore Michigan as a State in play, critical to a Harris victory.   

But Ms. Harris brings an historic and unique dimension to politics in the US. She is the first woman to run for president and, moreover, she is seen as a Black woman. It is argued by her supporters that her service as a prosecutor, as the Attorney-General for San Francisco and the Attorney-General for California, as a United States Senator and Vice President, all elected positions, are solid achievements and have amply qualified her for election as president. She distinguished herself in the Senate and as a member of the Judiciary Committee. 

American observers have suggested that the Vice President, playing of necessity a supportive role to the President and is therefore not fully known by the American electorate, must present herself to them. Her father is a Jamaican and her mother was an Indian. She studied law at Howard University. She was a prosecutor in California putting away abusers of women, defrauders and others. She claimed that as a result of her job she is familiar with the “Donald Trump type.” The Vice President was elected as the Attorney-General of San Francisco and the Attorney-General of California. As a Unites States Senator the Vice President distinguished herself in the public mind as an articulate, well-prepared, trenchant and penetrating cross-examiner of the high and mighty in US politics.

Above and beyond the wave of enthusiasm that has swept across the United States at the announcement of President Biden’s endorsement of Vice President Harris as the presidential candidate for the Democratic Party, experts have suggested that fundamental to Ms. Harris success would be her economic policies. Trade unions from auto workers to teachers have pointed out the decades long stagnant wage and salary decline in relative terms leaving the purchasing power of workers in the 1970s.  Currently, over 60 percent of Americans are living from paycheck to paycheck. 20 percent of retired Americans do not have a pension. 10 percent of Americans do not have health insurance. Americans are not entitled to leave with pay. 16 percent of all children live in poverty. Inflation is still and issue. These are some random statistics that reveal serious, festering,economic problems still existing in the richest country in the world for which solutions must be produced by the presidential candidate in order to motivate the American electorate to turn out to vote for her. President Biden’s policies have certainly made an impact but the advocacy of Bernie Sanders proves that there is still a far way to go.

American experts have often declared that foreign affairs do not affect the outcome of American elections. This may not be quite true. The Vietnam War truncated the presidency of President Lyndon Johnson. The Israeli genocide in Gaza, politically and militarily supported by arms supplies by the Biden Administration, is reported to be causing disaffection in critical states among Arab Americans, African Americans and youth and may have affected the outcome of the elections had Joe Biden been the candidate. President Biden is a cold warrior from a bygone era that has led the US into a confrontation with Russia by promoting the incorporation of Ukraine into NATO despite the many objections and warning by Russia. Vice President Harris needs to articulate a vision of the US as a nation that promotes peace, not war.