Harris a voice, face for unity
ANYONE at this distance watching United States Vicepresidentelect Kamala Harris’ victory speech would find it hard not to applaud what she called Joe Biden’s audacity in choosing her for his running mate.
Clad in white (which has been seen as a nod to the suffragettes, but could also be seen to project goodness and a fresh start), Ms Harris looked and sounded positively presidential.
After the turmoil, tantrums and trivia of the Trump years, it was refreshing to hear her talk convincingly about unity.
Although she and Mr Biden clashed dramatically when both were vying for the Democrats’ presidential candidacy, Mr Biden was able to set that aside and the pair seem to have developed a warm and respectful relationship. What better example to set to the more divided than united states, where the division is often along racial lines?
In New Zealand, where we have had three women prime ministers, seeing women in the top job is almost old hat. Not so in the United States, however, where Ms Harris (56) will become the first woman to hold the country’s secondhighest office and, just as significantly, the first black American and Asian American to do so, too.
Ms Harris does not seem to get hung up on her ethnicity, though, calling herself a proud American.
She is no stranger to ‘‘firsts’’, including being the first woman district attorney of San Francisco, the frst woman attorneygeneral of Californian and the first Indian American in the United States Senate.
Without a crystal ball, we cannot see whether Ms Harris might add first woman president to that list, although that possibility is inevitably raised by commentators.
Many are already not expecting Mr Biden, who will celebrate his 78th birthday later this month, to seek a second term as president, opening the way for her to stand the next time round. Then there are the ghoulish, suggesting because of his age there is a likelihood he might die in office in his first term, which would automatically propel her into the presidency.
Ms Harris will be all too aware of the weight of expectation from women and from the black and Asian American communities. How far she and Mr Biden will be able to progress what she described as the hard work, the necessary work and the good work, may depend much on how well they can work across the aisle with their Republican counterparts.
The work she referred to was saving lives and beating the pandemic, rebuilding the economy so it works for working people, rooting out systemic racism in the justice system and society, combatting the climate crisis, uniting the country and healing the soul of the nation.
As Ms Harris said, the road ahead will not be easy.
That is an understatement. But while we wait for her to take her next closely scrutinised steps on that road, we congratulate Ms Harris, echoing her hopeful conviction that while she is the first woman in that office, she will not be the last.