Harris could help Democrats erase Trump’s toxic legacy
For Americans, getting rid of Donald Trump as their president may be remembered as the easy part.
But getting rid of “Trumpism” — with all the rot and venality that has come with it — will be far more challenging.
That’s what makes the choice this week of Sen. Kamala Harris as Joe Biden’s vice-presidential running mate so potentially historic.
By the end of Trump’s term in January, the death toll in the U.S. from the coronavirus pandemic is expected to exceed 300,000 people. The American economy will be in its worst shape since the Depression. And millions of Americans, denied basic health care and adequate financial assistance, will be plunged into poverty for the first time.
In addition, the corruption of the Trump administration — after four years in office — will have embedded itself deeply in the connective tissue of America’s Congress, courts and civil service.
This means it will take the skills of a relentless forensic investigator to restore the integrity of American democracy, and the ambition of a Franklin D. Roosevelt — the radical Democratic president in the post-Depression 1930s — to rebuild the country.
Perhaps to the surprise of many Americans, both aspects seemed to be on display in the high-voltage unveiling this week of the Democratic ticket of Biden and Harris.
In spite of the absence of crowds due to the pandemic, the event received widespread praise on social media and generated an unprecedented boost in
fundraising for the Democratic ticket.
In his choice of Harris, Biden not only gave his own presidential campaign a boost, but he has made what historians may well remember years from now as his most consequential decision.
As the daughter of two American immigrants — a Jamaican-born father and an Indianborn mother — Harris is the first Black and South Asian woman to be on a major-party ticket.
Her selection is particularly timely given the momentous series of mass protests and marches throughout the U.S. that have highlighted antiBlack racism in all its forms.
Unquestionably, her candidacy is a testament to the importance of the enormous Democratic voting bloc comprising African American women.
But her full racial identity extends well beyond that. In addition to her late South Asian mother, she is part of an interracial marriage and has two Jewish stepchildren who call her “Momala.”
As a former California prosecutor and attorney general, Harris is also a superb interrogator, regarded as one of the best in Congress. She was electrifying in her recent crossexamination of Trump’s attorney general, William Barr, and of Justice Brett Kavanaugh after he was nominated for the Supreme Court.
Her skills were evident again during Wednesday’s formal announcement of her selection. A key part of her first speech as the nominee was a detailed takedown of Donald Trump’s tenure as president. That is expected to be her role during the campaign, freeing up Biden to focus more on the high-minded vision of what the Democrats intend to do once in office.
Harris’ debating skills will virtually ensure that Trump’s doltish vice-president, Mike Pence, will be under considerable fire when they meet at the televised vice-presidential debate scheduled on Oct. 7.
From the perspective of history, there is another reason why Biden’s choice of Kamala Harris may be so important. He may well have selected the person who will become the first woman president in American history.
If Biden takes office in January, he will be 78 years of age, the oldest president in history. Biden has not indicated whether he would run for a second term, but he has described himself as a “bridge” to a new “generation of leaders,” and this has led many to assume that he would leave office after one term.
If so, that would certainly place a vice-president Kamala Harris, now only 55 years of age, as the front-runner to replace Biden in 2024.
But when the Democrats meet at their convention next week, the spotlight will still be on their presidential nominee who, according to the latest polls, is well ahead of Trump in both the national count and in key “battleground” states.
During Wednesday’s unveiling of Harris, Biden gave more hints that the Democrats, once in office, may use FDR as their model for rebuilding the country after Trump’s disastrous tenure.
In the 1930s, president Roosevelt passed a series of groundbreaking economic reforms known as the “New Deal” that eased the misery of the Great Depression and laid the foundations for the modern American welfare state.
Although known for decades as a cautious and “moderate” politician, Biden has worked closely in recent months with Democratic progressive leaders such as senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
They appear to be shaping a party platform that will propose sweeping remedies to the economic, public health and racial crises that are exploding throughout Trump’s America.
As Trump himself must realize, this would be the ultimate of political ironies.
Will November’s election throw out a Republican administration that has been far more extremist, intolerant and inept than most Republicans would have ever imagined?
And will this be followed by a Democratic administration that will become far more progressive, pioneering and radical than most Democrats would have ever dreamed possible?
Tony Burman, formerly head of CBC News and Al Jazeera English, is a freelance contributing foreign affairs columnist for the Star. He is based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @TonyBurman