In the footsteps of Joe Biden

Za "Time" from New York

On the walls of "Little Storage" warehouses throughout Manhattan, where New Yorkers store everything that no longer has a place in small apartments in high-rise skyscrapers, advertisements have appeared these days offering "presidential treatment" for those who no longer have great needs. While the workers were installing these billboards showing the US president, wearing Ray-Ban sunglasses and a smile on his face, taking his belongings out of White houses, he handed over the presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago Kamale Harris. Despite the fact that the breakup with Joseph Biden went peacefully, the Democratic voters only realized at the end of the relationship how difficult and gloomy that relationship had been in recent months. Like everyone at the beginning of a new romance, they were overcome with great joy and enthusiasm for their new partner, so that in that rapture no one even paid attention to the words of the "Wall Street Journal" that Kamala is "the least known presidential candidate in modern history".

Even if it was, it wouldn't change anything, because even in politics you can't control how much you love someone, especially since Harris really tried to show herself in the best possible light. It means that she is everything that Donald Trump is not.

PERSONAL STORY

How did Kamala Harris introduce herself? He is the child of immigrants, a father, an economics professor, from Jamaica and a mother of Indian origin, an expert in the treatment of breast cancer. From her mother, she learned the most important thing in life: injustices are not worth complaining about, but you have to work and change things; she grew up with role models - fighters for civil rights, while an early experience of a close friend, who was exposed to sexual abuse in the family, influenced her to become a prosecutor; if she wins the election, she will be the president of all the inhabitants of America regardless of their different political views; she will always fight for the people, from the courtroom to the White House, because that is her life's mission.

This gave the Democratic Party an extremely normal presidential candidate who shares the core values ​​of American society and tries his best to present himself as a member of the middle class: growing up in a working-class neighborhood, constantly struggling in life, working at McDonald's for pocket money, studying at Howard, advancing to a career from Deputy District Attorney Alameda to District and State Attorney of California, then Senator, candidate for President and Vice President of the United States. As it became clear that Biden was headed for defeat, the Democrats found someone who could lead the country down the same path with much more vigor, energy and enthusiasm after things got back on track after a series of unpredictable and dangerous moves by him. Trump during his presidency.

In addition to all that, the decision about Kamala Harris is, as the media especially points out, historic. She is the first black woman and the only woman of Asian-American origin to be nominated by a major political party. If elected, she will be the first woman and the only Indian-American president in US history. In a country with a not-so-long tradition, things like this are of great importance, regardless of the fact that, for example, Joseph Biden will surely go down in history as one of the most successful presidents even though he is not a woman, nor a person of dark skin. He was, admittedly, unique in that in his advanced years, while his mental strength was leaving him, he fought valiantly to remain a presidential candidate, but there was not much understanding of his "minority personality" within the Democratic Party. On the other hand, Barack Obama was an even better statesman than him, but not because he is black, nor because his father was born in Kenya, but because he pulled the country out of recession, made it possible for millions to get health care, legalized same-sex marriages and concluded the Paris Climate Agreement. Differences are beautiful until they turn into ideological orthodoxy.

photo: ap photo

WITHOUT A STEP INTO THE UNKNOWN

Despite the fact that the fight against climate change was at the top of the political agenda of Biden and Obama, and one of the priorities of the Democrats, this topic was completely neglected in the speech of Kamala Harris and her candidate for the vice president Tim Walz, just like health care, access to preschool education or child care. The essence of her pre-election promises, regardless of the fact that every sentence was accompanied by ovations and shouts from the enthusiastic audience full of "United Center", is largely extremely conservative: equality of citizens before the law, overcoming political divisions, fighting against autocracy, protection of reproductive rights, border control, tax system reform and financial assistance to first-time home buyers. In other words, almost everything that any Republican candidate who hasn't lost his way on the paths of MAGA extremism could stand behind.

It is possible that the change of the presidential candidate just a few weeks before the election, without any extraordinary circumstances preceding it, was in itself so risky for the Democrats that there was no room for making other steps into the unknown. But it is extremely paradoxical that the daughter of immigrants firmly behind the border control bill that Democrats worked on with conservative Oklahoma Republican Senator James Lankford, one of the most vocal advocates of restrictions on abortion rights and promoters of gun rights campaigns.

While the globalist structure of the world is collapsing, the geopolitical scene is rapidly changing and the basic tenets of neoliberalism are being called into question, the presidential candidate does not hint in a single word about the path America will take, except for repeating her unreserved support for Ukraine in protection from Russian aggression, Israel's right to defend itself, while supporting the Palestinians to decide their own fate. There is a clear insistence on continuing along the current path, regardless of the fact that all surveys show that American citizens are extremely dissatisfied with the direction their country is taking.

ECONOMIC COMMUNISM

They are dissatisfied, of course, first of all with the economy, because they know very well during whose mandate prices went sky high. That's why Harris does her best to distance herself from everything that happened in this area, regardless of the fact that some of the best economic results in the history of this country were achieved during Biden's mandate. But cold economic analyzes are one thing, and the daily struggle of American citizens to pay rent and fill refrigerators is another. Given that the blame had to fall on someone, Harris, between the administration she belongs to and looking for someone to blame somewhere else, pointed the finger at corporate greed, accusing the manufacturers of a fabulous price hike. Therefore, in a turn towards populist economics, she announced the introduction of some kind of price control, which the well-known journalist of the "Washington Post" Catherine Rampel called "so bad" that "one cannot exaggerate" in describing it. “If your opponent claims you're a 'communist,' maybe you shouldn't start with an economic agenda that can (just) be labeled federal price controls. We already have enough economic nonsense from the Republican presidential candidate. Do we really need more from the other side?", writes Catherine Rampel.

Meanwhile, Republican nominee Donald Trump, along with his running mate J.D. Vance, are largely silent, waiting for the Democratic euphoria to die down. From time to time, his repertoire includes, as always, personal insults, such as Kamala Harris being afraid of interviews because she is "dumb", that she "laughs like crazy", that she "tanned a few years ago" or that she is a "radical communist", although it is more than obvious that the Republicans have a problem putting the Democratic representative into some of the negative clichés that will be easily understood by their voters.

Meanwhile, Kamali Harris' ratings are increasing, and the latest New York Times public opinion poll shows that 49 percent of voters support her nationally, while 46 percent of voters support Trump. In five key states that will decide the future president, she leads in Michigan and Wisconsin, the two candidates are tied in Pennsylvania and Arizona, while Trump has an advantage in Georgia. All this indicates that it will be a close race until the very end and that only 2-3 percent of the voters will decide on the future president of the USA.

Unlike the Republicans who still darkly predict the arrival of "bad things" and the continuation of the "decline of the country" which is "currently in the most dangerous position since its creation", the Democrats are at least happy in the new relationship with Kamala Harris, calling themselves "joyful warriors". But when the initial ecstasy of falling in love passes, they will realize how similar the new partner is to the previous one that made them so unhappy, gloomy and sad, although what happens in the opposite camp will give them enough comfort until someone fundamentally new and different appears, who can be loved like those who once led this country on roads that no one before them has taken.