TOUGH ROAD AHEAD FOR HARRIS

MRS PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE TOOK HER FIRST BIG STEP TOWARD NOVEMBER

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

If the United States of America elects a female President, the Good Lord will shine a light down the rabbit hole.

At least that thought is what the Democrats would have the rest of the world think about the possibility of current Vice President Kamala Harris becoming the first female President of the United States and the first woman of color to assume power in the Oval Office.

Harris, of course, already has one first, being the first woman of color to just be nominated, after Hillary Clinton was the first female nominee for President in 2018.

Nobody mentioned the psychological impact such an important election would have on the historical, systemic power imbalance in most households and most communities between genders not just in the Chicago ghettos but also in the Rio de Janeiro favela’s.

A female president of the United States would have less impact on the politically liberal European theater where many women are already in positions of political power – from the classical big city mayors of Europe, such as Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, to European Parliamentary President Roberta Metsola and European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Ursula is the woman often seen in team pictures at such intergovernmental events as the Group of 7 forums.

Margaret Thatcher was perhaps the first of firsts when she was elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990. The Iron Lady, as Thatcher was labelled for somewhat simultaneous affectionate and unaffectionate reasons, was proceeded by many other women, many the likes of Angela Merkel who rose in political power from an East German trapped behind the Berlin Wall to one of the most powerful political elected positions in the world, post German reunification, as Chancellor of the German Bundestag from 2005 to 2021.

Argentina had already broken several gender milestones with the much loved Eva Perron (aka Evita) from 1946 to 1952.

The Americans might not admit being so, but they likely have been envious of other countries around the world, many in Latin America as well, who have, going on a long time now, recognized gender equality and elected women to the highest political positions of power.

Women have of course already risen to political power in many big American cities and as State Governors. But there is nothing like being the top dog as POTUS and the Commander in Chief of one of the greatest democratic and military entities in world history.

Like the Romans during the Roman Empire, the Americans shout out about equality but have a systemically ingrained inequality, particularly in regards to gender, that persists economically, socially and politically and within the judiciary.

These entrenched systemic barriers to gender equality have nothing to do with merit and ability, and everything to do with tropes, caricature and various moral vices such as greed and envy that those already in power seek to maintain by every means available to them.

Political power is so coveted because political power opens the door to public prestige and wealth, better jobs, a higher standard of living and less violence and less moral decay.

Black Americans have experienced a similar paradox in which even after being emancipated from slavery by President Abraham Lincoln through the process of the American Civil War, Blacks became labelled by the white supremacists, misogynist and patriarchs as being free but far from equal.

The gender power imbalance can lead to a loss of reproductive rights, fewer jobs and less social services, and more single mother’s living in poverty, fewer high paying jobs with dignity and more abuse and violence towards women in the home.

But you didn’t hear about that stuff here either.

Vice President Harris pulled out that old touching true to life story about how her and her family helped out teenage friend, Wanda, by putting her up in their home instead of watching her go into a shelter, or even worse, watching her go back home to where she was being sexually abused and to the life long tragic story that results therefrom.

This real tragic outcome with horrible long term consequences faces many girls and young women around the world.

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard that one, though, although I barely remember anymore Harris stumping for the nomination during her last bid for president against the current United States President Joe Biden during the 2019 Democratic Primaries. That rhetoric finally stopped, or did it, when Biden chose Harris as a running mate.

The Irish stumper could still walk and deliver a line under pressure with somewhat accuracy, back then. The Democrats also used the Convention to recognize the 50 years of public service for the lifetime politician, who became President partly because he had bipartisan respect for his public service to the American people.

Biden stepping aside for Harris showed a lot of courage and inner strength. If Biden wasn’t so dog gone Irish, the Germans might call him a ‘real mensch’.

Nothing wrong with repeating a milestone that shaped a personality.

United States President Richard Nixon used to repeat the story about growing up on the poorest lemon ranch in the world, perhaps even the poorest lemon ranch in the Galaxy, by today’s standards.

United States President Ronald Reagan used to talk about the picture shows. And President Jimmy Carter used to say that the history of the South begins with the iconic film, Gone With the Wind (1939).

The Democratic National Convention wrapped up Thursday night after four days of Harris and her presidential democratic team calling in favors with the likes of Oprah Winfrey, First Lady Michelle Obama and United States President Barack Obama stumping for her, this time in the United Center in Chicago, Illinois.

Barack Obama is still stumping about hope, and posing for that Statute in the Statutory Hall of Mirrors.

Harris also made some time for the White House Poet Laureat Amanda Gorman, while United States Presidential Republican nominee Donald Trump had called in professional wrestler Hulk Hogan for his convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The dualling America’s could not have been so cleverly personified. For sure, Hulk Hogan could take Gorman in the wrestling ring with vitriolic cries of machismo. But Gorman might be able to wound him mortally with a few spoken words of truth, before he would even begin chancing that fantastical flying leap off the wrestling ring ropes.

Harris was remarkable Thursday night though, who as a lawyer probably practiced her speech over and over again, from the coffee pot to the pulpit, ‘repeating after me’, over and over again, like a train: “I can do it, I can do it, I can do it.”

One of the great free thinking inertias within politics in America is that you can still laugh at female politicians without being labeled a sexist. German Chancellor Angela Merkel enjoyed a good joke too, especially in the back of the beer garden having a pint with the boys, like the Marlene Dietrich song.

Trump of course has become slightly unhinged, after spending $100 million on a political attack campaign against Biden only to now finding himself running off against Harris, although defiantly maintaining his righteousness in saving America with one of the few Trumpisms that makes sense, when he visited the incomplete Border Wall with Mexico, in the state of Arizona on Thursday.

Why the Americans are letting millions of migrants enter the country illegally defies reason.

Women are independently minded, and she/her/they will vote on policy choice over gender and race. Despite being first in those precious categories, Harris must still win every female vote based on meritorious policies.

The law and order platform put forward Thursday night by the Democratic Presidential Nominee involved experience as the Attorney General of California, and as a state prosecutor.

Harris stated that she fought the cartels to keep them out of California and she intends to fight Trump to keep him out of the White House. Trump’s criminality poses a serious concern for the future of America, according to Harris, wearing the law and order mask.

Under the Biden re-election campaign, before Biden decided to step aside, Harris fronted a reproductive rights agenda after the Supreme Court of the United States struck down the federal abortion laws and diversified the issue by sending the law back down to all 50 State Legislatures and the District of Columbia for adjudication.

Trump of course appointed anti-abortion Justices to the Supreme Court, including Catholic adjudicator Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett. And Trump is more and more unabashedly anti-abortion.

Women remain divided on the abortion issue, with white women joining black women on either side of the debate to shout back and forth at each other tried and true reproductive rights catch phrases about the life and death struggle of the pregnant woman and the unborn fetus.

Harris will never win over the Black female Christian Pro Life voters.

Republican women will also follow the party line, drawn by their father and mother and their parents before them, to vote Republican no matter how difficult the blistering cold winters have become.

And despite Harris claiming that she alone represents the middle class of America, and Biden having been a union guy, Trump will capture a good segment of the middle class because he has a proven political record of creating high paid factory jobs while in office as the 45^th President.

‘Bring American jobs home again’ still rings true for those Americans continuing to collect Trump era paychecks.

Harris is not going to get the nostalgic vote either because the worst thing for gender equality would be an incompetent black female President. Harris will have to fight for every vote.

The American electorate is polarized to the point of every election nearly a dead heat every time, sometimes to such an extent that results are challenged, such as the Florida vote being questioned in the Gore v. Bush 2000 Presidential Election and the January 6th Capital City skirmish, protesting the Trump v. Biden election results, 20 years later.

To win the Presidency, Harris still has to get an extra 2-5 per cent of the vote in swing states like Florida, Wisconsin and Michigan.

And the Great Blue Democratic Wall from Arizona to Nevada, California, Oregon and Washington State is never assured. Trump is walking the Border Wall in Arizona for a strategic election result reason.

Harris must and did assure Americans that she will secure the border. That debate will continue until after election day.

The black female motif of the keynote speech at the convention had an emotive conclusion with Harris stating that she loves America. This decidedly feminine response might be shared by past, present and future Presidents, but no one could say ‘I love America’ with such sincerity as Harris did Thursday night.

Trump loves the rich billionaire friendship rings, while Harris loves the idea of this incredible journey that Americans embark upon, implied Harris.

The rise of female political power harbours the gender paradox that women do not necessarily vote for women politicians based on gender connections.

Just as Obama had to still work to maintain the black vote, and his opponents carried a lot of black voters to the polling booths, Harris must prove skill and determination to win the trust of all Americans since a few thousand voters here and there in the right electoral districts will decide who will be the next President of this here United States of America.