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Kamala Harris Is America As It Is Now

John Micek on

If there’s a more authentically American story than the one of Sen. Kamala Harris, you’d have to make it up.

On Tuesday, the California Democrat, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, became the first woman of color in American history to be named to a presidential ticket. And across the United States, Black women, who saw themselves reflected in Harris’ eyes, rejoiced.

“I’m so excited I can hardly talk,” former Philadelphia City Council member Marian B. Tasco told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “For us to have an African American woman be a candidate for vice president, that is just so exciting for me, having worked so long in the political arena.”

It’s long past absurd that America stands nearly alone in the industrialized world for never having put a woman in the Oval Office - and yes, Clintonistas, I hear you, the popular vote numbers in 2016 said it all. That does not mean Harris joining the 2020 ticket is any less epochal.

Harris, who enjoyed a close relationship with Biden’s son, the late Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, survived a culling process that sometimes threatened to be reduced to a mere popularity contest as various contenders waxed and waned.

As The Washington Post’s Karen Tumulty wrote, the very qualities that some believe hampered Harris’ short-lived presidential bid - that she is cautious and deliberate - are the very attributes that make her an ideal running-mate for Biden, who will benefit from her counsel should he win the White House in November.

 

But crucially, in choosing Harris, Biden picked a running-mate who will meet where the country where it is now: A multiracial and multiethnic republic, where the voices of Black and Brown people have been raised and are, rightfully, prominent.

Harris, like President Barack Obama before her, brings an intimate knowledge and understanding of that changing America.

During last August’s Democratic debate, she took Biden to the woodshed over his opposition to busing, forcefully arguing it was a ticket to opportunity for hundreds of thousands of Black children just like her. She and Biden later mended fences over that televised moment of confrontation.

While she’s not without her flaws, Harris is a living refutation of the crass and hateful nativism of the Trump administration. Trump will struggle to brand Harris in the same way he has found it difficult to label Biden, despite round after round of new ads.

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Copyright 2020 John Micek, All Rights Reserved. Credit: Cagle.com

 

 

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