Kamala Harris Is America As It Is Now

That’s due in part to changing American attitudes about race and race relations (a majority of Americans support the Black Lives Matter movement), but also because of the policy ground Harris has staked out during her time in the Senate.

Like Biden, a Senate veteran before his ascension to the vice presidency in 2008, Harris is largely a moderate Democrat who will defy Trump’s efforts to paint her as some empty vessel for the party’s progressive wing.

It’s also not likely Harris will wilt in the face of any presidential Twitter storm. Her questioning of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh reminded the nation of her prosecutorial bona fides. They were cemented with Twitter shade of her own, when she clapped back at Trump “Don’t worry, Mr. President, I’ll see you at your trial.”

Finally, though it seems grim to talk about it, Harris has the experience and expertise to step in if Biden, who will be 78 by the time of his possible inauguration in January, is incapacitated and unable to serve.

Biden has described himself as a “transitional candidate.” And in Harris, he has found an ideal partner to whom to pass the baton.

As much as Trump has tried to move the country backwards, putting up walls, withdrawing America from the world stage, and hearkening back to a segregated past, Harris is a living reminder that the arc of history is always forward-moving.

She’s America as it is now, and will be in the decades to come. Trump is an unpleasant chapter the country can’t move past quickly enough.

An award-winning political journalist, John L. Micek is Editor-in-Chief of The Pennsylvania Capital-Star in Harrisburg, Pa. Email him at jmicek@penncapital-star.com and follow him on Twitter @ByJohnLMicek.