Kamala Harris & The Democratic Convention
Apologies to Stephen King but as I read the title for this post I couldn’t help thinking about his short story – Rita Hayworth & The Shawshank Redemption – not the story itself just the rhythm of the title. It, like the title of this post, has the ring of a name for a 1960s Motown band. That I’m afraid is the only place where all three intersect. The first is genius, the band might have had some potential, but this is likely to be a rambling rant.
To paraphrase the old saying, we all know opinions are like a’holes – everbody’s got one and they’re all full of shit. It’s a line I use regularly and everytime I do I’m conscious it includes me. So of course this post should be read with that caveat firmly in mind. Also, if you find an inconsistency with opinions I’ve expressed previously you’ll hardly be surprised, apart from my tendency to modify my standpoint after updating my information, I’m a bundle of conflicting ideas at the best of times.
In fairness I have to put my cards on the table in relation to US President Joe Biden. When he stepped in in 2020 to save us all from a second term of the Orange Menace that is Donald Trump, I could have kissed him – don’t read too much into that phrase. He was exactly what was needed. Someone with ridiculously significant levels of experience in political leadership; a personality that shone through in what seemed at least to be a genuine friendship with Barack Obama when he was Obama’s VP; integrity in a profession that lacks that particular feature in an ever increasing amount; and it didn’t hurt that he was an Irish American who was proud of his heritage.
His term as president was a typical work-a-day Democratic Party incumbency in the Oval Office. By that I mean he and his administration got on with the job of repairing the damage Trump managed to do in just four years in power. They didn’t, in my opinion, cash in sufficiently on their achievements through the efficient use of the media – for instance letting that joke of a person from Fox news turn press conferences into a sitcom was a mistake – and they appear to have forgotten that you don’t leave that sort of thing to election year as was the case in the old days. The public are fickle and the American public more so than most – out of sight is out of mind. Sadly I believe Biden’s age and serious disposition had something to do with that.
None of that however can take away from his achievements in office and his professional legacy. A legacy that is only blemished by one thing and that’s his strong support for Netanyahu’s shameful war on Palestinian women and children following Hamas’s equally shameful attack on Israeli civilians in October 2023. The timing alone of Netanyahu’s actions should have given some pause for thought when he was the subject of legal scrutiny and could even have been facing prison (sound familiar? – obviously a far right tactic not lost on Trump). I’m not naive enough to believe he could have single handedly stopped backing Israel ( although I can’t help feeling the support wasn’t for the Israeli people so much as Netanyahu’s version of an Israeli administration that was already acting like a nazi state). Especially given the power of the jewish community in the US – not least of all the VP’s husband, the Attorney General, and the Secretaries of State, Treasury, and Homeland Security. It’s not a conspiracy, so put away your tinfoil hats, but it could represent a kind of echo chamber with deep pockets.
That brings us to Kamala Harris.
I wasn’t sure what to make of her sudden ascension to the head of the Democratic Party ticket for president, after all I’m the genius who failed to believe the American people would ever elect a black man with a name like Barack Hussein Obama way back when the world seemed so much simpler. Over the couple of weeks since she became the focus of democratic hope I have to admit I’ve come to see her as the light kept safely under the bushel by powerful white men. I’m not sure if she was being groomed for greatness through almost clandestine assignments overseas or hidden away with busy work and a low profile through the same publicity ineptitude I mentioned earlier. Either way nobody can doubt her time appears to have come.
The public imagination and the hope of celebrities driven into a torpor by Bidens lack of youthful panache, appears to have risen from a deep sleep, if not the dead, and the audacity of hope rides again. Reports of serious donations flooding the coffers, and endorsements from most major celebs with a social media account (so all of them basically) are choking cyber space. But I can’t help getting a nervous itch at the back of my mind that some of this excitement is like giddy relief and will die down once the serious business of turning donations and endorsements into actual votes raises its ugly head.
The tricky business of choosing the right VP running mate has yet to be resolved with each of the Candidates in Waiting bearing serious clout but also serious drawbacks. Hopefully the disastrous mistake Trump made by choosing that flip-flopping moral and political rattlesnake Vance as his VP will at least throw a sense of caution into the decision. I’m writing this on the day it has been reported Kamala and the senior Dems will be giving their final thought to the matter before the winning VP candidate joins her at an event on Tuesday. That will give the Dems around twelve days to absorb the potential of the hopefully dynamic duo before the Democratic Party National Convention starts in Chicago. I have my favourite of those whispered about as potential VPs, Pete Buttiigieg and not Shapiro, but I’m not sure if even the reinvigorated Democrats are ready for a ticket with a black woman and a gay white man, never mind the Independents, swing voters, and Republicans with a conscience, that know the beginning of the Trump empire would be the death knell for democracy and the American dream. I’ve been wrong before and in this case I, hopefully, will be wrong again.
