Neil: As the first Tuesday of November grows closer and the result of one of the more consequential US elections looms, the idea of the matchup to contest Donald Trump’s effort at a second term has grown more concrete by the day. A lifetime ago in early March, the events of a dynamic Super Tuesday (where the most delegates in the race for major party nominations are awarded in the U.S) saw an overcrowded pool of Democrat suitors thin to moderate Joseph Biden and progressive Bernard Sanders. A coalition of the more centrist candidates in the field meant that it was clear the quest for the presidency was Biden’s to set out on. However, given the 77 year period since his parents decided on the middle name Robinette, it’s a journey that would be difficult for a man of his age and background to take alone- especially considering the young and diverse heart of his Party. After the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and a tumultuous period in the nation sparked by social justice outrage, the focus of the American people and the world now shifts back to the presidential race whilst Biden makes a historic announcement: he’s picked Kamala Harris as his running mate.
In a field so heavily dominated by her older, whiter, more masculine colleagues (one should look no further than her running mate), Harris is an enigma and does not hesitate to make light of that- another Tamil-Black Indian-Jamaican-American Young(ish) Woman or any combination of those identities has not yet seen the forefront of American politics like Harris has.
She makes an interesting pick. While Kamala Harris may have been the favourite in news and across dining tables worldwide, there was enough speculation around the job (which Biden made clear early would be reserved for a Woman of Color) that she wasn’t guaranteed it from Super Tuesday. Harris, throughout this selection process, was regarded especially on the more progressive wing of the party as an embodiment of the system to blame for the killing of George Floyd and countless others. She served for years as a lawyer with a record containing many questionable entries, including charging excessive sentences for Maijuana offenses and allegedly withholding evidence. That side of the self proclaimed “Top Cop” doesn’t sit well with many, to say the least.
However, Harris is undoubtedly a gifted orator, talented politician and diversifies a ticket that is desperately in need of diversity. As a woman vying for a job intended for men, as an American child of an Indian immigrant who would have been refused entry to the US a few decades earlier, and as a Black American seeking residence in a house built by slaves, Harris represents a beautiful irony that returns some faith to the idea of America. She brings a new perspective to a table that has listened to more or less the same context for almost 250 years, and until very recently refused to listen to anything else. Whether Kamala Harris will be a successful Vice President and fulfill lofty expectations is a possibility, whether she is a historic pick that changes the face of American politics forever is a certainty.
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