Kamala and the crazy uncle
Harris baits Trump into showing his unfitness
"He's really doubling down on the crazy uncle vibe this evening," said Pete Buttigieg of our 45th president's debate performance on September 10.
The next morning, two main stories led cable news: the trouncing of Donald Trump by Vice President Kamala Harris in the debate, and the twenty-third anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack on America.
In 2001, a few days after 9/11, a friend said quietly over dinner, "If you were grading people on terrorism, they would get an A+." Indeed. All they had was sheer nerve, box cutters, and the element of surprise.
My friend is gone now. Those of us who survived the AIDS pandemic have grown old enough to die of other causes.
Much has changed, much has not. Two dozen years into the 21st century, America still has not elected a woman president. We would be foolish to take a Harris victory for granted, given the GOP's relentless vote suppression efforts. But Harris's strong debate performance, and Trump's display of derangement as she repeatedly and successfully baited him, give us a fighting chance.
Remaining poised and confident, Harris criticized Trump for many things, including his call for the death penalty for the Central Park Five, who were ultimately exonerated; his denigration of military service members; his inviting Taliban members to Camp David; and his claim to have saved Obamacare, which he repeatedly tried to repeal. Harris stressed the need for Americans to work across our differences to address our nation's challenges, in contrast to Trump's constant efforts to split us apart.
Harris was particularly strong in refuting Trump's claim that "everyone" wanted abortion law returned to the states:
"You want to talk about, this is what people wanted? Pregnant women who want to carry a pregnancy to term suffering from a miscarriage being denied care in an emergency room because the health care providers are afraid they might go to jail, and she's bleeding out in a car in the parking lot? She didn't want that. Her husband didn't want that. A 12- or 13-year-old survivor of incest, being forced to carry a pregnancy to term? They don't want that."
The moderators fact-checked several Trump lies, including his vile and idiotic claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were eating people's pets. He now says he will deport the Haitians "back to Venezuela." The, um, Haitians are here legally.
Broadway composer Jerry Herman once wrote, "Time heals everything but loving you." I have visited the 9/11 memorial in lower Manhattan, as I visited the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt when it was displayed on the National Mall. I knew many of the people memorialized on quilt panels.
The impact of memorials changes as those who knew the dead grow old and die themselves. Over time, our perspectives on history also change. Recently, a statue of the late civil rights leader and congressman John Lewis replaced a Confederate monument in Georgia.
Depending on how this election goes, we have the prospect of Congressman Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) as Speaker. If Harris wins, she will need a Democratic House to get anything passed. Even if Trump is defeated, the fanatics he has empowered will not suddenly vanish.
We cannot afford to be like people in the past who won a war only to lose the peace. A prime example was after the Civil War, when Confederate veterans enraged over the emancipation of black Americans rampaged against them, murdering many and launching a century of Jim Crow.
Ghosts of the Civil War still haunt the squares and circles in DC, many of which feature statues of Union generals. But our history is not frozen, and neither is our collective memory. Public memorials take many forms, from street renamings to postage stamps. Whom we honor reflects our shared values.
By contrast, our collective sanity is in doubt when the crazy uncle has a good chance of gaining access to the nuclear launch codes.
There is reason for cautious optimism as the election approaches. Yet democracy, the rule of law, and universal rights remain under serious threat from an autocratic madman and his white supremacist allies who appear eager to burn the country down if they don't get their way.
Kamala Harris has done America a signal service with her magnificent debate performance. It is up to all of us to ensure that the promise she represents is fulfilled.
If we fail, we lose not just an election, but a better future. There will be no memorial to that.
Richard J. Rosendall is a writer and activist at [email protected].
Copyright © 2024 by Richard J. Rosendall. All rights reserved.