Opinion columns are written by various individuals. Any views expressed here only reflect the views of the columnist.
With less than one month to go before the Presidential election, I’m feeling a strong sense of deja vu. In early 2020, Bernie Sanders’s brief lead in the Democratic primaries fell away, and Joe Biden’s moderate, pedestrian platform seemed to shut out the progressive social and economic policies championed by other candidates in favor of a return to normalcy.
I, like many others on the left side of the aisle, was disappointed, but I hoped for Biden’s victory regardless, to deliver us from the daily chaos and terrifying policies of Donald Trump.
When Biden won, he surprised me with his progressivism. He did not promise Medicare for All or the end of the Electoral College, but his actions showed an earnest commitment to moving away from the ideas that have dominated our country since Reagan.
Unfortunately, things were not wine and roses forever after. While President Biden did succeed in bolstering infrastructure, championing labor rights and aiding Ukraine against Russian imperialism, the ambitious economic, climate, voting rights and pro-union legislation he sponsored was blocked by Republicans and conservative Democrats in Congress.
Roe v. Wade, the Chevron case, limits on Presidential immunity and countless other precedents were struck down by a rouge, Federalist society-infiltrated Supreme Court. The Afghanistan withdrawal, inflation, right-wing rhetoric and a general sense of malaise crippled Biden’s popularity, not to mention concerns over his age.
By early this year, I was deeply pessimistic about Biden’s chances for reelection. I had felt from the beginning he should only serve one term, and his blank cheque to Israel as it wages a genocidal campaign against the people of Palestine, soured my enthusiasm irreparably. I hardly want Trump to win, but things were not looking good.
When Biden dropped out in the aftermath of his poor debate performance against Trump, I was thrilled. I was convinced that he was a millstone around the Democrat’s neck and that after the debate, the health question had made it impossible for him to win. Things became even better when Vice President Kamala Harris stepped up to the plate as the new nominee.
I had been skeptical of her in 2020, but her ability to energize the party base and her campaign’s public savviness made for the most inspiring major party nominee since Obama in 2008.
The “weird” and “we’re not going back” attacks on the Republicans were brilliant PR, because they said what mainstream Democrats seemed to be afraid to say honestly: These people have weird views that they want to enforce on America, and it’s simply impossible to “work across the aisle” when the other party is made up of fascistic creeps.
Harris’s rallies in the Rust Belt and wisely selecting Tim Walz as her running mate further solidified to me that the overly cautious Democratic Party, scared to call their opponents what they were, was a thing of the past. It was still going to be close, but we had momentum on our side.
My expectations tempered somewhat after the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in August. I was disappointed in the party platform, which pivoted right on immigration, the border, and the economy.
I could understand to some degree; the mood of the nation right now is very reactionary, and the terror of the Trump years has almost been forgotten in the wake of COVID-19 and economic struggles, to the point where people take the question “Were you better off than you were four years ago?” seriously, even when four years ago millions were dying from a global pandemic.
Regardless, it was frustrating to see the heel turn after the 2020 primaries promised so much more, and the refusal to allow a Palestinian from the Uncommitted Movement (a Democrat themself) speak was inexcusably cruel and tone-deaf, when Democratic voters (if not leaders) have generally opposed Israel’s bloody crusade.
More worrying logistically has been an air of anxiety that seemed to pop up after the convention. Harris and Walz both have seemed to dial back their rhetoric (particularly “weird”), with Harris suggesting numerous times that her commitment to bipartisanship is what separates her from Biden and flaunting an endorsement from war criminal Dick Cheney.
The Harris team rebuked Walz for calling to eliminate the Electoral College, a popular position Harris once supported. They once again seem too concerned with stepping on anyone’s toes to fully go on the attack and as a result, their polling lead has stagnated slightly.
When Walz debated J.D. Vance, he did well but played softball and let Vance’s lies go unchallenged. There isn not much time left, but there is time to course correct.
I write all this not to blast Harris for “campaigning wrong,” but in the hope that the campaign listens to criticism and does not make the same mistakes as Clinton and Biden.
Donald Trump, who attempted a coup the last time he lost power, is the most existential threat to the United States since the Civil War. He has promised to be “dictator for a day,” censoring opponents and the press, and filling the judiciary and federal agencies with lackeys. He would send the National Guard in to clamp down on peaceful protestors and would commence mass deportations of immigrants.
The Republican Party, which has fully transformed into hate-mongering blackshirt thugs, would take any opportunity to do away with free elections and restrict civil liberties and rights. Especially those of women to make their own decisions (several have suggested repealing the 19th Amendment), racial minorities to self-advocate, LGBTQ+ people to express themselves publicly, with the ultimate goal of conformity to medieval, pre-20th century norms.
Like in 2020 with Biden, Harris is not who I and many progressives would like her to be. However, also like 2020, I recognize that she is the only one standing between Trump and the White House. In other words, the only one standing between fascists and the levers of power.
We need to take a chance on Harris, because if we do not, we may not get a chance again.
