Harris emerged as VP in the summer of 2020 when it seemed the country might finally deal with its defining demons. But as the reactionary counter-mobilization triumphed, she was sidelined. Until now.
I agree with the thrust of this article, equality is not a principle to revile but to enable.
However, Vice President Harris has a past with some glitches. Starting with attending a private academy in Montreal before entering Howard is not exactly a pulling yourself up by the bootstraps tale. Too, her mentoring by Willie Brown came with some eye-raising benefits.
But, this is part and parcel for members of her class. That she benefited from her class is not disqualifying. (See Dan Quale.)
What would be empowering is for her to recognize her good fortune. Pledging to work assiduously to close the gaping gap in wealth distribution would be meaningful. Pledging to use the bully pulpit to advocate an end to states denying ballot line access to third parties would be inclusive.
Lastly, no President should have a term with the blanket pass for bad behavior that the Supreme Court has just granted. Pledge to make passing legislation to outlaw this ruling a first priority. Too issue orders severely restricting the scope of cases that this out of control Supreme Court may hear.
Incredibly accurate. “DEI” as an insult is so transparent, it’s sickening. They may as well just come out and say a black woman can never be president.
This is so good and really frames precisely what the future of America will look like for a generation to come. Are we going to choose to regress to what essentially would become a modern version of the Confederacy led by a minority of white extremists or progress toward a truly egalitarian society? The moment of truth is fast approaching.
Such spot on analysis of the situation, as always Thomas. Thank you for sharing it with us.
For what it's worth, I DO think the American people have a general understanding of the stakes here as you've laid them out. It's a tough sell to just outright state that the VP is too Black or too feminine to be President, when all the other side has to offer up is the same old crackpot felon that is Donald Trump.
I was so pleased to read that your Mom contacted you about Biden’s stepping back & nominating Kamala. I too am 75 & a half Mexican/Anglo woman who was raised in what is now being called a ghetto in southern NM. I watched my Mom being discriminated against in our hometown because she was obviously not Anglo. I was “blessed” to take after my Dad, blonde hair & light skinned & never felt the racism my Mom dealt with all her life. I can’t imagine what Kamala & Ketanji went through to prove their worth & accomplished all in spite of the obstacles. Thank you again Professor, you have once again drilled down to the core of the ugly issues in our country.
I appreciate your consistent focus, here and across your works, on a "truly egalitarian, multiracial, pluralistic America" as the goal for progressives and the real enemy of reactionaries. I think that this presents a positive vision that Democrats should campaign on. The dramatic movement of professional White folks toward the Democrats is in part based on their experiences as competent women themselves or as men working with many competent women; there is a similar dynamic with regard to race where many professional White people have competent or over qualified colleagues of color. To be clear: White folks, especially cis-het men, have a lot of work to do still. But, many in the professional or corporate worlds will not recognize the world to which reactionaries are alluding.
"The Democratic Party has shown a quite unexpected level of coordination and, dare I say, unity." I don't think this was accidental. I think it was a deliberate plan orchestrated by Biden while he kept Trump, Republicans, the media and pundits focused on the shiny object of "I'm not stepping aside". As a retired academic and associate dean in a business school, I'm aware of the tremendous strategic and logistical efforts involved in doing any sort of event for the school. You have to scale this up thousands of times to get to the logistics of what we saw beginning with the early Sunday afternoon announcement. The timing was intentional. Biden made his announcement, and I believe that during the 27 minute interval before he endorsed Harris, he made a lot of phone calls and pushed the "go" button. Obviously Harris knew beforehand, but she could not access and control Biden's campaign machinery until Biden formally endorsed her and passed the baton. Biden then got off the stage and put Harris in the spotlight. In a day and a half, Harris had more than sufficient delegate pledges because Biden knew that the party could not endure a contested convention. The paperwork to allow Harris to raise funds in her name alone was already completed and ready to be filed, but the enthusiasm to contribute was attributable to Harris, possibly tapping into pent up demand. She also got all of her serious potential rivals in the party to support her, as well as the majority of Democrats in the House and Senate. The logistics to accomplish this were not done after the announcement, but previously. Biden knows politics better than almost anyone else currently on the scene. And who is an expert at whipping Democrats into unity than Nancy Pelosi. At some point she was brought on and did what she does so well. It was a master class in political strategy, planning and execution. Not bad for an old man. It may have gone faster with better results than expected, but it wasn't haphazardly organized. I agree that we'll see more and more racism and misogyny but it isn't going to go over well with Democrats, Independents, undecideds, women, minority voters or younger voters. Project 2025 is simply throwing gasoline on the fire and every Republican is holding a gas can. Trump won't be able to stop insulting Biden because Biden got the better of him, and something, something about an old dog and a new trick. Jordon and Comer have no more performances to give. JD Vance is dangerous, but both Trump and Vance are predictable. All the energy devoted to "your candidate is too old and has cognitive issues" will now be focused on Trump alone and will be targeted at him. As long as we can keep the momentum going we can win.
Thank you for this! I’ve been feeling fully insane watching liberals start talking like MAGA. Makes me think of the conjuncture that Stuart Hall was trying to map in his essays on Thatcher and the New Right.
I think you see events much more clearly than the NYT does. The mainstream news outlets here are obsessed with politics as a horse race and are not telling the public things they need to know, like just how Project 2025 will adversely affect the U.S., and how Trump plans to be a dictator, enabled by dark money and the Supreme Court majority’s abysmal opinion in Donald Trump v. United States. The Supreme Court threw away 235 years of legal precedent that no one, including the president, is above the law. They would have allowed Richard Nixon to walk.
Thank you for clarifying the gross misuse of gop buzzwords CRT DEI and woke, which have been hurled as insults, shut down colleges, and even have unconstitutional laws against them. I cringe at every grandma chucking these acronyms as if it were a bad thing! at school board meetings. I feel embarrassed for them. I hope your mom keeps talking up the reality-free US exceptionalism--we need more 'white' people to tell white people what a disaster we might still avoid. I vote with black women who have always borne the burdens. (btw: Hechingen fam.)
Whoa. Your mom's observation suggests the import of our national drama on the world stage and the impact on Everyman. You've identified many of the moving parts. I believe the body politic will be moved, not by the minutiae, but by the seismic shifts in momentum.
Anecdotally, I just talked with an American friend who has visited France many times over the past 50+.years. She reported much more concern about both American and French politics from her French friends. In this case, they were very concerned about NATO.
I agree with the thrust of this article, equality is not a principle to revile but to enable.
However, Vice President Harris has a past with some glitches. Starting with attending a private academy in Montreal before entering Howard is not exactly a pulling yourself up by the bootstraps tale. Too, her mentoring by Willie Brown came with some eye-raising benefits.
But, this is part and parcel for members of her class. That she benefited from her class is not disqualifying. (See Dan Quale.)
What would be empowering is for her to recognize her good fortune. Pledging to work assiduously to close the gaping gap in wealth distribution would be meaningful. Pledging to use the bully pulpit to advocate an end to states denying ballot line access to third parties would be inclusive.
Lastly, no President should have a term with the blanket pass for bad behavior that the Supreme Court has just granted. Pledge to make passing legislation to outlaw this ruling a first priority. Too issue orders severely restricting the scope of cases that this out of control Supreme Court may hear.
Incredibly accurate. “DEI” as an insult is so transparent, it’s sickening. They may as well just come out and say a black woman can never be president.
This is so good and really frames precisely what the future of America will look like for a generation to come. Are we going to choose to regress to what essentially would become a modern version of the Confederacy led by a minority of white extremists or progress toward a truly egalitarian society? The moment of truth is fast approaching.
Such spot on analysis of the situation, as always Thomas. Thank you for sharing it with us.
For what it's worth, I DO think the American people have a general understanding of the stakes here as you've laid them out. It's a tough sell to just outright state that the VP is too Black or too feminine to be President, when all the other side has to offer up is the same old crackpot felon that is Donald Trump.
This is one of the best pieces summarizing our current moment. You are a gifted voice and your historical analysis is desperately needed.
Excellent. Thank you for thinking of us on your vacation.
I was so pleased to read that your Mom contacted you about Biden’s stepping back & nominating Kamala. I too am 75 & a half Mexican/Anglo woman who was raised in what is now being called a ghetto in southern NM. I watched my Mom being discriminated against in our hometown because she was obviously not Anglo. I was “blessed” to take after my Dad, blonde hair & light skinned & never felt the racism my Mom dealt with all her life. I can’t imagine what Kamala & Ketanji went through to prove their worth & accomplished all in spite of the obstacles. Thank you again Professor, you have once again drilled down to the core of the ugly issues in our country.
Are you planning on adding any more audio recordings to future articles? I very much enjoyed that feature. Great work as usual!
Yes, definitely! I just can’t do it while I’m traveling in Europe. But as soon as I’m back in DC, I’ll add audio versions again.
Ausgezeichnet.
I appreciate your consistent focus, here and across your works, on a "truly egalitarian, multiracial, pluralistic America" as the goal for progressives and the real enemy of reactionaries. I think that this presents a positive vision that Democrats should campaign on. The dramatic movement of professional White folks toward the Democrats is in part based on their experiences as competent women themselves or as men working with many competent women; there is a similar dynamic with regard to race where many professional White people have competent or over qualified colleagues of color. To be clear: White folks, especially cis-het men, have a lot of work to do still. But, many in the professional or corporate worlds will not recognize the world to which reactionaries are alluding.
"The Democratic Party has shown a quite unexpected level of coordination and, dare I say, unity." I don't think this was accidental. I think it was a deliberate plan orchestrated by Biden while he kept Trump, Republicans, the media and pundits focused on the shiny object of "I'm not stepping aside". As a retired academic and associate dean in a business school, I'm aware of the tremendous strategic and logistical efforts involved in doing any sort of event for the school. You have to scale this up thousands of times to get to the logistics of what we saw beginning with the early Sunday afternoon announcement. The timing was intentional. Biden made his announcement, and I believe that during the 27 minute interval before he endorsed Harris, he made a lot of phone calls and pushed the "go" button. Obviously Harris knew beforehand, but she could not access and control Biden's campaign machinery until Biden formally endorsed her and passed the baton. Biden then got off the stage and put Harris in the spotlight. In a day and a half, Harris had more than sufficient delegate pledges because Biden knew that the party could not endure a contested convention. The paperwork to allow Harris to raise funds in her name alone was already completed and ready to be filed, but the enthusiasm to contribute was attributable to Harris, possibly tapping into pent up demand. She also got all of her serious potential rivals in the party to support her, as well as the majority of Democrats in the House and Senate. The logistics to accomplish this were not done after the announcement, but previously. Biden knows politics better than almost anyone else currently on the scene. And who is an expert at whipping Democrats into unity than Nancy Pelosi. At some point she was brought on and did what she does so well. It was a master class in political strategy, planning and execution. Not bad for an old man. It may have gone faster with better results than expected, but it wasn't haphazardly organized. I agree that we'll see more and more racism and misogyny but it isn't going to go over well with Democrats, Independents, undecideds, women, minority voters or younger voters. Project 2025 is simply throwing gasoline on the fire and every Republican is holding a gas can. Trump won't be able to stop insulting Biden because Biden got the better of him, and something, something about an old dog and a new trick. Jordon and Comer have no more performances to give. JD Vance is dangerous, but both Trump and Vance are predictable. All the energy devoted to "your candidate is too old and has cognitive issues" will now be focused on Trump alone and will be targeted at him. As long as we can keep the momentum going we can win.
Thank you for this! I’ve been feeling fully insane watching liberals start talking like MAGA. Makes me think of the conjuncture that Stuart Hall was trying to map in his essays on Thatcher and the New Right.
Fantastic, as always. I truly look forward to your writing.
I think you see events much more clearly than the NYT does. The mainstream news outlets here are obsessed with politics as a horse race and are not telling the public things they need to know, like just how Project 2025 will adversely affect the U.S., and how Trump plans to be a dictator, enabled by dark money and the Supreme Court majority’s abysmal opinion in Donald Trump v. United States. The Supreme Court threw away 235 years of legal precedent that no one, including the president, is above the law. They would have allowed Richard Nixon to walk.
Thank you for clarifying the gross misuse of gop buzzwords CRT DEI and woke, which have been hurled as insults, shut down colleges, and even have unconstitutional laws against them. I cringe at every grandma chucking these acronyms as if it were a bad thing! at school board meetings. I feel embarrassed for them. I hope your mom keeps talking up the reality-free US exceptionalism--we need more 'white' people to tell white people what a disaster we might still avoid. I vote with black women who have always borne the burdens. (btw: Hechingen fam.)
Whoa. Your mom's observation suggests the import of our national drama on the world stage and the impact on Everyman. You've identified many of the moving parts. I believe the body politic will be moved, not by the minutiae, but by the seismic shifts in momentum.
And please return to your vacation. We'll be here
Anecdotally, I just talked with an American friend who has visited France many times over the past 50+.years. She reported much more concern about both American and French politics from her French friends. In this case, they were very concerned about NATO.