The future of Kamala Harris could be the future of the United States.
I have said in previous blogs that the U.S. political parties have totally lost their way in terms of service to the people and to the country. The Republican Party is bad enough but the Democratic Party is worse. In fact, it is hardly recognizable as a Party at all because of endemic divisions and factions. Despite what you may think of the Republican/Donald Trump Party, they have a cohesion and purpose that makes the Democratic Party look pathetic. I am not talking about the individuals democrats here, many are working as hard as they can to address the issues facing the country. I am talking about the Party as a structure, and its future as an electable government.
Unfortunately, this is not a new phenomenon. It’s a situation that has plagued the party for many years. It basically doesn’t know what it represents, and appears incapable of producing a comprehensive and comprehensible message that the electorate can buy into. In its confusion, it is giving the Republican Party all sorts of ammunition to use against it.
I have said before that if the Democratic Party actually worked for the constituency it professes to represent, it would win every election easily; there are far, far more middle class and poor people than there are rich ones. It, therefore, obviously doesn’t represent that constituency because it certainly doesn’t win every election and even those victories it does claim certainly don’t come easily. So, what’s the problem and why haven’t they sorted it out?
First, I would suggest, the Party leadership structure doesn’t exist as a guiding entity to the candidates and elected officials. There is nothing that holds the Party together as a unit: No glue, not to mention no clue! Democrats apparently expect their chief elected official to provide the Party platform, the glue that holds the Party together, as well as doing their actual job of running the country on a daily basis.
Joe Biden has tried to implement some greatly needed programs but his main opponents are members of his own party, who put their own agendas ahead of the common cause. I should perhaps add that if Party actually had a clear common cause, it would probably be helpful to its members and candidates). The result is the electorate doesn’t know what to think, other than that their governance by the democrats is a confused mess, and Biden’s performance ratings are falling despite what he has achieved. The Republicans are laughing all the way to 2022 and 2024, and probably beyond if this mess isn’t sorted out.
Despite all this doom and gloom, the Democratic Party actually has a golden opportunity at this moment. The Republicans have sold their souls to an autocrat without an ethical bone in his body and an ego that outstrips any sense of responsibility to the electorate or the country. If the Democratic Party could get its act together, and present the American people with a clear, easily explained, common platform of ideas that promote middle-of-the-road concerns of the people, it would not only have a future in American politics, it might actually win many elections going forward. Enter the future of Kamala Harris.
If it doesn’t make these radical changes, the Donald Trump Party will win again, the United States may well be headed for autocracy, dictatorship and, most ironically for this own followers, a loss of those individual freedoms they state are so fundamental to their vision of America. History teaches us that autocracies abhor individual freedoms – their first order of business when they gain power is usually to abolish them or eat away at them surreptitiously.
Just because the potential victim of creeping autocracy is, in this case is the United States, doesn’t mean it won’t happen like it has to every other autocracy. It almost certainly will, and the indications are already blatantly obvious with the massive Trump-inspired campaign to eliminate the voting rights of those who don’t fully endorse him and his agenda of self-aggrandizement.
So what, specifically, am I suggesting to counteract this slide into a dictatorship? The future of Kamala Harris.
I am tempted to think that Joe Biden has a plan to win the next election in 2024 and then abdicate in favor of Kamala Harris, which would give her three and a half years to consolidate her presidency. It could work unless, of course, he didn’t win, which is a real possibility at the moment. Hence, the future of Kamala Harris is important.
I am suggesting that he give Kamala the job of creating a viable, cohesive, democratic party for the future, and give her that task now. We all know the Vice-Presidency is a dead-end job and, almost always, a politician’s graveyard. Such a project would give her Party leadership without competing with the President. Then, if Biden loses, she is the heir-in-waiting instead of being discarded with a losing presidency. If he wins, the abdication plan would work. Everybody wins except, of course, the Republican Party. It’s a chance to take a moribund, rudderless, political party by the scruff of the neck and turn it into a viable entity in the pursuit of America’s potential. Joe, give Kamala and your party a chance. The future of Kamala Harris and the country may well be joined.
