The dust has settled. The surprise is over. Vice President Kamala Harris has raised more money than any political campaign ever in a short time. In one week, she raised $200 million. And Melinda Gates wrote a check for $59 million on July 23. Black women are on a call organizing. Black men are on a call organizing. The community of Florida, “The Villages,” had a golf cart parade and flipped from Republican to Democratic. There were 500 golf carts in the lineup. The clock is ticking. The endorsements have come. President Joe Biden made a political move that will be studied for years to come. Historic. History made. Chilling and thrilling. We shouted. We cried. We stood in place. We broke the Zoom. The women gathered. The men did, too. Donald Trump stopped dead in his tracks. Dumbfounded. Next. Does he change his Vice President?
And now the reality sets in. Is America ready for a Black woman to be president of the United States and be the most powerful person in the world? History: The stereotypes will emerge. She invariably will be called the “N” word. After all, we have a hillbilly at the top of the Republican ticket. Will white women vote for Harris? Will she carry the suburbs? Will she carry the good and right people of America? Or will they say wait?
The Future of America…
The truth is that this election is indeed the most important in our lifetime. It will forecast America’s future. Do we want the gentle hand of a woman who can prosecute? Or do we want the zaniest of Trump? Will Trump’s racist coded conversation be believed and taught? He told the White Christians he would fix it, and they would not have to vote ever again.
Why such questions? Because the undercurrent of the 2024 political race is racism. Trump’s strategy is to reduce Kamala. She is an affirmative action appointment. He mocks her laughter. The hillbilly has a sidebar to call women who have no birth children “Catwomen.” Trump called her “a radical left lunatic.” The best names are probably the best to come. He promises this will be the last democratic election as we know it. The insults will grow as the campaign rocks.
Stomp Trump!
Where will it go? Trump and his hillbilly vice president are stomped. They are challenged with offending women, everywhere with derogatory remarks. They do not understand the independent woman or the professional woman. They are men of yesteryear who would ascribe keeping women barefoot and pregnant. Yet in their own families, they see differently.
What Happened to the Republican Party?
The Republicans this year in this campaign represent white men of a long time ago. The history of racism and sexism is past. What does Trump tell his daughter and granddaughters? What does Vance say to his brown professional wife? The Democrats represent the horizon of the future, the new world of electric cars and artificial intelligence.
Do we look backward, or do we look forward? Before the election, before the hillbilly was chosen to be Trump’s Vice, he compared Trump’s politics to Hitler’s. What happened along the way? How did the rich man who likes gold toilets, extravagant living, and the best of, pick a poor hillbilly boy to be his running mate? An inexperienced lad with a dope addict mother, an abused young man with promise who got to Yale and met a brown Indian woman who believed in him, loved him, and probably saved him from the hillbilly life. Does Vance represent the commoner to Trump? If you want to see the roots of Vance, watch on Netflix, Hillbilly Elegy and/or read the book with the same name.
So What’s Next?
So, how did we get here, and where do we go? We arrive at 2024 with education. Two things are expected: Vance’s wife and Kamala’s mother are Brown. Education changes people’s lives and increases their opportunities for social mobility. If the twisted white old men don’t join the new world of possibility, we move on and leave them behind. Trump is now the old man in the race. We wait for the debate stage, where the prosecutor’s attorney will shine and challenge the tales of Trump.
Voters in this unique race will have their votes counted. Both sexism and racism are on trial, as well as the Republicans and the Democrats.
