by Joe Courter
What a relief to have the “will he or won’t he” settled! Boom, that quick, and Biden drops into the background and Kamala Harris hits center stage. I am happy, enthused; I feel really good about better chances to be able to set back the authoritarian MAGA movement.
Coming after the RNC, with Trump-Vance locked together in a bro-fest, there is Kamala Harris ready to pounce, with a, for now, united Democratic party. There seems to be a recognition of the over-riding necessity of defeating Trump, and her rollout has been really inspiring!
For now, because breaking that unity will be the goal of the Right and there will also be destabilizing propaganda from abroad. There are also residual feelings about her from her prosecutor days and things said and done back then.
And then of course, the elephant in the room, the understandably outraged mass of people rightly horrified by the genocidal assault Israel is waging on the people of Gaza with U.S. weapons and U.S. tacit agreement and support.
Seeing Harris shaking hands with Netanyahu this morning [July 26] about made me puke. Credit to the members of Congress who boycotted his speech. More credit to Rashida Tlaib for going with a sign saying “Guilty of Genocide” and “War Criminal.” And big credit to Bernie Sanders for releasing a strong 21-minute indictment of Netanyahu and of the Republican Party members who invited him the day before Bibi’s visit (read or listen here: tinyurl.com/iguana2041).
Harris is unfortunately inheriting decades of U.S complicity in regard to Israel’s repression of the Palestinian people, and Israel’s gamesmanship in forestalling any plans for a Palestinian state (see “For years, Netanyahu propped up Hamas. Now it’s blown up in our faces” in The Times of Israel at: tinyurl.com/Iguana2042). I think Harris has a much better position on the need for a real ceasefire and permanent solution than Biden, and good grief, Trump would be much worse for the Palestinian people: I think he sees the Gaza Strip as a potential real estate development opportunity!
As of now, I am fully on board with Kamala Harris, and we will need to work on her to make her and her administration better AFTER we get her elected.
Again I will say, voting is not about your feelings, it is about math. It is about outcomes that may lead you to a better opportunity to enact the changes you want to see.
In my heart I am a Bernie Sanders person. In both 2016 and 2020 I felt the Democratic Party really screwed me, screwed Bernie. Yeah, I endorsed and supported Clinton and Biden, I held signs, but like so many times before in my life (Mondale, Dukakis, Bill Clinton, Kerry, Gore), my heart wasn’t fully in it. As of now, my heart is in this one. She ain’t perfect, but I think she is a good person, self-possessed, smart, quick-witted. She is such a counterpoint to the self-righteous con man she is headed up against.
Last issue I reflected on 1968 and its parallels to today. There’s a song that was written in 1968, which became number one in 1969: the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” This became an election song for me when Iguana co-founder Jenny Brown and I were in the car, kinda bummed, driving home after futilely holding signs at NW 13th St and 23rd Ave for Walter Mondale on election day in 1984.
Reagan, of course, thumped him, but that song came on the radio, and we both looked at each other, and our perspective changed, lightened because, as the song goes, “sometimes, you get what you need.” Harris may be just what we need. She would be a nightmare for Trump to debate. She is exciting voters. And fundraising is through the roof.
Let’s hope this 3-day-old (at press time) magic can hold for a bit over 3 months. Lots more can happen, but massive organizing for a huge voter turnout will be the ultimate verdict on Trump that his legal shenanigans kept from being passed over the past years.
Yes, it is a new ballgame, and we the people are coming up to bat!