So a week ago on Sunday, July 21, as reported by CNN among many other outlets, President Joe Biden made the undoubtedly difficult decision to drop out of the upcoming election. Instead he will focus solely on the duties of his current office for the remainder of his elected term. In his place, our current president endorses Kamala Harris, our current vice president, to run for his current office.
The timing of this announcement was right before the Democratic Party’s national convention. When I saw the first emails mentioning this, I was in shock. I had to look at the current news headlines to confirm it wasn’t a hoax. And maybe I haven’t been following politics enough to have seen this as an inevitable conclusion.
It took me a while to have the opportunity to sit down and write out my thoughts on this. With the wait, I can write seeing how the first few days of the Kamala Harris campaign played out. It didn’t take long for old comments made by the Republican candidate vice president, JD Vance, to come back to the forefront. In particular, in one comment from 2021, Mr. Vance referred to the Democratic party as being run by “childless cat ladies”. That unfortunately is the only part of the quote that keeps coming up with any consistency, as much as I would like to put the whole thing into context.
I personally have joked that I’m one chromosome away from being a crazy cat lady. (This refers to the fact I am quite obviously male or an XY genotype versus a female XX genotype.) But this comment from Mr. Vance stereotypes a large number of people in a completely sexist manner, in addition to being grossly inaccurate.
As if this wasn’t enough, Mr. Vance made statements years before that he was a “never Trump guy”. The timing of his acceptance of the VP nomination to serve under Mr. Trump is quite suspicious. It indicates to me that there may not have been many good choices available still willing to serve as VP. It tells me a lot that Mike Pence was either unwilling to reprise his role, or that the campaign simply didn’t offer it to him this time around. Perhaps Mr. Pence has had his fill either of the VP job or of Mr. Trump.
But back to the topic at hand. As I write this, Kamala apparently hasn’t picked her running mate yet. There are plenty of reasonable choices. In the end I don’t think it matters a whole lot as long as it’s someone just as fit to run the country should Kamala not be able to, and who doesn’t alienate too many voters who would otherwise vote Democrat.
I hope it doesn’t come down to that, though. After everything that has happened during Mr. Trump’s administration, I don’t consider him a realistic option to lead the country again. Mishandling of classified documents, falsifying business records, election tampering, and probably a few other things as well. Nobody is above the law. And when the Supreme Court said otherwise, they were wrong–and it’s not the first time they were this wrong, either.
That (the Supreme Court decision) was the indirect result of blatant tampering with the nomination process for replacement judges. The Republican-majority Senate robbed President Barack Obama of the chance to have his nomination for Merrick Garland even considered. I would be far less angry about this if the Senate considered the nomination and voted down on its merits. But no, instead the nomination just sat there and expired unheard. Instead we got Mr. Trump’s nomination of Neil Gorsuch. The Senate confirmed this nomination in a little over two months.
Our founding fathers never intended the Supreme Court to be partisan, yet that’s what it has become. George Washington was onto something when he addressed the issue of political parties in his farewell address:
In contemplating the causes which may disturb our Union, it occurs as matter of serious concern that any ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations, Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western; whence designing men may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real difference of local interests and views. One of the expedients of party to acquire influence within particular districts is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heartburnings which spring from these misrepresentations; they tend to render alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection. […]
To the efficacy and permanency of your Union, a government for the whole is indispensable. No alliance, however strict, between the parts can be an adequate substitute; they must inevitably experience the infractions and interruptions which all alliances in all times have experienced. […] Respect for [this government’s] authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true liberty. The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But the Constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government.
(Sorry if that’s a bit long and smells a bit of gibberish. George Washington wasn’t exactly known for his brevity.) As best I can, I will try to summarize the quoted portion: “Parties form from differences in political views in different areas, and at times overgeneralize the views of a group. We as a people should unite and parties make this more difficult. With liberty comes the responsibility to obey the laws as written, including the Constitution, until it is amended by the rules established for those amendments. We have a duty to obey the government we have established for ourselves.”
It is highly unfortunate that modern-day politicians have failed to heed the wisdom of George Washington. It is also highly unfortunate that we, the American people, are stuck with what is effectively a two-party system. Worse, this is unlikely to change for the foreseeable future. Even at the local level here in Houston, with nominally non-partisan elections, we still wind up with candidates aligning with a party and frequent runoffs between the top two candidates. I have found myself having to pick between two equally undesirable candidates more than once–not a good situation to be in.
I wish I had answers for many of these problems. As it was, I did struggle with some of my history/geography/social studies classes in school. That said I have done my best to learn about politics and government in my adult life. The realization that politics affects you whether you follow it or not is a quite powerful motivator to learn as much as possible.
Kamala Harris may not be a perfect candidate, but I honestly think she’s the better viable choice of the two front runners.