This year has been more than a lot. This infernal year, this endless pandemic, this criminal administration. Through it all, in our struggle just to get through the day-to-day, we can lose sight of the history we are witnessing. Yes, all the horrible stuff we can’t look away from is history. The unprecedented corruption, cruelty and criminal negligence of Trump and all his enablers should go down in the history books as one of America’s darkest periods told in the same embarrassedly hushed tones as the Japanese internment camps, McCarthy era witch hunts and America’s original sins of chattel slavery and the genocide of Native Americans.
But, we don’t have to write just another shameful chapter on America’s history of racism, sexism, xenophobia, classism and ongoing exclusion. We can choose another path. We can choose to open doors instead. We can choose to make history in the best, most inclusive way possible. We can vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and in doing so break the 232-year exclusive stranglehold of men on the presidency. Sure, it’s not the Main Event. But it’s a heartbeat away and that has never, not in the entire history of our country, happened before. Madame Vice President sounds pretty damn good to me.
But Kamala Harris would not just represent a victory for women. She would represent a victory for Black Americans, for Indian-Americans, for immigrants and first-generation Americans.
Think about how you felt when Barack Obama was elected that November night in 2008. That indescribable feeling when you know a country just made itself better. You may quibble over his policies, but you can’t reject the history the man made and the difference having him in the Oval Office made in how countless Americans now see themselves. They realized perhaps for the first time that they too could become president if only they worked hard and inspired people.
And with Kamala, the exact same thing could happen. It’s hard to dream when you haven’t shown what is possible. When I was a little kid I used to like to watch the Miss America beauty pageant (I know, don’t start, the ladies were pretty). But as an Asian-American kid watching this pageant every year I also knew inherently that I could never be Miss America because I’d never seen an Asian-American woman win the crowd (and in fact it took until 2001, long after I’d stopped watching, for that to happen).
Now, the vice presidency is much more important than Miss America. And the impact could be so much more important.
But, and this is an important but, it isn’t just that Kamala would be so many historic firsts. It is that Kamala is also eminently qualified, unquestionably brilliant and genuinely compassionate. Of course, that only makes sense. To be a first means to have overcome so many obstacles and navigated such an uncharted course for yourself, you’d have to be. No one who wasn’t all those things could accomplish these firsts.
And, look, it doesn’t hurt that Kamala Harris is indeed the Straight Bette Porter. Strong, smart, powerful and pretty darn good in the who face-body area. What? History can be sexy. Now, everyone go vote for Democrats up and down the ballots. Here’s to seeing these firsts happen in four days. Vote. Happy safe, healthy and righteous weekend, all.
