My mother a lifelong republican who detested the democrat party voted for Barack Obama. Mother did so only because Obama was black. Having grown up in the deep south with her grandmother living with her parents, mother had living evidence of what the democrat party had wroth. Her grandmother was a slave. The family had survived and prospered despite Jim Crow, the Ku Klux Klan, rampant racism and stereotyping. Mother thought she would never see the day when the public schools in Georgia would integrate. We had a lynching in the family. The Klan came after a cousin who sought refuge at the family farm. She knew the struggles to get the vote. She recalled that blacks in Jones County were not allowed to vote inside the courthouse. Rather they filled out their ballot and deposited it in a box at the courthouse door guarded by the sheriff. She went to Fort Valley State, the closest HBCU and received their first four year degree. Her mother was the one room school marm for black kids in Jones County but only had a high school degree. Mother became a lifelong second grade teacher and along with my dad was the strongest advocate of getting an education to escape poverty. All she wanted was for whites to leave blacks alone. Left to their own devices, she felt that few blacks would leave the company of their kind, their neighborhoods, their churches, their fraternities and sororities, their brothers and sisters. That blacks were relegated to second class citizenship and openly discriminated against by southern democrats galled her. She (and Dad) insisted that the national democrat party was no better, just more subtle. Yet she voted for Obama, simply because he was black. For mother, his politics did not matter. Only his color mattered. Given all that she had seen and gone through during her long lifetime, Obama’s nomination and election would be the ultimate achievement for American blacks, once enslaved, denigrated, discriminated against, and now president.
If she were alive, she would also vote for Kamala Harris. I wonder how many blacks who were going to vote against Biden will now vote for Harris. Of course, the vast majority of black women were going to vote for Biden regardless so Harris would get only a few additional votes from black women. But black men? One thing though is crystal clear, we are going to be inundated with the media elevating Harris to godlike status. She is going to be on the receiving end of a tremendous influx of funds from the democrats’ billionaire donors. Hollywood is going to make her a star. You think the democrat/media/academic elites gaslighted the public about Biden? You haven’t seen anything yet. All of Harris’ failures will be either explained away or ignored. Her word salads will now be cited as examples of linguistic subtlety. Her international trips will now show her grasp of foreign affairs. Her record as California attorney general will now be touted that even progressives can be tough on crime. She will be tutored not to cackle. No matter what the republicans point to as a weakness will now become a strength.
One of the truly dumb statements now coming from the republicans is that her lying about Biden’s mental and physical conditions disqualifies her from being president. Who are they kidding? A politician lying? Who knew? Criticisms of Harris will always be countered loudly and tacitly as being racist and chauvinistic. It’s not her record that the republicans will be accused of attacking but her gender and her race (or races). This will force the republicans to tread lightly. So beware. This is now a candidate that will dominate fundraising, media fawning, Hollywood glitz and glowing headlines. She will now be St. Kamala. Despite what the republicans think, what was going to be a landslide victory for Trump will now be competitive. Who is gaslighting the public now? In many ways, Harris reminds me of Chance the gardener in “Being There.” Harris will be a formidable opponent.
haroldblackphd.com 