So Much At Stake
The American presidential campaign of 2024 has been absurdly unique. From failed assassination attempts to presidential debate meltdowns, this election has been one for the ages. It’s been ugly, dirty, and downright hateful. The divisiveness of this election is an extension of the long saga of Trump madness that began back in 2016. A saga that was arguably inspired by the election of Barack Obama in 2008. A development that changed American politics for good, and that inspired the birth of an increasingly radicalized Republican Party.
I lived in and around Washington D.C. for two years working for a nonprofit civic education organization. I often worked on Capital Hill, outside the White House on Lafayette Square, and at the War Memorials across from the Washington Monument. It was there that I was constantly reminded of who truly built and sacrificed for this country. Of who labored under inhumane conditions and who were excluded from notions of “We the People” and the American Dream for countless generations. It might be time for someone who looks like they did to rise to the most powerful stage in the world.
Vice President Kamala Harris was thrust into the spotlight after President Joe Biden decided not to run for reeelection earlier this year. Harris, a woman of Afro-Jamaican and Indian descent, formerly a successful district attorney of San Francisco, and also a former attorney general and U.S. Senator from California, has galvanized the democratic base in ways comparable to Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. Celebrities and public figures alike have chosen to back Harris’ campaign since Biden’s withdrawal. From Barack and Michelle Obama to Dick and Liz Chaney. From Beyonce Knowles to Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift. The stars have aligned in support of a campaign that seeks to prevent a second Trump presidency. A frightening thought that looms large over the American people like the eye of a fiery, category five hurricane.
The daily attacks coming from the Trump campaign are relentless and totally unfiltered at this point. Since two failed assassination attempts on the former president’s life, Trump has become increasingly unhinged. His narcissism, misogyny, racially insensitive rhetoric, and unrivaled obsession with power at the expense of the country’s public institutions and foundational democratic principles, has collectively struck fear throughout the American populace. It has pushed several Republican politicians to back the Harris campaign, a development that is unprecedented to say the least.
I couldn’t stress more the urgency for Americans, of all walks of life, to exercise their right to vote. For much of American History the poor, minorities, and women were violently denied this basic American right. Now, as Americans, we must push past the idea that our votes don’t matter. They do matter. And in an election with so much at stake, in an election in which the longevity and hopes for a successful American experiment hang in the balanced, we must not be so ignorant and indifferent. We can’t make excuses for sitting out an election that will alter the trajectory of this country forever. That will impact the lives of young and future generations of Americans.
History will be made Tuesday night. We should brace ourselves for outrage and even more political violence. January 6, 2021 can most certainly happen again. Something even more frigthening may await us. We must prepare, as best as we can, to live and coexist within a new America. For better or worse.
