I could not watch the Trump/Biden debate. The sound of Trump’s voice makes me ill. I was concerned that Biden would fumble. I didn’t need to see this non-debate live.
For the weeks that followed the event a dark cloud hovered over my head. This was made darker by the attempt on Trump’s life. Always eager to jump into the fray of dark humor I stayed quiet. I don’t want violence used against convicted criminals. Yet this kind of violence against public figures has been going on my entire life. My mother, who rarely cried at anything, sobbed the day I came home from kindergarten when President Kennedy had been shot.
A few years later when I was old enough to have my own political opinions, my preferred candidate, Robert Kennedy, was also assassinated. As was the hero of my youth, Martin Luther King, Jr. Attempts were also made on Reagan and Ford (though Ford was not injured). Didn’t most of us boomers feel a kind of numbness? I mean who needs an AK-47?
At sixty-five my energy has diminished. I can’t imagine the reduced level of energy that I will have at eighty. Biden did the right thing in withdrawing from the race. I’ve read criticisms of Vice President Harris. But she stands with women, LGBTQ, and people of color. Given her role as Vice President I admire how she criticized Netanyahu after her recent meeting. I am supporting her, in part, because I see her as the right person at a pivotal moment in our country’s history. Her selection of Governor Tim Walz as her running mate adds to the excitement.
Given Trump’s recent (ongoing really) racist remarks I think he sees this moment of change as well. His running for President is rooted largely in racism (and his own mental illness). Trump’s (electoral college) victory over Hillary Clinton was in large part the blowback from white men fearing for their future following Obama’s two terms. The Brookings Institution has predicted that in the US whites will be a minority by 2045. This means a multi-racial America. I remember my father telling me that he thought that racism might go away when everybody intermarried. I had no idea what he was talking about. He was more prescient than I gave him credit for. Kamala Harris represents the future in that she understands the white male hegemony and she also understands our country moving away from it. If she loses the election the change will happen anyway, it just means that a lot more people will get hurt. I want the change she represents.
Further reading
The US will become ‘minority white’ in 2045, Census projects
