With their eyes fixed on the future following the concert of praise congruous to outgoing President Joe Biden and the self-sacrifice he has shown for his party, American Democrats are celebrating this week in Chicago much more than a traditional passing of the torch to their new candidate, Kamala Harris. This time, the handover is not just generational. The renewed hope of a possible victory against a Republican Party infiltrated by ideologues blindly following their misogynistic candidate is also that of a historic all-female revenge.
Kamala Harris, who will officially accept her nomination as presidential candidate on Thursday, has not made her identity — as a woman, as a person of color, as the daughter of immigrants — a central theme of her campaign. But the activists, elected officials and politicians gathered at the Democratic National Convention did so for her, buoyed by the hope that that glass ceiling would finally be shattered. And that was thanks to a victory over a Republican candidate, former President Donald Trump, who had an unabashedly sexist discourse.
No one was better placed to set the stage than Hillary Clinton, the former presidential candidate and Secretary of State, who was the first to suffer Donald Trump’s invectives and attacks in 2016. The defeat was as close as it was bitter. The rival’s modus operandi is the same; the result may not be, however.
“We have kept our eyes fixed on the future. My friends, the future is here,” said Mr.me Clinton opened the convention on Monday in an impassioned speech calling on Democrats to work with Kamala Harris to break through the last cracks in the glass ceiling that she herself, over the decades and on the shoulders of her predecessors, has chipped away at.
“Hope is making a comeback,” former first lady Michelle Obama said Tuesday, denouncing Donald Trump’s “same old scam” of “outbidding with vile racist and sexist lies as a substitute for real ideas and solutions.”
This contempt for women, their reproductive health and their abilities that the Republican ticket cannot help but exhibit could indeed prove to be the best asset of the Democratic campaign. The forced withdrawal of Joe Biden and the entrance on the scene of Kamala Harris have undeniably given it a new lease of life, but since then, it is mainly the erratic remarks of Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, that continue to stir it up. Their entourage is even said to be worried about it.
The list of childish insults that Donald Trump has hurled at his opponent is long. Mme Harris is said to be “crazy,” “incompetent,” “not intelligent,” and the Republican candidate is jealous that she is on the cover of the magazine Timeeven said he was “more handsome” than her. He went so far as to question whether Kamala Harris could claim both Indian and black descent.
JD Vance didn’t help. By railing in a past interview about the fact that “childless cat ladies” feel they have a say in the fate of the United States. Or by acquiescing to the idea that postmenopausal women have no purpose other than to help raise children.
Candidate Trump went so far as to use artificial intelligence to doctor a photo of Taylor Swift and thus make it appear that she supports his candidacy, in order to manipulate the army of admirers of the star with feminist anthems in his favor. A week earlier, he accused (wrongly) Kamala Harris of having doctored the images of the crowds coming to meet him, an offense that should have earned her, herself, being “disqualified” from the presidential race.
Mr. Trump is not above making inconsistencies. And any excuse is good enough to cry “coup d’état” in order to falsely contest the election results again, if necessary.
Kamala Harris’ campaign has caught up with Donald Trump’s in the polls, but the two candidates are only nearly tied. With the honeymoon of the Democratic convention over, Mme Harris will have to work harder to make herself known, broaden her support beyond already convinced Democrats and clarify her political platform, some aspects of which have so far attracted mainly criticism.
The social climate in the United States, however, is no longer the same as it was eight years ago. The Republicans’ full-scale attacks on women, LGBTQ+ communities and minorities have made them angry. And a former prosecutor, in whom all these wronged people see themselves, is now facing a Donald Trump who has become a convicted felon.
Kamala Harris could well serve Hillary Clinton a revenge, as well as all those who refuse to see history repeat itself. However, there are 76 days left in this unprecedented campaign. The real work of the Democrats is only just beginning.