I’m with Kamala

Mere minutes after President Joe Biden announced his departure from the presidential race, I got my first misogynistic, racist message from a Trump supporter. I won’t dignify his disgusting comment by quoting him, but will say that I immediately reported him, and had the satisfaction of watching Facebook remove the offending remark and banish him from the platform.

I was surprised by the immediate vehemence of the remark, and it suddenly occurred to me that its force was proportional to Donald Trump’s fear. Trump is about to face his biggest nightmare, the thing that will keep him awake at night between now and November, or while Don Jr is making a speech for that matter. Donald Trump is terrified, and his drooling idolaters are unconsciously reflecting that terror.

Trump must now face the one thing he hates and fears most, a smart woman. A woman who has prosecuted rapists and sexual predators, scam colleges and big banks. A woman who can take stairs two at a time. And, above all, a black woman.

Trump’s first reaction was to announce that Harris will be easier to beat than Biden. But does he actually believe it? One GOP source suggests that Trump is already formulating an excuse to avoid debating her, claiming that she isn’t a “legitimate” candidate. Whatever he decides to do, he can’t possibly win. If he dodges her, any excuse will look like cowardice. If he debates her, Kamala Harris will destroy him, and he knows it.

But above all, the “too old to be president” narrative is exclusively and suddenly ours. The 2024 election would have been recalled as the squaring off of two elderly opponents. No more. The age card has turned, and Donald Trump is alone in carrying it. We no longer have to proclaim, however true it was, that our old guy is better than their old guy. We don’t have an old guy. We have a relatively young woman at the height of her powers.

When Biden announced his resignation from the race, I was deeply worried. At first. But then I thought about it. The very thing that the Republicans have been relentlessly banging on about is gone. They have lost the thing they have invested countless time and money in. They can no longer talk about the mental acuity of the opposition. They can no longer talk about cognitive impairment. In fact, any such talk is now deadly dangerous. In a masterstroke, Joe Biden has destroyed the one thing they hoped to campaign on. He voluntarily removed their only real target. Joe just stole their mojo.

What’s more, Kamala is going to attract women and minority votes as Biden never could. With Roe and women’s rights on the table, and Kamala being a woman of colour, and a whole lot of women bitter about Hillary’s popular win but electoral defeat, you can bet they will come out in November with a vengeance.

I have been miraculously renewed by all this. If you’d asked me a day ago if I thought we could win with Kamala Harris I would have told you no. Now I’m beginning to think we can’t lose. How is Trump going to compete with her? Trump already has enough verbal gaffes and rambling, incoherent word salad speeches to fill an old time epic movie. And he’s a known racist and progenitor of the death of a fifty year old Constitutional right to abortion. We can point this out relentlessly without fear of any reprisals in kind.

Indeed, Republicans are going to be in trouble no matter what they do. Open bigotry and anti-woman rhetoric won’t add a single vote to their ledger. Racists and misogynists were going to vote for Trump anyway. But attacks on Kamala Harris could be construed that way. So they will have to be very careful. They will have to stick to the issues, and since they have no issues, what’s left?

I want to add here that my admiration and love for Joe Biden remains undiminished. I think he was one of the greatest presidents in American history, and certainly the greatest in my lifetime. The minute he became the Democratic candidate I was and remained steadfastly in his corner.

That loyalty now shifts to his chosen successor. Moreover, Kamala Harris was an important part of Joe Biden’s successful administration, so she is not only legitimised by his impermatur, she shares the glory of his many achievements. I am unflinching in my support of Kamala, and I believe that with her we are going to win. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.