Run Like a Girl 2.0

07/24/2024

In 2016, the Democratic candidate for president was none other than our 42^nd president’s wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton. The first viable female candidate in history to run for the presidency was running against the man who had just finished 14 seasons of a reality show. Clinton, a graduate of Yale with a law degree, who had served as first lady as well as first lady of Arkansas, also served as senator of New York, Secretary of State in the Obama administration, received various awards and honorary degrees, was a seasoned and articulate politician who, had she won the election, would have served our country well. Instead, the country chose a man who lived in a penthouse made of gold who never worked a day of his life. The next four years were a cacophony of divisiveness, lies, chaos, bad legislation, 3 bad Supreme Court picks, constant insulting tweets that culminated in a refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election…which he lost. Trump left the country with a bad feeling. It felt like we had been violated and were forced to put up with it. What a sigh of relief when he finally left the White House! It was a moment many of us had dreamed of. Now we could rid ourselves of the nightmare that we lived with for more than four years. Now we could move on!

But the menace that is Trump never fully went away. Like a cockroach that thrusts itself through the tiny cracks of a door, he continued to nudge his way back into the news. Whether it was his insistence that he did indeed win the election, or by making statements through his new social media site Truth Social, the man just wouldn’t go away. Then towards the end of 2022, the moment we dreaded but secretly hoped would never come to fruition, Trump announced that he would run again in 2024. We had just gotten the stench of Trump off us, why would he come back and soil us a second time? Biden had made some good changes and passed some good legislation. Inflation was hovering around a 3% from an all time high of 9%. Unemployment was at an all time low. So many good pieces of legislation had been passed like the Pact Act, the Chips and Science Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, the Infrastructure law, the lowering of prescription drug prices for seniors and student forgiveness. There wasn’t any drama or hate being spewed on social media by our current president. Biden was just calm seas compared to Trumps twisters. God knows we didn’t need that back. But the MAGA party that had now infiltrated the Republican party, reveled in that turmoil and welcomed it back.

After two years of more and more of Trump’s lies, hate speeches, Third Reich like rallies, and a group of cult like followers, so devoted to him that they’d claim that the sky was plaid if Trump told them it was, Trump had a lead in the polls. Partly from Biden’s disastrous debate performance but also from narrative being pushed about his age despite the cognitive issues Trump himself was having. The Dems were having talks behind the scenes with Biden pleading with him to step down. Prominent Democratic Congressmen, Senators and Governors were publicly calling for him to hand the torch to someone younger. It took a few weeks and a fair amount of coaxing. I felt bad for Joe. I really liked him. I hated the ageism that I read on a daily. I believed that he was a good president and that Trump and the Republicans would burn in the trenches of the underworld of Hades for the disgusting rhetoric they had spewed. So, with a heavy heart, Biden announced that he wouldn’t seek re-election. And endorsed his Vice President, Kamala Harris.

Hold the presses! Kamala Devi Harris? Fifty-nine-year-old, half Jamaican, half Indian, former attorney general of California, first female American Vice President, Kamala Harris? As I had contemplated replacements for Joe, the most obvious choice never occurred to me. Why wouldn’t President Biden endorse his VP? She has served in his administration along side him, was an intelligent, capable, strong woman who believed in women’s rights and everything that I, and the left wing felt so fiercely about. The contributions that had been made to the Biden/Harris campaign could be transferred over to Harris. She could take the reigns and start her own new, fresh campaign. Ready to energize a party that came close to being defeated. This could work.

And work it did. Super Pac Future Forward announced $150 million in commitments within 24 of Biden’s announcement that he was stepping down. Less than 48 hours after Harris announced her candidacy, she raised $100 million. People were feeling good. Fired up and were opening their wallets. Still, she didn’t necessarily have the delegates to be nominated – she needed 300 after all. No worries. By the end of the second day of her announcement, she had almost 2,000. My girl was in!

Yesterday, as portions of her first campaign rally were broadcast all over the media, I couldn’t help but see what a stark contrast it was to a typical Trump rally. Harris was smiling. She looked happy to be speaking to the crowd. She spoke of going forward. Making good and positive changes FOR the people. She emphasized her background as a District Attorney and how she’d prosecuted sexual predators, felons and cheaters (wink, wink Trump!) The crowd roared. They cheered her on. Kamala looked full of positive energy. I couldn’t help but think of the words to a Sam Cooke song that have always sounded so powerful and now seem so apropos. After the darkness of Trump, the threat of Project 2025 and danger of turning the country into a Christo-fascist Handmaid’s Tale, I see a change.

There been times that I thought
I couldn't last for long
But now, I think I'm able
To carry on

It's been a long
A long time coming, but I know
A change gon' come
Oh yes, it will