By Rudy Barnes, Jr.
When President Biden stepped aside to allow the Democratic Party to choose a new Presidential nominee, he opened the door to ending the evil of polarized partisan politics. It’s probably safe to assume that Kamala Harris will be the Democratic nominee, and she can appeal to most Americans who are political moderates with no strong partisan preference.
Even if Harris doesn’t win, she will lead the loyal opposition in Congress, and can set the stage for America’s political future. The question is what kind of image will the media create for Harris by November 5? As a nonpartisan OWG (old white guy) who has voted for candidates from both parties over the years, I believe that this year voters can elect a moderate President.
For those who are skeptical of a moderate coming out of California, remember Ronald Reagan. A conservative doesn’t have to be a nasty partisan to be elected President. This year voters need to ignore partisan rhetoric and lies and restore honesty and decency in their politics. Political unity is nonpartisan. Advocating unity in partisan politics is a form of deceit.
Early polls show Harris may be doing better against Trump than Biden, but it’s too early to make predictions. We can expect that Trump and Vance will disparage Harris with partisan hatred and lies. In 2021 J. D. Vance asserted the “Democratic Party is controlled by people without children,” and called Harris a “childless cat lady in the Democratic Party.”
America should not allow nasty partisan rhetoric, hatred and lies to corrupt what’s left of decency and honesty in American democracy. Voters will continue to determine the future of its democracy, correcting misplaced partisan loyalty created by polarized partisan politics by putting the common good ahead of party loyalty to restore the health of our sick democracy.
This isn’t the first time that the common good has been compromised by polarized partisan politics. The current iteration of partisan hatred began with Trump’s campaign in 2016, but America has seen other failures of its democracy based on major issues like slavery or the economy. But each time America regained its political balance, as I expect it will again this time.
What makes partisan polarization especially problematic is when it’s based on a conflict between unprincipled personalities rather than on major political issues. Trump’s demagoguery opposes libertarian democracy itself, much like Netanyahu has promoted nationalist Zionism that has violated international law, freedom, and democracy to promote his political power.
Biden had a long and otherwise honorable political career before he supported Netanyahu’s war crimes that have killed more than 39,000 Palestinian noncombatants in Gaza in violation of international humanitarian law. Those war crimes have isolated Israel from other nations, as evidenced by the muted response of Congress to Netanyahu’s recent visit to the U.S. Whoever becomes the Democratic nominee for President should remember that.
Notes:
On five faith facts about Kamala Harris’ diverse interfaith background, see https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2020/11/07/five-faith-facts-about-biden-vp-kamala-harris?utm.
On sexist and disparaging comments made by JD Vance against Kamala Harris going virile again, see Vance’s 2021 comments on “childless cat ladies’ like Kamala Harris going viral again. Vance said, Look at Kamala Harris. The entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children.” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/kamala-harris-jd-vance-childless-cat-lady-b2584852.html.
On J. D. Vance’s Strange Politics of Family. The Vice-Presidential candidate’s memoir reveals the roots of his ideas about parents, children, and who should run the country.
J. D. Vance dedicates his best-selling 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” to his grandparents, whom he calls Mamaw and Papaw. His grandmother was just thirteen years old when she became pregnant by her soon-to-be husband, who was sixteen, and they moved to Middletown, Ohio, to start their troubled adult lives. Vance emphasizes that the frequent violence between his Mamaw and Papaw was preferable to the similar chaos that characterized his childhood with his mother. One difference: his grandparents stayed married. That commitment, Jessica Winter shows, is the essence of Vance’s political platform, in which he laments the “childless left” [note that Jesus was “childless”], and posits that universal day care is a kind of class warfare “against normal people,” and opposes abortion. For the Republican Vice-Presidential nominee, a woman’s place is at home, having babies with her husband, no matter how fallible that man may be. “It is clear, on a primal, emotional level, why Vance sees this as the better deal than what he got,” Winter notes. “But what results is a blinkered, grotesquely narcissistic vision of the social contract—an identity politics of one grown child.” See https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/j-d-vances-sad-strange-politics-of-family?utm_
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