When Barack Obama was president of the United States, he didn't want to make his presidency about race, so he rarely addressed the issue of race unless he was forced to. When he was forced to, I thought he was very effective, but I was really never part of the problem so I probably can't speak for people who were.
In the case of Kamala Harris, she will be the first woman, the first person of (any) Asian descent. and a black person, so her areas of intrinsic difference (from Americans view of themselves) don't necessarily pigeonhole her and I think she has more room to address these issues.
Personally, I think it is long past time for the perspective of a woman to be reflected in the White House and it would be a great opportunity if she would embrace her gender rather than try not to let it separate her from previous presidents.
We are at an odd spot in our own history where women's rights are being diminished rather than expanded and women are at risk of being turned back into property as if we were headed back to the beginnings of the American project out of some misdirected and corrupting nostalgia. We certainly can't allow that to happen anymore than we can allow America to lose its character as a melting pot of people from everywhere. That piece of the American character is integral to its very existence, and what makes this nation stand out to the world. If we were to break it, we would be giving away our greatest strength. Not only would it be the most foolish thing we could possibly do for our own stability and safety, but it is the exact thing that our enemies drool over. The idea that they could break our character by allying with individuals inside America who don't love America.
That is Russia's goal, that is China's goal. They can't beat us from the outside, but if they can corrupt our relationships with one another, the relationships between fellow Americans, they think they can beat us from the inside. Earlier in my lifetime, I might have thought that was impossible, or at least extremely unlikely. Looking at what we've been willing to do to ourselves over the last couple decades my confidence and my faith in Americans ability to anticipate and redirect to face the future is badly shaken. Greed and self interest seem to be back in charge. Of course they never left, they will always be some part of nearly any community, but they don't have to be in charge, they don't have to be the driving interest. That is a choice.
This image always comes to mind when I'm thinking about what is the method that our enemies use most powerfully against us in terms of breaking the nature of our democracy and this image reflects it well. We have a choice. We always have a choice.
www.tradingview.com
www.theguardian.com
www.espn.com
www.rawstory.com
(getting illegal bribes from multiple foreign countries)
www.nydailynews.com
abcnews.go.com
newrepublic.com
www.hollywoodreporter.com
www.nbcnews.com
