There’s a million ways to laugh

Mid-week Special: Kamala Harris's campaign represents a new day in America

Well, that changes everything.

I’m among those who feel excited and encouraged by the announcement of Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign for president. Overnight, she reignited our hope for a brighter future of prosperity and freedom for everyone, unblighted by the institutional bigotry, conspiracy-filled paranoia and grievance-driven lies that threaten to win control of our country in November.

She’s energetic and optimistic and quite accomplished, having been attorney general of California, a U.S. senator and vice president. She brings her leadership skills, her support for progressive values and her fearlessness. She’s also never been convicted of fraud or sexual assault, like the Republican front-runner. She has, instead, sent people like that to prison.

If we put enthusiasm in monetary terms, Harris raised a record $81 million in 24 hours, or $126 million in three days, more than former president and convicted felon Donald Trump raised in the entire month of June. As far as we know, none of that is going to legal defense.

If we put it in emotional terms, I don’t know how many people have expressed to me their sense of relief that Democrats now have a candidate whose likelihood of beating Trump is solid. Just ask former UN ambassador Nikki Haley. Harris is already leading Trump in polls — though let’s be cautious, polls are not always accurate.

I’m also incredibly grateful to President Joe Biden for the strong guidance he’s provided for four years. Many of us were angered when prominent figures urged Biden to drop out. But now, that act of self-sacrifice — one we could never imagine Trump performing — defines his character and love of country even more. He will go down in history as one of our greatest and most consequential presidents.

A campaign would have taken a terrible toll on an already weakened Biden, as my friend Terri Kirby Erickson reminded me earlier this week: “It is better for his health,” she said. “I have been worried about him as a person.”

I was selfishly worried about myself and my friends. But I wouldn’t want Biden to die on my behalf. I want him to live and continue to contribute to our well being for a good long time.

As Harris begins her campaign, I’m already sick of the question “Can a Black woman win?” The real question should be whether a convicted fraudster and sex offender, an elderly man whose speech is incoherent and whose thoughts are chaotic and ugly, who praises dictators, alienates allies and instigated a coup against the United States government, is fit to lead our nation. If you ask Republicans, the answer seems to be yes.

But if you still wonder, ask Oprah Winfrey. Ask Michelle Obama and Beyonce what Black women can win. Ask the many Black women in our community who run businesses, keep their families together and hold down positions of authority. Harris can win if she gets enough votes. That’s up to us.

“A lot of Democrats feel they have to stick with her because of her ethnic background,” Rep. Glenn Grothman said in a TV interview last week.

I can see why he’d think that, considering all the supporters who stick with Trump because of his ethnic background.

I admit, I like the poetry of a Black woman defeating someone as racist and sexist as Trump.

But the important things are Harris’s character and qualifications, as well as the sheer joy that she brings to her campaign.

Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett was among the first prominent Republicans to refer to Harris as a “DEI hire,” which, yes, is the new N-word. Any Black person, no matter how qualified, is a DEI hire to them, never equal to a white Christian male.

You may recognize Burchett’s name. Following the Covenant school shooting in Nashville last year, he declared on national TV, of the problem of school shootings, “we’re not gonna fix it.” It was beyond Washington’s ability, he said.

America: The Can’t Do Nation.

He was also in the news last week describing then-Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle as a “DEI failure” (he seems to like the term) because she didn’t single-handedly prevent the assassination attempt on Trump.

So some white guy shoots at Trump with a rifle the Republicans put in his hands, but Burchett finds a way to blame it on a woman. Sounds about right.

They’re going to throw everything in the book at Harris — every lie, allegation, slur, ugly racist meme, every “go back where you came from,” “you should be in the kitchen” “you slept your way to the top” “you’re not Black enough” insult that crosses their filthy minds. Including Fox News pundit Sean Hannity’s complaint about the way she laughs.

There’s a fight ahead and we don’t know how it will turn out. It’s not a done deal.

But I suspect she’s going to laugh all the way to the White House.

At her first campaign appearance outside Milwaukee on Tuesday, she said: “Ultimately in this election we each face a question: What kind of country do we want to live in? Do we want to live in a country of freedom, compassion and rule of law, or a country of chaos, fear and hate?"

"We each have the power to answer that question," she added. "The power is with the people."

That’s a far cry from Trump’s “I am the only one who can save this nation.”

I’ll go with Kamala Harris. I’ll take the nation of freedom and compassion. The one in which we have the power.

…..

Overflow:

Let’s get straight to Harris’s qualifications and accomplishments:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/vp-kamala-harris-accomplishments-reecie-100000801.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

https://thegrio.com/2024/07/24/i-have-known-kamala-for-years-and-shes-always-been-an-inspiration/

Harris kicks off her campaign:

In January, former UN ambassador Nikki Haley said, "Most Americans do not want a rematch between Biden and Trump. The first party to retire its 80-year-old candidate is going to be the party that wins this election."

I won’t argue with her.

To the online challenge to explain why Harris deserves support “without mentioning her race or gender,” Bloomberg columnist Matthew Yglesias replied, “I’m voting for Kamala Harris to protect abortion rights, low-income people’s access to health care, and the long-term viability of Social Security & Medicare and because I think Donald Trump’s vision of higher deficits, higher tariffs, and a smaller workforce is bad.”

To the challenge to express support for Harris without mentioning Trump, I’d say, “Why? Saving us from disaster is reason enough.”

I might also refer to Project 2025, the Christian nationalist campaign tied to Trump to destroy America’s social safety net and protective environmental infrastructure and turn the nation into an authoritarian, theocratic hellscape.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c977njnvq2do

Harris’s support in monetary terms:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/kamala-harris-campaign-maps-path-091345634.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

Burchett and his “DEI hires”:

https://www.aol.com/rep-tim-burchett-slams-secret-145624360.html

Burchett was outraged that someone took a shot at “the next president of the United States,” he said last week, which seems presumptuous, but he is campaigning.

He wasn’t that upset when a shooter killed children in his own state:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/tennessee-rep-burchett-says-school-shootings-re-not-gonna-fix-rcna77185

Republican legislators are being warned that Americans still dislike overt racism:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/elected-republicans-start-back-off-171932539.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

Sean Hannity doesn’t like the way Harris laughs, which certainly disqualifies her:

https://news.yahoo.com/news/sean-hannity-adversaries-snub-kamala-030453368.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

Republican Sen. Tom Cotton is going with “coup,” though he doesn’t seem to understand what it means. Words are hard.

The story of the near-firing of Brent Leatherwood, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, for being a decent person is worth reading:

The Christian-Nationalist Rot Runs Deep

A happy song for a happy campaign:

Don’t forget: Press 53 publisher Kevin Watson and I are leading an ice cream caravan at 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 10, to the iconic Ben’s Ice Cream in Eagle Springs, NC. More details here.

If you can’t get ice cream with us, you can still buy a copy of my book, available from my friends at Bookmarks, the Book Ferret, the Central Library or directly from the publisher, Press 53. I’ll bring one to your house if you let me pet your dog.

If you’re not yet a subscriber, you can have my essays delivered to your inbox on Sundays (and occasionally other times) and you can do so for free or for a small fee; it’s entirely up to you and I’m not keeping score.

Thanks for being here today, friends. Things are looking up, aren’t they?