A Sigh of Relief

I noticed two major reactions in my (carefully curated) social media after President Biden decided not to run for re-election and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president.

Mine – and the most common one – was a sense of relief and a bit of hope.

We are visiting Seattle, and I overheard someone discussing Biden’s decision at the Ballard Farmers Market (an overwhelming place, though full of good food). I checked the news before I shared the information with my partner and our friends.

As the day went on and I saw people – including prominent Democrats – quickly chiming in to support Harris, I felt my stomach unclench and my feelings of doom recede. It has always seemed to me that she could bring the strong presence and fight we need in this race, so long as she got support.

On Monday morning, for the first time in weeks, I didn’t wake up panicking about the felon nominated by the Republicans getting back in office.

The other reaction among people I know is the not unreasonable fear that misogyny and racism can still prevail. Too many women (in particular) are still reeling from 2016 and misogynoir is a very real thing.

There’s no question that things are going to get ugly.

But it’s also good news that the felonious con man and his minions were caught off guard by this. I’m sure they’ll get more sophisticated with their attacks, but right now it’s just bog standard nastiness.

From what I can tell, Biden handled this brilliantly. He announced just after the Republican convention ended, taking away their advantage. And apparently they were not ready for such an announcement, perhaps because their dear leader can’t imagine someone willingly giving up power.

After the drip, drip, drip of ageist bullshit (I’ve never met the president, so I don’t know anything about his health, but given that no one was doing the same thing with the equally old Republican nominee who rambles incoherently and is known to lie about his health, I am skeptical of the claims), the great strategy came as a relief. The pundits’ dream of an open and chaotic convention would be a disaster.

And no, such a convention would not be more “democratic.” I remember when conventions were actually contested and even as a teenager – OK, a nerdy teenager who watched conventions – I knew that everything happened in the smoke-filled rooms.

It would be delicious to defeat the white supremacist misogynist with a Black woman who is also the child of immigrants to the U.S. That would signal a sea change even more than electing President Obama did.

But most importantly, it would ensure we continue to have a competent person in charge of the country, which is still the most powerful nation in the world, at a time of major disruptions, including the growing disasters from climate change and the efforts of right wing extremists and wealthy oligarchs (including many in the U.S.) to overturn democracies.

It’s not just the U.S. at risk here. The world cannot afford for this country to elect people who are in league with Putin and other authoritarian governments.

And we also cannot afford to lose the rule of law – something that is in serious danger after the recent partisan decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court – nor can we afford to lose the strides we’ve made against misogyny and racism.

Now I’m not one to say that electing a decent Democrat is the only thing we need to do. My attitude is that it is the least we need to do, that the specter of fascism is very real and will make it impossible to address climate change, wealth inequality, racism, and misogyny. If we allow the felon back into office, we are stuck with fighting fascism and will be unable to do much meaningful work on those other extremely important and very interrelated issues.

We’ve spent too many years just pushing back against those out to destroy the rights that our ancestors worked so hard to get. We cannot expand those rights while we’re busy trying to keep the ones still there from being wiped out. The destruction of the Voting Rights Act and the Dobbs ruling make that clear.

Nor can we deal with climate change if all we can hope for is to keep the EPA doing something.

I don’t expect a President Harris to significantly change U.S. foreign policy, which I think is good in the case of Ukraine and bad in the case of Israel and Gaza (Israel being another example of a state vastly damaged by an authoritarian leader staying in power to stay out of jail).

I don’t even expect her to address climate change or wealth inequality to the extent she should. (I have more hope on abortion rights.)

What I do expect is that those of us who want much more out of this country will be able to push for those changes with such a government.

And we’ll be able to focus more attention on our local issues – the needs of the unhoused, just to give one example – if we’re not constantly struggling on the national front. California may look like a liberal paradise if you’re in one of the more abusive red states – Texas, for example – but we’ve got real problems that need a lot of work.

I’d rather concentrate on protecting our local district attorney from a right-wing recall effort than spend a lot of time on national elections. And I’d really rather put my energy into developing better housing systems.

I still have one big concern about this election: I think the potential for violence during the next few months is much higher now than it was. And assuming that she wins – and I have to assume that to sleep at night – we will be faced with much more violence.

It won’t just be the easily influenced loners with guns like the guy who shot at the felon (and killed someone else). It will be the people behind the January 6 insurrection, and not just the ones who stormed the building.

So I still worry. But at least I’m not worrying that we’re not in the fight.