At the conclusion of the Democratic Convention, the formal nomination of Joe Biden as candidate for the Presidency, with Kamala Harris as his running mate, has left immense enthusiasm among the party and independents before this ticket.
Firstly, let’s start with Biden’s speech, at the close of the convention; without a doubt, it was his best moment in a long political career. He masterfully combined the empathy that the moment demands, with the basic proposals of his presidency. And, additionally, he created an impressive contrast to his opponent (without mentioning him). Biden outlined a powerful and hopeful idea in these times of crisis and pandemic: we will rise up, by listening and complying with the best experts, to focus all government resources on overcoming the current situation, but the crisis offers us a great opportunity to build again. And build back better.
This is one of the keys to his proposals. Retake the basic promise of the American dream, now reinforced with the inclusion of diversity that has made the country strong. It is about recovering the leadership of the United States in the world, based on the democratic values that have made this country great; in the defense of human rights and multilateralism; in working together with the proven alliances of the United States in the world. But to build back better, Biden prioritizes climate change. Hence, his proposal to get out of this crisis involves committing the investments, coordination and incentives necessary for the economic and energy transition, in order to achieve environmental sustainability.
Another aspect that the four-day convention highlighted is the unity of the party, but even more so, the impressive coalition that Joe Biden has formed from the center, ranging from figures like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, to Republicans led by the popular ex-governor of Ohio, John Kasich and General Colin Powell, as well as figures of the American business world, like Michael Bloomberg. A political coalition of this scope is only possible with proposals that, by taking into account the priorities of all sectors, is capable of assembling, in a combination of principles and pragmatism, a list of public policies that appeal to reasonableness, understanding what is necessary, prioritized and possible.
The Biden mark in politics is associated with his empathy and his ability to build consensus and coalitions. At the convention, that was proven.
This admirable and diverse coincidence is possible because of the sense of urgency that the United States is living through. Urgency given the magnitude and impacts of a pandemic that Trump aggravated by his terrible handling. Let’s put it in the eloquent words of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo: Trump first denied the problem existed, then he hesitated on approaching it, because his previous opinions placed him politically before the difficulty of accepting the recommendations of experts, also creating a whole sea of contradictions, marches and countermarches, with terrible blind spots in the execution of the economic measures necessary to mitigate the impacts of the health crisis; and finally, it politicized the problem. This behavior, between denial, hesitation and politicization clearly explains its failure. More than 175 thousand deaths, more than 5 million infections, 30 states still in a critical phase, lack of coordinated responses at the national level and a deep economic recession that has highlighted the prevailing inequities in American society.
But there is also a constitutional urgency. As former President Barack Obama clearly addressed, in a speech to the country (as the virtual convention turned into greatly televised content), Trump is a manifestation of contemporary neo-authoritarian populist extremism. His systematic attacks on the free press are accompanied by the dismissal of five inspectors general (comptrollers of his administration), without reporting just cause to Congress; dozens of dismissals and interference in the work of the justice department; grotesque abuses of power, which even led to impeachment; racial tensions due to regressions on civil rights; undermining and withdrawal of strategic international commitments for planetary security; violation of human rights with the separation of families and the imprisonment (or rather caging) of children, even babies, separated from their mothers in the middle of asylum application; and trade tensions with the country’s main economic partners, which have created distortions affecting, among others, the vital US agricultural sector. And to overcome this climate of institutional undermining and social division (which has ended in episodes of violence, inspired by his rhetoric, as happened in Charlottesville or El Paso), Trump has launched an unprecedented campaign against the people’s trust in the system, questioning, without support, the mechanism of voting by mail, which will undoubtedly be preferred by many, in the midst of the public health crisis and in a context, by the way, in which all the polls indicate that his re-election is an uphill battle.
That sense of urgency, embodied in Barack Obama’s speech, had its counterpart in the fabulous appeal of his wife, Michelle Obama, who called for the exercise of the right to vote on a massive scale and for unity around Joe Biden, as a democratic imperative.
To culminate, the figure of Kamala Harris on the way to the Vice Presidency. Her refreshing and charismatic presence, her display of talent and eloquence, when addressing the great issues of national interest in her speech, but above all, the symbolic nature of her profile constitutes a value of certainty in turbulent times. The daughter of immigrants with roots in the African American community, the Caribbean and India, she has become a true inspiration to consolidate and expand the base of support for Joe Biden. In fact, opinion polls by Latino Decisions, a prestigious American pollster, indicate that the appointment of Kamala Harris produced an increase and greater enthusiasm in the Latino community to vote for Joe Biden.
This is how the political landscape stands after the first virtual political convention, in the middle of a pandemic, in the history of the United States. Undoubtedly, the social forces that aspire to a change of course in the face of the follies and risks of the Trump presidency, found a reference and hopeful response in the Democratic Convention and the Biden-Harris formula, which looks unbeatable.