If elected, Vice President Harris would be the first woman—a Black South Asian American—to become the President of the United States.
ByRafi Khan | September 2024
Vice-President Kamala Harris, married to lawyer Doug Emhoff, is not the first woman to aspire to move into the coveted Oval Office. She is not even the second. The second, some might be surprised, was Mrs Hillary Clinton.
The first woman to dare was Ms Victoria Woodhull, just a few years back, in 1872.
So, the United States of America is one of those countries where men have always been presidents since its creation on 4th July 1776. And as we find people in ordinary life, most were good, some outstanding, perhaps some bad; and one was, and who could be the next President, is Donald Trump.
On paper, it looks like a no-brainer: who should win the next presidential election in the most powerful democracy in the world: A former prosecutor vs a felon? But life is not that simple in the United States. In the land of opportunities, anything is possible, even a run for the office of the President of the country, as long as one was born there. Happy to state that it could never happen here in the United Kingdom. Henry Kissinger once said when he was regularly in the news, “I know I cannot become a President (for not being born in the United States), but I could become an emperor.”
Kamala Harris’s outstanding mother, Mrs Shyama Gopalan Harris, graduated from Delhi University. As a 19-year-old, she left India to study at the University of California, Berkeley, where she went on to receive her doctorate in nutrition and endocrinology. She married Donald J Harris in 1963.
In her 2019 autobiography, The Truths We Hold, Kamala Harris wrote, “From both of my grandparents, my mother developed a keen political consciousness. She was conscious of history, conscious of struggle, conscious of inequities. She was born with a sense of justice imprinted on her soul.”
Elsewhere, she writes, “My mother was very intentional about raising my sister, Maya, and me as strong, Black women. …. exposed to extraordinary people like Shirley Chisholm, Nina Simone, and Maya Angelou, who helped us show what we could become.” Yet Mr Trump claims that she was projecting herself as an Indian all along, and now she has become Black [to get votes from Black people]. President Donald J Trump, when he speaks about an opponent, his propensity to comment on the person’s difference, physical attributes, manner of speech, etc., rather than making proper civil arguments against their policies or stand regarding relevant issues. He often impolitely differentiates, ridicules, and states what his campaign team introduced for his first campaign: alternative facts.
In her acceptance speech for the Democratic Vice Presidential nomination in 2020, Ms Harris said, “And let’s be clear—there is no vaccine for racism. We have got to do the work.” Ironically, President Trump was not very enthusiastic about the vaccine during COVID-19.
If elected, Vice President Harris would be the first woman—a Black South Asian American—to become the President of the United States.
Something that people of all religions or beliefs, especially Muslims, may realize is that a change of President of the United States of America does not mean that it would be a significant tilt or support from one society to another. Whoever takes the charge would follow the foreign policy of their country: the United States of America. If there were a change, it would be subtle and never drastic. For example, Israel will always be a special friend if recent history is something to go by. Vice-President Harris would naturally work in the best interest of the United States. And incidentally, she does not have to make America great again. It wasn’t necessarily un-great before her esteemed opponent took over.
Whatever she says, how she says it, and what she intends to do in terms of policy and promise, if things go according to plan, then she will not just stay on the horizon; she will rise above, shine, and even become a great president.
If things go according to plan, she will not just stay on the horizon; she will rise above, shine, and even become a great president.
If not the most, at least a major decision, which sometimes could even affect the whole campaign, is the choice of the Vice President. Her choice of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate turned out to be a worthwhile decision. However, when she rang Governor Walz to tell him, he did not answer the phone, thinking it was a prank call. How charming!
Some people, hopefully fewer, have reservations that Vice President Harris would also become the Commander-in-Chief of the country’s armed forces by becoming the President of the United States of America. This means taking charge of an arsenal which, if used, could destroy, if not the entire, then certainly a significant part of the world. Paradoxically, those doubters are also concerned that, God forbid, she would be strong [stable] enough to use it if the time comes. Let’s not go there. Let’s not allow the perpetrators of doom and gloom to darken our days.
As Time magazine marks, ‘Harris has pulled off the swiftest vibe shift in modern political history….Harris smashed fundraising records, raking in $310 million in July…Harris became a political phenomenon over a few weeks in late July and early August.” To quote Ms Harris herself, “Our campaign is not just a fight against Donald Trump…Our campaign is a fight for the future.”
Some of Vice-President Harris’s promises or targets are reproductive freedom, lowering the cost of living, banning supermarket price fixing, and ending the shortage of affordable housing. Three million houses are expected to be made by the end of the first term. Medical debt would not have any adverse effect on credit scores. Handing out $6000 per child for the first year, with no taxes on tips for hospitality and relevant workers, and equal support for the lower and the middle classes. Unlike her supporters, who claim President Trump would make the rich richer.
Her challenges would certainly be US-China relations and the war in Ukraine. While supporting the humanitarian issues in Gaza, she may lose some pro-Israel votes. She may have to face and neutralise any negative aspects or outcomes of the Biden administration, including inflation and border security.
To conclude, when this issue was printed, ABC News, Washington Post, and Ipsos polls indicated that among those registered to vote, Harris and Gov. Tim Walz were leading Trump and Sen. JD Vance by 49%-45%.
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