Kamala Harris, In Perspective

The best of history, up against the worst

Picture the United States, the whole thing. What do you see? What does it look like? What does it feel like?

Zoom in closer. What do you see in your part of the country? What are you feeling as we’re in the height of this very American voting season? To me, it all seems momentous and disastrous, uniquely chaotic and messed up for our time.

Now zoom out. Span the lens back.

Look at those oh-so-revered early days of the government. Those presidents that loom large in our legends, like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt. Look at those blurry figures that fall between the cracks. See the plantation owners, the powdered and wigged gentlemen, the railroad tycoons, and the robber barons. Take them off their pedestals and look at where we’ve come from. 

Washington, for all his merits, was an elite slave-owner who fully revered and ascribed to aristocratic societies. John Adams passed the Sedition Act, which said that anyone who spoke bad about the President could be put in prison, and he jailed journalists. Jefferson said that the constitution and all laws should have a time limit, he believed that the country should be renewed every now and then with bloody battles, and he was notoriously bad with money.

James Monroe authored a powerful doctrine that advocated for invading and taking over other countries. John Quincy Adams shadily bargained his way into the presidency in a contested election. Andrew Jackson expanded his power indiscriminately, ignored a Supreme Court ruling against him, and incited racist, genocidal removals of Native people from their homelands.

James Buchanan made sketchy deals with the Supreme Court to back his position on the constitutionality of slavery. Andrew Johnson used his brief and limited power to take away resources and rights from newly freed former slaves. Rutherford B. Hayes took the presidency in a corrupt deal that abandoned efforts to support Black citizens and turned a blind eye to Jim Crow laws. 

Chester Arthur fell into the presidency as a representative of corrupt machine politicians. Theodore Roosevelt spoke vehemently against women in the workplace, and advocated strongly for them staying in the home and bearing as many children as possible. Woodrow Wilson was very proactively racist, and segregated the federal government.

Warren G. Harding is scandal ridden, from his corrupt ties with oil businesses to deregulation and breaking up unions to his illicit affair in a White House closet. Calvin Coolidge was a eugenicist. FDR interned Japanese Americans in military camps. 

Harry Truman unnecessarily used nuclear bombs to show his power and legitimacy. We all know about Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal. Notably, he also kept an enemy’s list, was paranoid about people being out to get him, and was vocally anti semitic. Ronald Reagan used his Hollywood prowess to blatantly pander to racists and to sell his neoliberal capitalism as trickle down economics to the American public. 

And now we’re getting into more familiar, close-to-home territory. Whew. What a whirlwind. For me, this kind of puts the reverence of historic American presidents into perspective. 

Let’s now shift the focus to how we, as a country, overcame the shortcomings of our leaders and rejected problematic presidents.    

In that zoomed out perspective, notice the undercurrents, people fighting for freedom and human rights, battling corruption and inequality. See the achievements that in their times felt like a long-shot but now seem like inevitable outcomes: the end of slavery, Civil Rights, anti-corruption regulations, unions and workers rights, women’s right to vote, reproductive freedom, environmental protections, national parks, health care, equal marriage and LGBTQ rights, to name only a few. 

Now put the long and short views together. What do you see? 

I see something a bit different than I did in that original close-up snapshot. I see the rights to live free from mass shootings, to universal healthcare, and to make reproductive decisions for oneself as the next no-brainers for our society. 

I see the vast inequalities plateauing, and billionaires facing temporary hardship to restore long-term prosperity for the country.

I see a reckoning for Donald Trump.   

Uniquely disturbed as he is, he is nothing new. His out-of-control egotism and chaotic oppression has been done and has failed miserably time and time again. The outrage he taps into is dusty, crumbling, and weak with perpetual rejection. 

But the energy and power of those fighting for ideals of equality and freedom is growing, strengthened with hard-won victories and invigorated with new righteous fights. When the Vice President says “we’re not going back,” I hear that it’s not possible for us to go back. We are too strong. Our momentum is pushing us forward, just like that wonderful blue wave we keep talking about. 

This election is special, but not because of Trump’s awfulness. We’ve seen that before. Voting this week is notable and pivotal and magical because of Kamala Harris. In this country, she is the only thing phenomenal, the only one worth talking about. And from where I stand, America is ready for her to win. 

With love and hope for the future,

Stephanie