Optimism and honesty are back on the menu

HALIFAX–Watching the Democratic convention in Chicago, some numbers came to mind that are telling. The United States has been a Republic for 248 years. During that time, 45 people have been president—all male. Of those, 44 were white, and one Black. What is strange about that is that there are roughly 170 million women in the U.S. That represents approximately 51 per cent of the total population as of 2022. That percentage has held since 2013. Is the glass ceiling in America really bulletproof? Time will tell. But the total male monopoly over the top political office in the U.S. has not been the rule in many other mature democracies. Margaret Thatcher became the United Kingdom's prime minister in 1979, and governed for 11 years. Theresa May subsequently served as that nation's prime minister for three years. In 2005, Angela Merkel was elected chancellor of Germany, and served for 16 years. Golda Meir became Israel’s prime minister in 1969, and remained in office for five years. Indira Gandhi served twice as India’s prime minister over a cumulative 15 years until her tragic assassination in 1984. The first woman elected president of a country was Vigdís Finnbogadóttir in 1980. She governed Iceland for 16 years. The first elected female leader of a Muslim country was Benazir Bhutto who became Pakistan’s prime minister in 1988. Jacinda Ardern was New Zealand’s prime minister for five years, and, like Bhutto, had a child while in office. And here in Canada, Kim Campbell was prime minister for 132 days, though appointed, not elected. There are a lot of reasons that the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Ill., looks more like a Super Bowl party than a political gathering. One of them is excitement over the prospect of Kamala Harris becoming the first female president of the United States. Her prospects look surprisingly good, given her 11th-hour entry into the race. Thanks to her name on the top of the new ticket, Americans no longer have to endure the widely unpopular rematch between U.S. President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump this November. Instead of duelling octogenarians, voters now have a choice between a much younger and accomplished woman in Harris, and the last old guy standing in Trump. It is the difference between conviction and convictions. If Americans elect Harris, the country’s decade of darkness won’t automatically come to an end, but there will at least be light at the end of the tunnel. The great American writer Norman Mailer once observed that you can’t win in U.S. politics by vilifying America. Yet that is exactly how Trump became president in the first place, and how he plans to retake the White House in a few months' time. He has created a new political model: the blitzkrieg of bull. Trump routinely disparages America as a country in steep decline. A place run by crooks and incompetent elites. The laughing stock of the world. An economy in shambles. A swamp of crime and violence. A court system full of kangaroos. A sitting president presiding over his “crime family.” A fraudulent electoral system. None of his dystopian calumnies are true, but it is consistent with his infamous “American carnage” speech, which he delivered at his 2017 inauguration. Even on the day he was sworn in as president, he was bashing America. Much has changed since that rainy day in Washington, D.C., where the woman who got three million more votes than Trump in the 2016 election stood in silence until the 17-minute travesty of a speech ended. Trump faces criminal charges for trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election by unleashing a violent mob on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, while legislators, including his own vice-president, were certifying the results of the vote. Since his one-term presidency, which added a stunning US$8-trillion to the national debt, Trump has been found liable for sexual abuse against columnist E. Jean Carroll. He was also convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to Stormy Daniels. He is asking that his sentencing in that case, set for September, be delayed. Trump has a pat answer to his shameful public resume: it’s all a hoax, the Democrats are out to get him, and they’re doing it by weaponizing the justice system. Lawyer and Trump critic George Conway described that argument as the typical response of a self-centred sociopath: they are never in the wrong, and they are always the victim. The other part of Trump’s pitch is that only he can fix the train-wreck the Democrats have made of the country. He doesn’t want voters to believe in the Constitution, the justice system, the intelligence agencies, the Department of Eduction, the Federal Reserve, the military, and even the office of the presidency itself–unless he is the one occupying the Oval Office. In other words, Trump will do away with the so-called “administrative state," and replace it with a mendacious authoritarian who wants to get even with his detractors, and run the government as if it were his private company. After more than eight years of listening to Trump’s litany of fear and loathing, narcissistic nihilism, divisive racism, and ugly personal attacks, Americans suddenly have a chance to break the bully’s dark spell. One of the reasons for the jubilation at the Chicago convention, for the huge crowds the Democratic ticket has been drawing in battle-ground states, is that optimism and honesty are back on the menu in American politics. Harris and her running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, are talking up America. Suddenly, the glass is half full again in a country thirsty for hope. They are creating optimism where Trump has sown cynicism and division. And they are doing it by refuting Trump’s lies about immigrants, the economy, and of course, Harris herself. For his part, Trump is counting on what some observers have described as the latent misogyny that still plagues America. That’s why he continues to boast about being the man responsible for striking down Roe V. Wade and, with that retrograde decision, the right of American women to an abortion. And that’s why he has attacked Harris for her looks and her laugh. He even called her “dumb.” Yes, the woman who was attorney general of California and later a senator. And, oh yes, the vice-president of the United States. Dumb? Not bad for a college girl who worked at McDonald’s to make ends meet, while Trump was dining out on daddy’s millions. After 248 years of shutting women out of the White House, it’s past time to put a lady of distinction in charge of the United States. Michael Harris is an award-winning author and journalist. The Hill Times

Optimism and honesty are back on the menu

After 248 years of shutting women out of the White House, it’s past time to put a lady of distinction in charge of the United States.

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Optimism and honesty are back on the menu

After 248 years of shutting women out of the White House, it’s past time to put a lady of distinction in charge of the United States.

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