The choice by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden of Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate is relatively good news – in that his list of potential VP candidates was reportedly restricted to only women of color.
That the choice of Harris vexes the party's hard-left is also mildly reassuring.
And in the natural course of events – all things being equal – Harris is now best positioned to
be the first female president. Based on what we know about her at this stage -- America could do a lot worse.
Within the
parameters of Democratic Party attitudes, her positions on Israel are
mainstream, according
to the liberal-leaning JTA. That said, Biden's Big Tent campaign will include visceral anti-Israel personalities.
Given the COVID-19/public health crisis, and the economic and political upheaval confronting America, I can only
hope the next administration will cultivate its own garden rather than exhaust itself
trying to solve the intractable zero-sum Palestinian Arab conflict with Israel.
From my Jerusalem vantage point it looks as if Americans are too often presented with false political choices -- either Marjorie Taylor Greene, a reactionary QAnon enthusiast or Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar who exemplifies the smug, woke, anti-Israelism of the so-called progressive camp.
In the prescient words of Woody Allen:
“More than at any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to
despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we
have the wisdom to choose correctly.”
In a sense,
Biden’s choice of Harris could turn out to be a third way -- circumventing hopelessness and extinction.
That said if Biden-Harris win -- as I hope they do -- their administration will likely operate in
a toxic political environment which could be exponentially exacerbated if Donald Trump were to
unleash a birther-like campaign to deny the legitimacy of the 2020 elections.
Huge swaths of Americans are mobilized in opposing extremist camps.
The battle-ready masses (on both sides) are comprised to no small degree of many individuals who in the era before social media might have been kept entertained by more harmless pursuits (beer-guzzling or skateboarding) but are now fully empowered to run amok in angry crowds.
America’s
future does not look bright 85 days or so before its presidential elections.
I hope Americans can somehow repair their shredded political culture; that they can breathe new life into the Madisonian model of representative democracy – separation of powers, checks and balances, tolerance, civil liberties, respect for minority views, and opposition to the tyranny of the majority.
Whether Biden-Harris are up to the task is dubious. But it is left to them to make an effort.
