This US Presidential campaign felt like the longest campaign ever! It felt like it would never end. Whatever the outcome, history was going to be made.
America was either going to elect the first female President or– the first President to regain the Presidency after losing it since Grover Cleveland did that over a century ago.
Naturally, the reflections have started and there are some good, sober reflections. Before attempting a short reflection, let me gently set aside some myths. First, VP Kamala did not lose because of her gender or race. Hillary Clinton already earned a major party nomination and won the popular vote in 2016 against President Trump.
If she had taken Bill Clinton’s advice and visited a few out of the way cities in Wisconsin, Michigan etc, she would be handing over in January, next year. So Americans can elect a woman as President. And of course, they can elect a black too, as they did twice with Obama.
This, of course, raises the question of identity politics. Did blacks owe Kamala their votes because she was black? Did women owe her their votes because she was a woman? Do minorities owe liberals their votes? Was Biden right that, “If you ain’t for me, you ain’t black?”
There were other such myths. Democrats and their leaders seemed to believe that they could make Mr. Trump non-viable by reaching a certain number of charges and convictions a strategy derided by Republicans as “Lawfare”. Indeed, the VP launched her campaign around the slogan, “I am the Prosecutor and he is the felon”.
The Democrats seemed oblivious to the consensus on the streets that they were trying to beat Trump with the law instead of at the polls. On race, Republicans could count on black votes for a century after slavery and Democrats seem to assume they are entitled to black votes after the gains of civil rights for just as long. That is a mistaken view. As an eminent black physician in South Carolina, Dr. Gallman once told me, “Some skinfolk are not your kinfolk”.
While there are incredible black leaders like Jim Clyburn, some blacks will rightly vote for or trust whites like late Senators Kennedy or Strom Thurmond more than some blacks. And that same logic underlies why Trump got almost half the Hispanic vote and Biden outperformed Kamala amongst blacks. The entitlement messages from the Obamas were a turnoff to many blacks.
As John Kennedy loved to state, “Success has many fathers but failure is an orphan.” There is virtually no finger pointing in the Trump universe while the search for scapegoats is in full force in Kamalaland. How could she blow 2 billion USD against Trump and lose? Why did she focus on freedom instead of food/groceries? Why did she focus on Trump who was well-known–warts and all instead of on herself? Why did she put personalities ahead of policy? Why did she allow Trump, who was 2 decades older , to outhustle her?
And the biggest of them all– Why in God’s name did she pick Minesota’s Governor Waltz instead Pensylvania’s Governor Shapiro? Shapiro would almost certainly have helped win Pensylvania and brought on board Jews and moderates! And compared to Waltz, Trump’s choice of Vance, in retrospect seems masterful. Vance was an unflappable articulate advocate who made you want to flip the ticket while Waltz was– Waltz! Of course, Trump too made mistakes, including “they are eating the cats”, unnecessary insults and the poor debate prep.
But he got the policies right and hammered home the fundamental question of this election–“Are you better off than you were 4 years ago?” The answer of course, was “No”. And he had cottails too. Maybe, finally, we have come to MLK’s aspiration that “my four little children” and all of us, ” will be judged not by the colour of their skin” or ideology, ” But by the content of their character”. I wish the Clintons, Obamas and other grand poobas of the Democratic and Liberal establishment had focused on that.
Kamala lost but she had a lot of help in taking the most expensive campaign in history over the cliff and we must not forget her accomplices.
May God bless both Kamala and Trump and may He bless America as she has better days ahead.
By Arthur Kobina Kennedy (November 6th, 2024)
Source:
3news.com
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