a A man convicted of dozens of felonies and a criminal prosecutor. An architect of abortion bans and a defender of reproductive freedom. An older white man obsessed with the past and his mixed-race immigrant daughter looking to the future.
With 100 days to go until the US presidential election, the choice of voters has never been clearer. After Joe Biden’s dramatic withdrawal, Kamala Harris (59), who has become the de facto Democratic nominee, is a progressive woman of color seeking to become the first female president in the 248-year history of the United States.
At 78, Donald Trump, the oldest presidential candidate in history, is a populist nationalist who has demonized immigrants, attracted support from far-right extremists and appealed to nostalgia among white Christians by promising to “Make America Great Again.”
“Right now, I believe we face a choice between a vision for our nation that focuses on the future or a vision that focuses on the past,” Harris told members of Zeta Phi Beta, a historically Black sorority in Indianapolis, on Wednesday. “With your support, I am fighting for the future of our nation.”
Biden has previously spoken of a “battle for the soul of the nation,” while Trump has described the election as “the final battle.” But Harris’ nomination will mark the culmination of a tumultuous decade and the clash of two Americas: one liberal, diverse and optimistic, and one conservative, nationalistic and, in Trump’s words, driven by discontent and revenge.
“The difference between the candidates couldn’t be more stark,” said Khalif Osumare, professor emeritus at the University of California, Davis’ Department of African American and African Studies. “To me, it represents this country and its schizophrenia. This country is deeply racist, yet leads the world in individual rights and democracy.”
“This election is going to expose that schizophrenia, because there are many Americans who want to go back to a time when white supremacy was absolute, but there are also many Americans who want to evolve as a people. And to do that, we need someone who has a deep humanity in him.”
The road to getting here began in 2008 with the election of America’s first black president, Barack Obama. For millions of Americans, Obama represented hope, but for millions others, he represented fear that the country they grew up in was disappearing. In 2008, white Christians made up 54% of the U.S. population; today, they are a minority, at just 44%.
The racist backlash against President Obama was evident in the rise of the populist Tea Party movement, followed by Trump’s entry into politics as a “birther” and questioning whether Obama was actually born in Kenya and therefore ineligible to be president.
Trump once again gave hope to one America and fear to the other. He embodied anger against change, political correctness and liberal elites, and he garnered support in small towns and rural areas that felt left behind. He scapegoated immigrants, creating an us-versus-them scenario and promising to build a border wall to keep them out.
In 2016, the US faced a clear choice, with Trump defeating Hillary Clinton in the Electoral College, but there were complicating variables, including her status as a former first lady and the reopening of an FBI investigation into her handling of classified information.
Four years later, a global pandemic and the oldest white president in history, Trump was defeated by an even older, white, moderate Joe Biden, who won back the white working-class votes in the Rust Belt that Clinton had lost. In 2024, the world was a little weary but preparing for a rematch.
Mo Bera, a senior adviser to Biden when he was vice president, said, “The Biden-Trump battle was between two men in their 70s battling each other as seniors. Now it’s not just a battle between genders, but also between past and future, between family lines, but also a stark contrast between hope and hatred.”
Over the past month, American politics has moved with incredible speed, upending all certainties: Biden stumbled in the presidential debate in Atlanta, Trump survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, and Biden became the first sitting president since 1968 to announce he would not seek reelection as a chorus of Democrats questioned his age and mental health.
Democrats quickly launched a flurry of endorsements, fundraisers and memes for Ms. Harris, a former senator, prosecutor and California attorney general. Ms. Harris campaigned with inspiring speeches and Beyoncé songs, giving Democrats an adrenaline rush that shifted them from pessimism to optimism. Polls show Ms. Harris outperforming Mr. Biden among black, Latino and younger voters and running roughly even with Mr. Trump.
“We’re 100 days away from the election, and with so much that’s happened in the last year, it’s hard to predict how all of this is going to play out, but I think there’s no question that Democrats are very much back in this race and in a much better position than they were a few weeks ago,” former Secretary of Defense and CIA Director Leon Panetta said.“
Having served in various roles under nine US presidents, Panetta has seen first-hand the increasing polarization and coarsening of political discourse. “It’s clear that America has become more divided and more partisan over the last few years, and that our democracy is in many ways dysfunctional as a result of those divisions,” he added. “Kamala Harris offers a message that America can be better in the future, and we need that message of hope.”
“Trump’s message, whether he wants to change it or not, is driven by his own sense of retribution, revenge and putting people on the line. That’s not what Kamala Harris is about. So Americans will have a real choice in November about what direction they want this country to go. The clearer that distinction is, the better the chances the Democrats have of winning.”
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Born in Oakland, California, to an Indian mother and Jamaican father, Harris is in many ways the anti-Trump: She is 19 years younger than Trump, instantly invalidating the age debate and working against her opponent, whose incoherent ramblings and name-splitting will likely come under particular scrutiny.
She has become the face of the Biden campaign on the issue of abortion, with reproductive rights becoming a key issue since the Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision in 2022. She is expected to largely stick to Biden’s foreign policy lines on Ukraine, China and Iran, but could take a tougher stance against Israel over the Gaza war.
Her sudden rise to prominence rattled Republican enthusiasm after a packed convention in Milwaukee, where Trump nearly achieved deification after defiantly responding to a near-death experience with “Fight! Fight! Fight!” He appeared to the sounds of “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” and speeches from the likes of wrestler Hulk Hogan, underscoring his image of old-fashioned masculinity.
After savoring the challenge of running against an ailing Biden, the Trump campaign must now quickly adapt to a new challenge in Harris, who they have begun to portray as a left-wing radical from California who was the co-pilot for the Biden administration’s failed policies on immigration and inflation.
Speaking at a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, this week, Trump said: “For three and a half years, lying Kamala Harris was the ultra-liberal driving force behind every Biden disaster… As border chief, Kamala opened the border and allowed 20 million illegal immigrants from all over the world to flood into our country.”
Republicans and right-wing media are mispronouncing her name, mocking her laugh (the “Kamala laugh”), and trying to position her as the “first DEI president” by touting her diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Critics predict a torrent of bigotry, racism, and misogyny reminiscent of the playbook deployed against Obama and Clinton. The tones of the two sides couldn’t be more different.
“This is a decision. It’s a decision between democracy and autocracy, progress and regress. Usually the future-oriented vision wins, but we don’t know how it’s going to turn out. It’s going to be an uphill battle. If you think about it as we were fighting for the soul of America in 2020, this is a battle for the soul of America, but strengthened,” said Tara Setmeyer, co-founder and CEO of the Seneca Project, a women-led super PAC.“
The clarity of the choice has intensified an already heated atmosphere. The assassination attempt on Trump comes after years of political violence, including the shooting of Rep. Steve Scalise, the hammer attack on former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband and the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Both parties are now heading for an “Armageddon election” in which the American way of life is supposedly at stake. A win would mean total acquittal, a loss would mean total ruin. How will Trump’s most ardent supporters react to the loss of a black woman? At a rally for Trump’s vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance in Middletown, Ohio this week, state Sen. George Lang warned, “If we lose this, it will take a civil war to save the country, but the country will be saved.”
The differences represented by Ms Harris and Mr Trump seem irreconcilable. “The goal is to destroy the other,” said David Bright, a professor of American history at Yale University. “There is no bipartisanship in this election except among the ‘Never Trump’ crowd.” [traditional Republicans who oppose Trump]people who are beginning to see the light and don’t want to live in such an authoritarian country.
“We’re on the brink of something.”
