In 2008, the Americans made history by electing Barack Obama, the first African-American president. Now, with the nomination of Kamala Harris, the United States has
the opportunity to confirm the progress made under Obama but also to expand it. Harris, if
elected in November, would not only become the second African-American with Asian roots to
access the White House but would fill another gap―the first woman to be elected
in the most important and powerful country.
When Obama announced his candidacy in the Democratic primaries in 2007, few
gave him much of a chance of winning, considering his limited experience in national politics with
only 2 years in the Senate. Furthermore, it was believed that a candidate of color with a
very strange name―Barack Hussein Obama― would never be accepted by Americans.
Hillary Clinton, his direct opponent, a giant of the Democratic establishment,
already had a well-known last name, having served as first lady during her husband Bill’s two terms
(1993-2001). Clinton also developed a reputation for actively participating in politics rather than focusing exclusively on the ceremonial role of first lady. In the end, Obama prevailed over Clinton, who did not abandon politics but was elected senator of the State of New York, serving for 8 years.
Obama achieved the same success in the 2008 general election when he defeated Republican candidate John McCain, becoming the first African-American to reside in the White House. Obama, however, took away from Clinton the historic opportunity to become the first female president of the United States. Nevertheless, the new president “rewarded” her by offering her the office of Secretary of State, one of the most important ministries, which allowed her to expand her already abundant curriculum.
Clinton had a second opportunity to make history and become the first woman president in 2016 after Obama’s two terms. In the primaries she managed to defeat the liberal senator Bernie Sanders who, however, gave her a hard time. The second opportunity to become the first woman did not come true either in 2016 despite having won the popular vote with a margin of almost 3 million votes more than Trump. The tycoon became president through the mechanism of the Electoral College (304 vs. 227). History was instead made by Donald Trump who without any political experience managed to become the 45th president.
Trump did much to take America back to the 1950s, a period he explained coincided with his slogan Make America Great Again, MAGA, (Let’s Make America Great Again). Trump also made history in the negative. In his four years in office he was impeached twice in the House and then saved from conviction in the Senate by a handful of votes. The negative history, however, was aggravated by the former president with his incitement to his supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021 in an attempt to block the certification of Joe Biden as president.
Trump also made history because unlike other losing presidential candidates, he did not stand aside after his defeat in 2020. Not even two convictions in civil cases and one in a criminal case prevented him from winning the Republican Party nomination. He became a candidate for a
second term and everyone believed that his opponent had to be President Biden.
The current resident of the White House decided to withdraw having seen the slim chances of victory. Maureen Dowd, a New York Times columnist, described Biden’s withdrawal as a coup orchestrated by the Democratic leadership led largely by Nancy Pelosi, the powerful former speaker of the House. The decision to throw in the towel, however, was up to Biden who followed the same path as Lyndon Johnson in 1968 when he also refused the nomination.
Biden offered his endorsement to his vice president Kamala Harris and the Democratic leadership rallied around the new standard-bearer who won the nomination. The Democratic candidate has a good opportunity to repeat what Obama managed to do but also to correct the “mistake” “Americans made in 2016 with the election of Trump. It would also break the glass ceiling that Clinton failed to do.
Martin Luther King had said, adopting a phrase from the 19th century abolitionist Theodore Parker, that “the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.” Obama also loved to quote the phrase. The election of Obama would have pleased King but the election of Harris would bring the country even closer to realizing King’s 1963 dream that his “four children will live a day when
they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
Edited by Domenico Maceri
