CHICAGO: Vice President Kamala Harris seems comfortably in the saddle, utterly unencumbered by the reality of not getting a single primary vote in her two runs for the White House.
BIDEN’S UNCEREMONIOUS OUSTER
As US President Joe Biden took to the podium on the first day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago, party faithful cheered him with loud chants of “We love Joe” and “Thank you, Joe!” A beeline of speakers and leaders have been presenting Mr Biden as a saint who renounced his presidency and political power for the good of the country. For a moment, they all wanted us, but more importantly, Mr Biden himself, to forget that this was the same Joe Biden the Democrat Party elites and mega-donors had pushed off the presidential ticket in a hurry after his devastating debate performance against Donald Trump.
Mr Biden told the adoring crowd in Chicago that he loved his job but his country more. His speech on the first day of the DNC signalled his departure from the political scene as he cleared the deck for the new leadership to take over.
Mr Biden told the crowd he wasn’t angry with those who said he should step down. However, there were reports of him feeling “angry,” “betrayed,” and “resentful.” It was barely a month ago that he was the Democrat Party’s toast. The Party establishment manipulated the Democrat Party’s presidential primaries to ensure Mr Biden’s nomination remains unchallenged. A pliant media hid information about Mr Biden’s health and mental acuity from the public for months. The Washington Post Editorial Board acknowledged that “the 81-year-old had shown signs of slipping for a long time, but his inner circle worked to conceal his decline.”
BIDEN’S LEGACY
As President Biden fades into political obscurity, treacherously backstabbed by his party elites—the Clintons, the Obamas, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer—and despite what Nancy Pelosi might say, Mr Biden’s legacy does not deserve a place on Mount Rushmore. In all likelihood, Mr Biden will be remembered as one of the worst presidential disasters of 21st-century America.
Mr Biden’s sad departure from the scene defied his claim barely a month ago that he was here to stay. “Such is the fate of a President,” wrote the Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal, “most Americans regard as a failure, and who was headed for a defeat in a rematch against Donald Trump.”
Mr Biden promised to unite the country—to be the healer-in-chief. However, if his three-and-a-half years of presidential records are anything to go by, he was anything but a unifier. He demonized all his political opponents and ordinary citizens as MAGA extremists. His administration was engaged in one of the worst political vendettas, including lawfare against Mr Trump—Mr Biden’s main political rival. He even pitted people against each other during the Covid-19 pandemic, calling it a “pandemic of the unvaccinated“ to deprecate those who had acquired natural immunity and refused to take an experimental drug.
Foreign policy was supposed to be one of Mr Biden’s strongest points. However, America’s hasty retreat from Afghanistan, wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and the spectre of a full-blown war with nuclear-armed Russia punch holes in that claim. He was unsuccessful in stopping the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and preventing the loss of thousands of lives in the conflict. There was a time when the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and UAE’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan refused to take Mr Biden’s call to discuss the Ukraine war. On the other hand, a ceasefire still eludes between Israel and Hamas, and Iran and its proxies threaten the very existence of Israel.
Inflation is still higher than it was four years ago. With food prices soaring, the American poor and middle class are having those tough discussions around their dinner table that Mr Biden often talks about in his speeches. On employment, busting the Biden-Harris administration’s claim, there were 818,000 fewer jobs created during the one year ending March 2024 than previously reported by the Labor Department.
KAMALA HARRIS INHERITS BIDEN’S LEGACY
With Mr Biden resigned to the twilight of oblivion, Vice President Kamala Harris seems comfortably in the saddle, utterly unencumbered by the reality of not getting a single primary vote in her two runs for the White House. A month into her coronation, Ms Harris is also a mindful and endorsed inheritor of Mr Biden’s legacy.
Ms Harris hasn’t yet sat down for an interview with any journalist, nor has she outlined her governing agenda if she wins the presidency. However, looking at her political career and 2020 progressive platform, it can be deduced that her presidency will be what Kimberley Strassel, the Wall Street Journal’s Editorial Board member, calls a “Supersized Joe Biden.” Based on the records, it is safe to say that the Vice President leans even further left than President Biden did. Ms Harris’ VP pick, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, has cemented this perception. Mr Walz presided over the ugly George Floyd riots. He also has one of the worst records for controlling crimes, a significant concern for Americans. Homicides in Minneapolis, the largest city in Minnesota, are 114% above their 2019 level. According to Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute, “Mr Walz’s belief in ‘systemic racism’ dovetails with Kamala Harris’s worldview. Both portray the police as the major threat to black Americans.”
THE GHOST OF COVID
One of the legacies Ms Harris inherits is the botched response to the Covid-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, Americans witnessed one of the gravest tramplings of democratic and human rights principles under the Biden-Harris administration.
According to Jay Bhattacharya, professor of Health Policy at Stanford University, the Biden-Harris administration “using the suppression misinformation as a fig leaf, coerced social media companies to censor ideas contrary to Biden administration initiatives.” While Anish Koka, a physician, and cardiologist based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, said that “the response to Covid from the standpoint of individual rights was an absolute abomination,” Bhattacharya was “dismayed by the evident lack of support for basic free speech principles and the failures of public health’s Covid policies by Gov. Walz and VP Harris.” Mr Walz, as the Governor of Minnesota, is accused of setting up a hotline that received over 10,000 emails from residents snitching on neighbours for ignoring government mandates.
Koka and Bhattacharya were fierce critics of the government’s lockdown policies, school closures, and mask and vaccine mandates. “Tying your ability to work and participate in society to getting a vaccine was disgraceful,” said Koka. “Among the true ideas [the Biden-Harris] administration censored,” said Bhattacharya, “include the inefficacy of mask mandates, the harm to children from school closures, and the reality of Covid vaccine injury, especially among young men.”
THE MOOD IN DIASPORA
In the 2020 presidential elections, 72% of Indian Americans chose Joe Biden over Donald Trump. However, the Democrats’ progressive policies—DEI, affirmative action, immigration, etc.—are turning many minorities, including Indian Americans, away from them. According to the Asian American Voter Survey, only 47% of Indian Americans identify as Democrats, down 9 points from 56% in 2022. In the same survey, 54% of Indian Americans had a favourable opinion of Harris in 2024, down 8 points from 62% in 2020.
“The Hindu American diaspora is increasingly feeling unsafe in schools, colleges, and workplaces,” said Purnima Nath, an author and a former Republican congressional candidate. Nath also mentioned the introduction of “caste” bills by the Democrat-controlled legislatures and other local bodies. Khalistani elements in the US have also vandalized several Hindu places of worship as well as Indian consulate offices. “Separatism and terrorism issues that are being nurtured on American soil, in the name of free speech, seem to target Hindus of America directly,” Nath said.
For a Vice President, now the presidential candidate, who claims she was very much part of the decision-making process in the Biden-Harris administration, it will be tough to divorce herself from Mr Biden’s legacy.
Avatans Kumar is a Chicago-based award-winning columnist.