US Election 2024: Kamala Harris Introduces the New Democratic Party and the Future

A few days after it became clear that Vice President Kamala Harris will become the Democratic Party’s nominee for president, an Inauguration Day image has begun to circulate on social media: If elected, Harris will be sworn in as the nation’s first black female president on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, with the oath administered by Judge Ketanji. Brown Jackson, the first black woman to serve on the US Supreme Court.

This perfect reflection of racial progress embellished some details (Chief Justice John Roberts would likely have sworn in Harris) and missed some opportunities. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries could become the first Black House Speaker, and two Black women could serve in the U.S. Senate at the same time, something that has never happened. This is a vision for America that millions of voters have thought about for decades, working both for and against its implementation. This election is a referendum on this fight, on issues of diversity, equality, inclusion and belonging. And to its credit, the Democratic Party has decided to stake its future on these ideals and aspirations.

Two stark versions of America were on vivid display in the final days of the campaign. First, last Sunday at Madison Square Garden in New York, where the echoes of nationalism were so strong that one speaker said that Nazis were not there to rally around Trump as some kind of messiah. They welcomed overt bigotry, images of watermelon-loving blacks, stone-throwing Muslims and stingy Jews. Puerto Rico, home to American citizens, was reduced to trash and Mexican men were branded as promiscuous childbearers. It was purified Trumpism, shocking because while America produced many of these stereotypes (and even Nazism), there was a serious, if imperfect, attempt to banish them. In Trump’s version of America, things are different.

Two days later, another version of America was shown in Washington, D.C., on the Ellipse with the White House in the background. A crowd of 75,000 people gathered to retake the area from the anti-democratic mob that laid siege to the Capitol. Children of all races sat on their parents’ shoulders, waving American flags to see a woman who looked like them. They gathered there to hear Harris, the daughter of immigrants, call on Americans to remember the patriotic activists — at Selma, Seneca Falls, Stonewall — who marched, protested and sought to make this country great for all. Her campaign is a continuation of that long fight, a rebuttal to Trump’s distracting carnival of conspiracy theories, lies, sexism, racism and machismo.

“Donald Trump spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and fearful of each other. That’s who he is,” Harris said. “But, America, I am here tonight to say that we are not like that. We are not like that! We are not like that!

It was a declaration, a hope, a prayer that most Americans would choose to have a broad vision for the nation.

By electing the first Black president, nominating the first female major party candidate, and now the first Black woman, the Democratic Party is holding the country to its founding principles of equality and progress. It is an insistence on inclusion and representation that comes with risks. In 1971, Patrick Buchanan wrote a famous memo called “Dividing the Democrats,” advising the use of racial progress as a motivating factor for white voters. “There is nothing that could boost a president’s chances of re-election—not a trip to China, not four-and-a-half percent unemployment—than a realistic black presidential campaign,” Buchanan wrote.

Trump is clearly opposed to social progress, and his rise and current success should rightly be seen as a backlash to the election of President Barack Obama. If Trump wins, many will point to Harris’ campaign and argue that she focused too much on women, wasn’t tough enough on immigration and crime, and wasn’t specific enough about her plans. They’ll say she ignored men, especially working class men, and she should have found time to sit down with podcaster Joe Rogan. They will tell the Democratic Party to introspect, move to the right and, frankly, not be so black, so “woke” and so focused on social progress – some of this speculation is already underway. And they will be wrong.

Harris, who will spend election night at her alma mater, Howard University, represents the best of her party, the culmination of everything the party has strived for, sometimes imperfectly. Her historic victory made millions of Americans nostalgic for the old order and old customs. And her run has energized millions of Americans who want justice, equality and just plain decency. This unwieldy, multiracial, multigenerational coalition persists in its vision of a better America, despite the risks and the coming backlash. It’s a good nuisance and a necessary battle. Win or lose, the Democratic Party must not give up this worthy fight.