The World Turns Rightside Up

The opinion of this writer is not the opinion of The Ridgeview News.

After the Biden-Trump debate, we Democrats were despondent, angry, anxious, and sleepless.  In the media, “Biden is old” wonthe debate over Trump’s lying campaign rant.

The media was relentless, putting Biden on a death watch.  A gaffe, a slip, a good presser, but.  The “buts” mounted.  The big Dems moved on him.  Joe conferred, he worked, he waited, and he chose his moment.  

The assassination attempt, the RNC where Trump chose mini-MAGA-me JD Vance, and Trump’s brief unity message seemed to put Trump in the strongest position he had held throughout the campaign.  Then Biden gracefully seized the moment and throttled it.

On Sunday, July 21st, President Biden announced he was stepping down from the presidential campaign and endorsing VP Kamala Harris. Within moments a 180-degree reversal, a transformation, a sea change, and an energy surge ran through the election and the country.  The world turned rightside up.

In the 24 hours after Biden dropped out, the Harris presidential campaign raised $81 million, the largest amount of money raised in 24 hours in presidential history.  Money poured in from880,000 small donors; 60% made their first donation.  

On Sunday night, a weekly zoom call hosted by Win with Black Women that usually has less than 500 on their call hosted 44,000 women and raised $1.5 million.  By Tuesday, 58,000 new volunteers had signed up for the Democrats.  Harris’s campaign account had 400,000 new followers.  In 48 hours, 40,000 new voters registered, most of them young people.

By early Tuesday, Harris had enough pledged delegates to win the Democratic presidential nomination.  Kamala Harris is our presumptive nominee.

The standing ovation Joe Biden gets at the National Convention may be the longest, loudest, and most heartfelt ovation in our history.  In a single term, Biden has managed the most successful progressive presidency since FDR.  Then, at 81, our elder statesman had the courage, wisdom and patriotism to step aside.

Republicans cannot comprehend that Biden gave up his chance for 4 more years as the most powerful man in the world for the good of his party and the country.  

Their candidate is a loser who refused to give up power after he was defeated by 7 million votes and instead attempted a coup,has kept the country divided by the Big Lie that he didn’t lose,and promises only more chaos, revenge and authoritarian government, all for the sake of Trump gaining power again.

The Harris campaign has already raised and received in commitments over $250 million.  The Trump campaign is selling Bibles, ear bandages, and AR-15 rifle pins while taking millions from billionaires who want to keep all their money for themselves. On Tuesday, though, Elon Musk took back his $45 million/month pledge showing he knows a loser when he sees one.

But enough with the giddiness.  Democrats have our work ahead of us.  The Biden attacks were easy, painting him as old and doddering.  The debate cemented the image.  Republicans nowmust pivot to attack Kamala.  So far, they don’t like her laughand she smiles too much, but it’s going to get ugly.

Kamala Harris is a phenomenal candidate, superbly qualified to be president of the United States.  She is perfectly suited to this moment in time.

She was elected twice as the District Attorney of San Francisco, twice as Attorney General of California, and then won the 2016 California Senate race in a landslide. She was elected Joe Biden’s VP.  She has never lost an election.

At her first campaign rally, career prosecutor Harris said that she has prosecuted “predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain.  So hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump’s type.”The cheers were deafening.

To a nation stunned by courts bowing to Donald Trump while ignoring the rule of law, finally there are words of hope that justice is coming

After Dobbs, 2024 was already the Women’s Reproductive Rights Election. Women have been working all over the country to get abortion issues on their state ballots and get out the vote.  

Trump brags about appointing the 3 justices who took away women’s constitutional right to bodily autonomy.  Then he chooses JD Vance: no exceptions for rape or incest, women must stay in violent marriages, and Kamala Harris is a childless cat lady.  

Senator Harris’s questioning of Brett Kavanaugh is the stuff of legend.  She asked Kavanaugh: “Can you think of any law that gives the government the power to regulate the male body?”  Befuddled, he ultimately mumbled, “No.”

Women of every race and age are fired up.  The usual sexist and racist attacks will only make them angrier.  Calling her an unqualified slut, as they already are (“mattress back”), should ensure unprecedented Republican losses.  Go for it.

She is attacked as too liberal and radical, but her agenda is simply the extremely popular Democratic platform: voting rights, women’s rights, climate change, gun control, tax the wealthy, universal health care, and respect for the rule of law

The press wants to call this the “Harris Honeymoon” and assure us this euphoric popularity will pass.  When, over 2 days, tens of thousands of people give hundreds of millions of dollars, volunteer, and register to vote, that’s a commitment, not a whim. 

We have 101 days till November 5^th.  Kamala’s rally crowds are chanting, “We’re not going back.”  Forward to Monday, January 20, 2025 when Kamala Harris is sworn in as president on Martin Luther King Day by Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.  

Vote Blue up and down the ballot.