Breaking Barriers: Kamala Harris Steps into the Spotlight
As Joe Biden Steps Aside – Kamala Harris Takes the Helm
President Joe Biden's decision not to seek re-election comes at a critical juncture for American democracy and global geopolitics. We are in an era where democracy is under siege, with authoritarian regimes employing sophisticated propaganda techniques, including lies, distorted narratives, and dehumanizing language, to undermine democratic values and fuel hatred.
By stepping aside, Biden gives the people of the United States a better opportunity to reaffirm their commitment to democratic principles and preserve their democracy. This is especially crucial for women and their right to control what happens to their own bodies. The issue of abortion has become increasingly contentious in the United States and while Joe Biden's views on abortion have evolved significantly over his political career, personal religious beliefs play a major role in shaping many Americans' views.
Project 2025 is a detailed, 920-page conservative policy document that outlines a vision for a conservative America, and a new kind of US presidency. It proposes the implementation of a religious ideology within the federal civic service, which will undermine science-based policies on climate change, the environment, abortion, health care, and education. The document is so extreme that even Donald Trump has tried to distance himself from the plan, even though in 2022 he said that the Heritage Foundation, the think tank that authored Project 2025, “would lay the groundwork and detailed plans for exactly what our movement will do.”
The Biden-Harris administration has given the USA the most ambitious Climate law in history. ‘President Biden leaves office with the strongest record on climate change of any president in US history,’ said Jason Bordoff, the founding director of Columbia's Center on Global Energy Policy. This matters because the U.S. is the world’s largest historical carbon emitter and the second-largest today, behind China.
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) 2022 represents a historic and comprehensive legislative effort by the United States to address climate change and promote clean energy. By allocating approximately $369 billion over ten years for energy security and climate change programs, its primary goal is to reduce U.S. carbon emissions by around 40% by 2030, relative to 2020.
Biden also re-entered the Paris Climate Agreement, which President Trump had abandoned, making the U.S. the first and only nation in the world to formally withdraw from the accord.
What happens next? With President Joe Biden exiting the presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris becomes the overwhelming front-runner to be the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee. Harris has already secured enough delegates to win the Democratic presidential nomination, and she has been boosted with a record $81 million in contributions within the first 24 hours following Biden's withdrawal.
In the past few days, I've been considering the possibility of Kamala Harris emerging as the Democratic candidate to confront Donald Trump. Abortion is among the few issues where Democrats hold a clear polling advantage, and Harris is definitely more comfortable discussing abortion rights compared to Biden. She has been one of their fervent advocates, establishing herself as the Biden administration’s foremost voice on reproductive rights.
At an abortion rally in Washington, D.C., on June 2023, she said,
“I do believe when you know what you stand for, you know what to fight for. We stand for the freedom of every American, including the freedom of every person everywhere to make decisions – about their own body, their own health care and their own doctor. So we fight for reproductive rights and legislation that restores the protections of Roe v. Wade. And here’s the thing. The majority of Americans are with us, they agree.”
In the last few days, several publications have also examined her views on climate change. As a U.S. senator, Harris was an early supporter of the Green New Deal, initially introduced by representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Edward Markey in February 2019. It serves as a non-binding blueprint for transitioning the country to 100% clean energy within ten years. Bloomberg notes that Harris is “seen as a tougher oil industry opponent than Biden," adding that “As California attorney general, Kamala Harris brought lawsuits against fossil fuel companies, prosecuted a pipeline company over an oil leak, and investigated Exxon Mobil for misleading the public about climate change.”
Politico also compared her agenda with Biden’s. “As a presidential candidate, Harris pitched a $10 trillion climate plan whose public and private investments would have dwarfed the total $1.6 trillion estimated federal cost of Biden’s major climate, energy, infrastructure and technology legislation. Unlike the administration’s current policies, she also would have instituted a “climate pollution fee” and ended federal subsidies for fossil fuels.”
Will Harris’ race and gender be an issue? Absolutely. But it also presents an opportunity to consolidate black support and energize younger voters.
Would Camala Harris be able to take on Donald Trump? I don't know the answer. Data from prediction markets, polls, and approval ratings hint at her odds against Trump. She has already seen a surge in polls in the last few days and is going from strength to strength.
What I do know is that she will be a formidable opponent, and it is not a coincidence that the Trump campaign has already started—even before the Conservative National Convention—to ramp up the criticism of the vice president.
And let’s not forget. Trump did everything he could to stay in power after he lost an election. No one who supports democracy can stand for this kind of thing.
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