In the 2024 US presidential election, race is still the issue

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during the Democratic National Convention Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

When Kamala Harris – Asian American, African American, woman, and politico – made history by becoming the official standard bearer for the Democratic Party, it became official.

There is only one relevant question this election and it’s not just will America vote for a woman as president. It’s far more complicated. Is our country ready to vote for a woman who represents the great diversity of the New America?

In other words, will race be the deciding factor, as the only real issue for voters?

Oh, come on Emil. We had Obama.

Yes, and everyone thought the US had reached some mythical post-racial moment. And then, Trump beat Hillary and the faux-post-racial political nightmare began.

And so what happens this time? The race question remains as relevant as ever.

My esteemed friend, Daniel Phil Gonzales, Professor emeritus San Francisco State’s College of Ethnic Studies,  read my last column on Harris’ speech and said I was “overly complimentary.”

I responded: Are you kidding?

Her speech was pure poetry, the rhetoric of America’s new politics, a shift of focus  from the 1 percent to the center (interesting how no one mentioned the poor and homeless). And it all was even more inviting because the person nominated wasn’t a white male, but the daughter of immigrants, born of the middle class, and a reflection of America’s major demographic shift.

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during the Democratic National Convention Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Still, Professor Dan wanted to see more details of her economic plan. Spoken like a true left-leaning intellectual academic.

Unfortunately, those details will not be the reason anyone who is human will cast a vote for president in November.

The question remains, are the vast majority of Americans ready to vote for the first Asian American, African American woman ever nominated in American history?

For me, that won’t be solved by details. The choice is more visceral than that.

Who do you trust?

For the ultimate office in our representative democracy, we want someone in whom we can entrust our government, nuclear codes and all.

In 2024, voters will be making the hiring decision of their lives. Who shall be the “nanny” to nurture and heal our divided democracy?

Will it be the person whose party talked about loving and caring for one another and our neighbors? One who at the same time said she’d face up to the tyrants of the world, as Harris did in her acceptance speech last week?

Or will your choice be the nasty older white guy, who is all doom and gloom about America and its future, and was found to have lied or misled the public in his first time as president more than 31,000 times by the Washington Post?

He’s the pro-family guy who stepped away to cheat on his spouse as she was nursing their young son.

Please note, I won’t even mention Trump’s 34 felony convictions for which he’ll be sentenced on Sept. 18.

Do you really need more details?

Asking for details provides cover

I’d say the vast majority of Americans use the “let’s see the details” excuse as cover – for their own racist and misogynistic doubts about Harris’ readiness.

I get it, you want to hear the deets on economic plans and the like. But all of that is either pie-in-the-sky or flat out fiction – until we know what kind of legislative landscape we’ll be dealing with.

For now, all the detail you need on the economy is to know who would favor the middle class and regular folk? Harris.

And who favors corporate interests 100 percent of the time? Trump.

The nerds can debate economic details all they want right now. But until we know the House and Senate lineup, it’s all fantasy play.

This weekend, people talked about Kamala Harris flip-flopping on different positions like Medicare-for-all. But positions change not because someone is an inconsistent panderer. With the House and Senate as unknowns, nothing wrong with a candidate moderating a position.

Of course, Trump simply believes in ending Obamacare, a/k/a the Affordable Care Act.

Once again, the contrast is clear. Who is the most no-nonsense pragmatic person you want in charge of the country, who can maintain one’s ethics and humanity?

Is it the man who led an insurrection and would not respect the Constitution? Cut taxes to the rich and ran up the national debt?

Or is it the woman who as Calif. attorney general went up against corporate bullies to get $20 billion for homeowners?

As for flip-flopping, have you seen Trump’s latest statements on abortion? Trump has been tempering his anti-abortion position so much, right-wingers are doubting his pro-life stance.

And then there’s JD Vance, who once called Trump the American Hitler. And now he wants to work under Trump. That’s an infinitely greater flip-flop than anything Harris has done.

The issues seem to be failing Trump/Vance. Expect to see more anti-immigrant talk and claims that Harris failed as border czar. They’re the kind of lies that whip up the nativist xenophobia and white resentment that has propelled Trump in the past.

Who can forget how Trump used the Central Park 5 in 1989? Trump went on a media campaign that led to the convictions of five men who served 5-13 years in prison for rape – until DNA evidence set them free.

The appearance of the five – including Yusef Salaam, now a New York City Councilman – at last week’s DNC was a reminder.

Trump’s preferred tool is racism.

Harris’ speech and voters

But that’s why Harris’ speech was laden with the rhetoric of the New America,  about all the good immigration does for our country. Her mother’s immigrant story counters Trump’s fear mongering negative immigrant narrative.

Will it work? Convention week, CNN had a focus group of eight undecided voters from swing-state Pennsylvania. Six whites, two blacks. After watching the Harris acceptance speech, six in the group were ready to vote for Harris. One (a white woman) didn’t like any candidate. Only one said he’d vote for Trump. A Black male who worked in real estate.

He liked her speech, the Black male voter said. He wanted more details, and just didn’t think Kamala Harris was ready.

Black supporters of Harris have already identified a fraction of Black males as detractors.

It’s what makes the race question ever more volatile and interesting in 2024. Among Asian Americans, Filipinos and Vietnamese are anywhere from 30-40 percent for Trump.

In such a close presidential race, the swing vote against diversity’s candidate, may have more than a touch of diversity itself.

Tells you a lot about the importance of race and misogyny still, as our demographics dramatically change in our new America.

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. He writes a column for the Inquirer.net’s US Channel. See his micro talkshow on YouTube.com/@emilamok1. Contact: www.amok.com

You may like: Harris’ story is our story, and our democracy