Harris gives voters a fresh chance to move forward — instead of reliving Trump’s years of chaos | Editorial

If her first week as a presidential candidate is any indication, Vice President Kamala Harris may be proving the old saying that the best man for the job is often a woman.

Days after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek reelection, Harris consolidated Democratic support and showed she is better positioned to save democracy and defeat Donald Trump.

Harris injected energy into the race. A record haul of more than $250 million poured into her campaign coffers as she leaped to the top of the ticket.

Nearly 60,000 new volunteers signed up to help her campaign. More than 100 contacted Philadelphia’s Democratic Party, according to Chairman Bob Brady.

An estimated 90,000 Black women and allies joined a Zoom call to discuss supporting Harris’ campaign, and 50,000 Black men joined a similar call the following night.

One poll showed Harris ahead of Trump by 2% compared with Biden, who trailed Trump by 2%. Other polls show her trailing but doing better than Biden.

Turnout and swing voters in a handful of states, including Pennsylvania, will decide the winner. Harris will need to build on the early enthusiasm. Voters must decide if they want to move forward or go back to the chaos and corruption of the Trump years.

Harris kicked off her campaign by painting stark contrasts with Trump. She’s a former prosecutor. He’s a convicted felon. Harris is for women’s rights. Trump disrespects women and brags about taking away their rights. She supports the middle class. Trump favors big business and the very rich.

Harris supports efforts to combat climate change. Trump, who has a strange fixation on windmills and electric cars, wants more oil drilling and fewer environmental regulations and thinks climate change is a hoax. He offered to do the bidding of oil executives in return for a $1 billion campaign contribution.

The list goes on.

Harris supports voter rights, democracy, and the peaceful transition of power. Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election, sparked an insurrection, and will only accept the results of the November election if he wins.

Harris supports good jobs, excellent schools, and a fair tax system. As president, Trump opposed raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, attacked unions, implemented anti-worker policies, and passed a massive tax cut for the wealthy.

Harris supports NATO. Trump favors dictators and will abandon Ukraine and European allies.

On issues, Trump loses. Hence his well-worn path into the gutter. Name-calling, sexism, and racism are the Trump brand.

Trump repeatedly mispronounces Harris’ first name. He mocks her laugh.

“You ever watch her laugh? She’s crazy,” Trump said at a rally last week.

Since when did a person’s laugh become a campaign issue? But since Trump brought it up, when was the last time he even smiled?

Trump ditched his brief call for unity and made one promise he will be sure to keep: “I’m not going to be nice.”

Trump’s threatening rhetoric received little attention as the media continues to normalize his words and deeds. At its core, Trump’s nauseating and tired act consists largely of name-calling, lies, and hate. It’s a bottomless campaign run by a grade-school bully.

Harris would be the first woman of color in the Oval Office. Studies show women are more effective leaders and better in a crisis. But first Harris must endure a barrage of sexist and racist attacks from Trump and the GOP.

A 2021 clip resurfaced of JD Vance, Trump’s unpopular vice presidential pick, referring to Harris, who married later in life, as a “miserable,” childless cat lady.

Vance’s chauvinistic and far-right views on abortion should do wonders in wooing suburban female voters. He may want to stick to dud speeches on Diet Mountain Dew.

Republicans tried to brand Harris as a DEI candidate — a favorite culture war attack by the GOP to discredit efforts to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion.

I know Trump’s type.

Never mind that Harris’ political rise was earned by winning elections. Unlike Trump, she was not handed a job in her dad’s company.

If anything, Harris represents the American dream. Her father immigrated from Jamaica and is an economics professor at Stanford. Her mother immigrated from India, earned a doctorate degree, and had a distinguished career as a breast cancer researcher before she died in 2009.

Harris graduated from Howard University, then completed law school before a three-decade career as a prosecutor. As district attorney in San Francisco and later attorney general of California, Harris prosecuted sexual predators, fraudsters, and cheaters.

Trump has firsthand knowledge of sexual predators, fraudsters, and cheaters.

A federal judge found Trump sexually abused a woman, and he famously bragged about grabbing women by their genitals.

A state judge found Trump committed financial fraud by falsifying business records and lying to banks.

Trump has cheated at just about everything, from getting into college, avoiding the draft, running around on his wives, and ripping off donors. He tried to cheat voters in the 2020 election and even cheats at golf.

Harris said, “I know Trump’s type.”

The contrasts don’t end there.

» READ MORE: The Trump Threat | An occasional series by The Inquirer Editorial Board about the risk posed by a second Donald Trump presidency.

Trump railed on Biden’s age. But Trump, 78, is the oldest presidential nominee ever. Harris, 59, was born four years before Trump graduated from college.

The majority of voters believe Trump is too old to serve another term. Nikki Haley said it best just a few months ago: “The first party to retire its 80-year-old candidate is going to be the party that wins this election.” Let’s hope so.

With Biden’s age no longer an issue, Trump returned to scaring voters about migrants. He blamed Harris for a surge in illegal border crossings. But illegal crossings are down 40%.

More to the point, immigration is a decades-long political failure of both parties. And Trump killed a bipartisan border deal earlier this year that would have gone a long way toward mitigating the problem.

It is easy to criticize vice presidents for a lack of accomplishments. But vice presidents do not shape White House policies. Name one thing Mike Pence did as vice president besides stopping Trump from overturning an election. How about Dan Quayle or Al Gore?

To really see Harris in action, watch how she ran circles around men during her time in the Senate. During a hearing in 2017, she fired questions at then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who feebly responded: “I’m not able to be rushed this fast! It makes me nervous.”

Anyone who doubts Harris’ brains or toughness should watch her grill former Attorney General Bill Barr and then-U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Harris has roughly 100 days to convince voters she has the right stuff to lead the country forward. Trump is unfit to serve.

The choice is simple: prosecutor vs. felon.

Lock him up and swear her in.