OPINION: Bringing hope that America used to represent

If something is common and normal in the politics of the United States, it is that there is nothing common and normal in the politics of that country. On Tuesday, August 11, another glass ceiling was smashed, and a new milestone was reached in race relations in the troubled country writes Rodrigo Noriega in La Prensa

Kamala Harris is a character, the kind that seems to only exist in fiction. Her life has many parallels with that of Barak Obama, and perhaps this explains why she was chosen as the future vice president of the United States. Kamala is the name of an Indian goddess, a Sanskrit word used by her mother, an Indian researcher, to name her daughter. Harris’s father was a Jamaican economist who met her mother at the University of Berkeley in California.

So, like Obama, Senator Harris is the daughter of a migrant academic who abandoned her when he separated from her mother at the age of 5. With her family background, Harris studied at Howard University and the University of California Law School. She has dedicated her entire life to public service, primarily as a district attorney in San Francisco California, then as Attorney General for the state of California, and currently as a California senator before the United States upper house.

What does Harris bring to Biden? Both Biden and Harris are attorneys, both of whom had Senate experience prior to being chosen for the vice presidency. Harris’s selection is a recognition of the most important segment of voters in the Democratic Party: black women. In addition, Harris adds the qualities of the daughter of extremely hardworking migrants, and that of a woman noted for having a career as a law enforcement advocate, an important factor that helps convince independent voters and moderate Republicans, that the Democratic Party does not it is going to  “soften” with criminal policy too much

In addition, Senator Harris, 55, brings the energy and work capacity that Biden, 77, does not have. Presidential candidate Biden has indicated that due to his advanced age, he would be a one-term “transitional” president, which opens the door for a hypothetical Vice President Harris to become the first female president of the United States. Biden understands that the great economic and political changes in the United States are the results of great negotiations between the Executive Branch and Congress. By the constitution, the vice president of the United States is also the president of the Senate and therefore must have a great deal of negotiation and the capacity to carry out an agenda of social change.

I believe that the Democratic Party operators, together with candidate Biden, made a good selection: female, black, Californian, and former prosecutor. A moderate proposal that at the same time presents a radical change, beyond the face. It’s a celebration of meritocracy and the hope that America used to represent.