She’s already broken barriers, and now Kamala Harris could shatter several more after President Joe Biden abruptly ended his reelection bid and endorsed her.
Biden announced Sunday that he was stepping aside after a disastrous debate performance catalyzed fears that the 81-year-old was too frail for a second term.
Harris is the first woman, Black person or person of South Asian descent to serve as vice president. If she becomes the Democratic nominee and defeats Republican candidate Donald Trump in November, she would be the first woman to serve as president.
Biden said Sunday that choosing Harris as his running mate was “the best decision I’ve made” and endorsed her as his successor.
TBH statements like this are hurting her odds more than helping. Everybody on board already knows those things about her, nothing about her policies.
American people are notoriously uninterested in policy when it comes to presidents in the general election. they elected W (with a minority) because they felt they could have a beer with him. they elected Obama for change, him being smart, a good orator, relatively young and black was a huge contrast to everything W was. they elected TFG (with a minority) because they thought he was an outsider. they elected Biden because he wasn’t TFG.
but yes they should promote Harris’ policies more because they aren’t bad.
At least some of use do care. While I’m voting against Trump regardless, I’d rather vote for someone. If I do talk politics, I’d rather try to sell the benefits of a candidate, rather than what a disaster another candidate would be
I’ve always argued for that. like, usually if a party is running on being against someone or some group (this goes for parties demonizing gay people or immigrants or whatever minority as well) then i assume they’re not going to do anything for me, otherwise they’d be running on that.
unfortunately in two party systems it becomes one party running against a minority and the other party running on not being as bad as the first party.
TFG = That Fucking Git?
yeah why not. it comes from “the former guy” but “that fucking git/goon/grifter…” works too.
The Fat Guy
I think its less about changing the odds, and more about giving a needed morale boost to two minority groups long oppressed by politics in general.
You should probably be worried about our odds at this point in the game. We can celebrate her traits when she’s in.
Oh I’ve stopped worrying about the odds, pretty sure we are permafucked. I’d like to be wrong and it’s not going to keep me me from voting blue down the panel.
Just that I know from my own experience cultural racism and misogyny is still a ridiculously powerful force, even among progressives.
And you are giving the public way too much credit. Almost no one really cares about accomplishments when it really boils down to it. It is all about how a person makes one feel, and that is largely informed by media that is notably NOT them enacting their policies.
Yes she has a good list of positive accomplishments, and has demonstrated her skill at statesmanship consistently to those who follow such things, but that isn’t your average voter. Or even your average swing voter.
There isn’t nearly as much cultural awareness of her as there is of a certain pants-shitting spraytanned twice impeached and 34 time felon, and people are gullible and easily swayed.
I want to be wrong because I in at least two groups of the people that cheetolini’s camp squads want to come after first, but I’ve already been acting on plans to get my family out of the country for the last 8 hours and I don’t plan on being on my home soil longer than it takes to vote in November and get on a plane.
If you want to be wrong, shut up and help get literally anyone capable of the job into the oval office before Mr. Impeached for Insurrection gets another go at it
Nobody asked. Maybe go share your pathetic surrender in your own comment thread instead of attaching it as a reply to mine? Get some better feedback that way.
Tune your bot better, I think it’s stuck in high school vapelad mode.
Off topic, but fidget spinners fucking rock. Btw whats your favorite vape flavor, bruh? I stick to Grape 3%.
People of colour and what’s the second? Women aren’t a minority if you meant that.
In politics they certainly are, and even when they reach high position they face greater hurdles and prejudices than their male counterparts. You don’t need to be tiny in number to be marginalized inhumanely.
I agree, but then maybe just phrase it like that, e. g. marginalized group. Calling women in general a minority is plain wrong.
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Honestly more amped up more than ever that there’s a nominee under 60. God bless Biden for everything. That old turd Trump should realize he’s too old and drop out too.
She’ll be 60 by the time of the election though.
edit: it’s not a bad thing, she’s still a lot younger than both Biden and Trump so it’s a huge step in the right direction, I’m just pointing out that she won’t be under specifically 60.
👍
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Let’s maybe not focus solely on this, instead maybe on policy? Real problems Americans are facing every day is going to win more votes. Making the entire campaign about gender issues isn’t alone going to win shit.
Honestly, she has been shadowing an all-around decent president for the last 3ish years and like Obama, has the legal chops to back it up. Im not a fan of her stances from her DA days, but I dont think there is anyone else more qualified to do the job.
Agreed, I believe she has a lot to offer.
You can bet Republicans are gonna make her race and gender an issue though
Well that’s their loser strategy.
And it’s REALLY gonna help the black and woman vote they’ve been trying so hard to get. Just check out Bowman/Vance these days, dude’s holding in his desire to talk about abortion so hard he looks like he could shit himself any moment.
They already have, filling talks in all spaces with mysogyny and racism as soon as biden bowed out.
If elections were based on policy the GOP would have ceased to exist four days into Reagan’s presidency.
Not alone, but it will tick another box in voters’ minds
I’m happy for another chance at a Gen X president , not ready for a Millennial VP
Isn’t she technically a very young boomer?
No, technically she is Generation Jones.
Nope, gotta play demographic bingo.
Will she earn votes? Gonna have to do some work.
Someone asked me what I thought about Biden dropping out. I said, it doesn’t matter. I am over policy, specifically NOT horrible policies like Project 2025.
So… like… what policies do you support?
I would love to have her lead the country!
I’ve seen her on TV before. But I didn’t know she was black before today.
Her dad is Jamaican and her mom is Indian. Her dad might be half black, I’m not sure. I keep seeing republican memes saying she’s not black or 25% black. Just endless memes trying to attack her on anything they can. Like, that’s not even important, we have a real competent candidate and that’s more than I can say about Dump.
It is weird to call her black, she’s as much Indian as she is African. It’s like the racist “1 drop” thing, where if you have any black ancestors you are defacto black, except in this case supposedly woke people are using it as a selling point
Does she support Netanyahu as unconditionally as Biden? I’ll vote for her anyway, but it would be nice if she actually took a stand against genocide. I’m probably asking too much, though.
She’s a cop. ACAB. Didn’t like her when I voted for Biden the first time, don’t like her now.
But she isn’t Trump, and that’s enough for now.
As it turns out, no:
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/26/kamala-harris-joe-biden-israel-00148955
I’m already practicing my “Madame President”
That is the real question, is US of A ready for a woman presidency.
It is has been only 100 years women were given rights to vote. And couple of years more than 50 years to universal suffrage.
That’s nothing compared to nearly 300 years of its existence.
/s for those who couldn’t get it
Right now these firsts are secondary compared to the real states of this election.
Why only black? She is half Indian. I don’t recall an Indian president?
Oh right nobody cares about other minorities, only kicking out Mexicans and propping up African Americans. Everyone else be damned.
Also why is the presidency limited to natural born citizens? Most of the world except the US, most of South America and a smattering of other countries require this. Shouldn’t everyone who has worked to gain citizenship be afforded the right to run for office? Doesn’t sound very free to me.
I would argue it’s a security issue. I think it would be quite feasible for some foreign power to scoop up some 20 year old with nothing to lose and put them to the task of infiltrating America. In fact, stuff like that has already happened: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegals_Program
Nowadays it’s much easier to influence the public by just bombarding them with bs social media posts. Watch the documentary “The Great Hack”.
So ~85 percent of the world is insecure because a naturalized citizen can run for office?
All I’m saying is that it’s feasible, and very much in the interest of foreign powers to attempt to install people in positions of power. I think that’s a very cold take.
Would she also be the first Asian person to become president?
Its amazing how obsessed you guys are about race.
This guy is a Trump supporter very thinly veiled as a leftist. Just thought folks on here might want to know. Scroll down just a bit and you’ll see the comment where they think that only Democrats are racist and the right treats everyone the same.
Leftists are absolute losers, I am not a leftist, and I am not a trump supporter, but I would vote for him over Kamala. Try again.
A lot of us feel really bad about how we treat non-white races…
Granted, a lot of us feel really good about it too…
Either way, it weighs on us.
Why dont you just treat everyone the same?
That’s only been legally possible in the US in the last 60 years.
The scars are still visible.
Okay, but why dont we treat everyone the same?
As individuals many of us do. We baked a lot of racism and bigotry into laws and government agencies, and it still has an effect, and has not been thoroughly scrubbed. This is what folks are talking about when they discuss systemic racism.
There is systemic race issues but now it has flopped the other way. People that are white are being intentionally not hired due to their race. How is this any better?
I would understand if you guys advocated for people being preferentially hired due to coming from a hard home, but now its just based on race or other factors that dont define how hard their life is.
There is systemic race issues but now it has flopped the other way. People that are white are being intentionally not hired due to their race.
Oh this old chestnut. If you are either this uninformed or this disingenuous, it’s not going to be enjoyable for either of us to continue this discussion. Someone else can do that work with you.
Trying to, but every time we do the right loses their damned minds.
I love how people like you take “It’s about damned time we have a woman (or black, circa 2008) president after centuries of not treating them equally” and somehow interpret that as “We’re trying to keep the white male down”.
The right is not losing their minds over Kamala, most of them probably hope she wins the primary because she is a weak candidate. You guys are creating this who race thing out of a couple random crazy people on the internet.
Sure, let’s start with the cops
I agree, and lets keep going with everyone else.
Well according to you, the right wing already does this.
The right is a big varying group and some are good and some are bad. I think their policy is to treat everyone the same, whereas the lefts policy is to pretend to treat minority groups better.
The American mind cant comprehend that sentence.
I think its actually the left is the only group that has an issue with this.
Here it is folks. The left is the only group that has an issue with treating everyone the same. That means that the right has no issues on that front according to this lemmy.ml user.
I would suggest blocking them completely as I have done. Their misdirection was fairly well done until the comment above so it’s best not to let them trap you in the future.
Then why have you not blocked me? If I said I was a black woman would it be racist and sexist to block me?
And first Indian or non-white President as well. Don’t know why people have trouble saying that.
And first Indian or non-white President as well.
Obama was equal parts white and black
Bro…did you not know?
He doesn’t know everybody. Let’s let him figure this out on his own and see if his brain explodes.
I suppose you’re saying that since Obama’s mother was white that makes him part-white, but that’s not really how race works in the US. Maybe it should be that way, maybe it shouldn’t, but right now it doesn’t.
Sure it does. It also makes him half-black. It also makes Kamala Harris the first non-white President in US history.
I suggest you look up the history of race relations in the US and how we used to categorize whites and non-whites for legal purposes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_whiteness_in_the_United_States
Why does Obama’s white mother determine how you refer to him instead of his black father, I wonder
I wonder if you don’t understand the phrase “non-white”. Do you get that concept, or are you a glass half full kind of racist?
Why doesn’t Obama’s blackness count? Does a little whiteness trump all his blackness for you?
Do you see how fucking stupid this is yet? Everyone understands what you’re saying. It’s just dumb as fuck. Obama identifies as black. The country sees him as black. Many black folk identify him as black. You calling him white is a self-report by you.
So to be extra simple about it, she’d be the first yellow-brown, where as Obama was white-brown.
In terms of american racism its just the brown part that matters, that makes them both “black” and there was even past comments about Harris not being “black enough” or something to that effect.
It makes more sense to call her the first Asian America that might be president if you want a “first” to claim.
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if she gets to the white house, I think it will be proudly said many, many more times.
This what i heard on the BBC.
edit: they said, “Indian-American”
Right? Not hearing this in the US.
to be fair, i’m in the US. i heard it on the BBC Global News Podcast ;)
i like to hear global takes on our
dumpster firedomestic eventsI just meant from US outlets. Everyone is focusing on either female, or black components. She’s a fucking person, CNN, just address all the things, FFS. If anything, that should lock in MORE votes, so I hope the campaign is out front and center making this a thing.
if i were to speculate, it’s because Biden heavily carried the black vote in 2020 and that has been majorly slipping this time around-- something the DNC is very much hoping to capture with a Harris nomination. Now, I’m no pollster, but it wouldn’t surprise me if that works.
many voters don’t know that she’s of Indian heritage and just incorrectly assume she’s of African ancestry. Presumably, that’s why there hasn’t been much of a public effort to make a correction.
She wasn’t carrying the black vote when she ran in the 2020 primary. Her record shows her to be staunchly pro establishment. She wasn’t progressive as a prosecutor or as Attorney General, she opposed and obstructed police reform in California when she was in the best position to get anything done. Maybe black voters will ultimately back her if she gets nominated but her support among black voters isn’t a good argument for nominating her because it isn’t strong.
Oh, I totally agree. It’s just disappointing to see.
And first Indian or non-white President as well. Don’t know why people have trouble saying that.
If she was Indian she wouldn’t be eligible to be president; they did say “South Asian decent” though.
And are you saying Obama was white? I must be missing something here.
It’s obviously meant as indian-american.
So some words we’re going to take strictly literally but some words were going to take with simple intention?
Why would you think she’s literally from India? What tf are you even talking about.
Did you also want to see Obamas Kenya birth certificate lol
I was talking about the poster I was replying to expecting people to take “non-white” in a very literal way, meanwhile using “Indian” in a non-literal way.
Like, who complains about a news outlet not referring to her as Indian when they did say “South Asian decent”?
Anyway, they’re no longer the top comment and have been downvoted appropriately, so I’m not really worried about it any more.
Sorry if I offended you, though. Wasn’t trying to be offensive.
Ah gotcha, I see what you mean now.
Oh no worries my friend. Same here.
I really have to stop going into political posts for a few months.Enjoy your evening
There are TWO people in here not knowing something that should be known. What in the actual fuck.
Also, how old are you? I’d like to know so I can place my mental shame on whatever generation doesn’t know who is eligible to be president in the US. It makes me awfully sad.
Dude, it’s a matter of linguistics and ethnic identity. Everyone here knows Obama has a white mother. You’re just being intentionally combative and taking advantage of the fact that most people - including Obama himself - identify him as black.
Yes, I’m obviously being combative by pointing out that Kamala Harris is non-white, and would be the first such President and it’s a big deal, and then giving shit to the few who tried to bring up Obama and didn’t realize he was half white.
Again, this is just linguistics games. Obama is the first non-white president if your definition of “non-white” is something like, “A person whose ethnicity/ethnic identity is something other than white.” Assuming she wins, Harris will be the first non-white president if your definition of “non-white” is something like, “A person whose ancestry does not include any Caucasians.”
Or rather, she would be if her father didn’t have any Caucasian ancestry. But he does. You knew that, didn’t you? Didn’t you?
No, Obama was the first Black President, sure. But he was not the only non-white President.
Maybe to you, but it’s not. It’s a huge thing that she is the first non-white President. Nobody in the populous gives a shit what they identify as. In her case, she’s black and Indian, and any voters who identify with that will feel less disenfranchised about her winning.
What you’re describing is some weird Rachel Dolezol shit. Nobody wants that.
Oh, for fuck’s sake… No, what I’m describing is a logical problem with your statements.
First, let’s get this out of the way: Race is a social construct. We differentiate between “black” and “white” in large part because of racism. Ta-Nehisi Coates has written a lot about how without racism, we wouldn’t perceive each other as different because of such a tiny variation as the color of our skin, and I tend to think he’s right. Concepts of race, as opposed to minor genetic variance, are predicated on racism.
With that said, when you call someone “non-white,” you can mean it in the technical sense of not having Caucasian ancestry, which applies to neither Obama nor Harris (which I’m positive you didn’t know until now, since you’ve been calling her “non-white” in this sense), or you can mean it in the sense of a social construct, which applies to both Obama and Harris.
There is no definition of “non-white” that applies to one, but not the other. Both have some Caucasian ancestry. Both are perceived socially as non-white because of how their bodies express certain alleles. Pick one definition and stick to it.
Figured this is what you meant. Imagine invoking the reverse One Drop Rule and thinking you have the superior position.
Yes, referring to Harris as the first “non-white President” somehow puts me in a position of power.
You drinking today?
bright spot. a bunch of readers knew exactly what you meant and went “huh! thats pretty cool.”
Less electable then Hillary. How have we not learned this lesson!?
