Trump vs. Harris: The 2024 Battle for America

Harris vs. Trump: The 2024 Battle for America — Illustrative photo of Donald Trump boxing with Kamala Harris at the White House, 2024. Photo: ikurd.net/AI

Nemat Sharif | Exclusive to iKurd.net

American Elections 2024

The American presidential election is an important event here and abroad. The US impact in the world is great, not only at the level of governments, but it goes much deeper to impact the lives of peoples, especially in third world countries.

Mrs. Harris differs from her rival, Donald Trump, in her entire approach to governing and agenda. She is a democrat, and a minority woman with life experience that stands in direct contrast to Mr. Trump. The United States of America is a state of law and established institutions. All stand equal before the law.

In their debate, and despite that they had not met, Kamala Harris took the initiative to greet Donald Trump with confidence and shook his hand as his equal. This move took him by surprise. Consciously or unconsciously.

He did not fully recover from his shock to the end. Perhaps he followed what his advisors had told him aggressiveness or excitement would not help. Annoyed, but he stayed calm as he is described as misogynous and racist. His opponent was the epitome of both, a woman of color.

As for the Democrats, they nominated Geraldine Ferraro (August 8, 1935 – March 26, 2011) in 1984 to run for vice president; the first attempt by the Democratic Party to break through the glass ceiling as the first woman to run for the VP position.

Years passed, they did not abandon their goal of pushing women and minorities into government ranks. Despite successes in other areas, the positions of president and vice president remained out of reach. By comparison, Europeans have been more successful in this area.

Then-US president Barack Obama. Photo: The White House.

Many believe that the American people still do not accept a woman for the highest offices. Democrats, such as the late Edward Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009), turned to nominating a black man, with good reputation, a brilliant politician who began his career as a lawyer, Barak Obama.

Despite the Republicans’ attempt, including President-elect Donald Trump, Barack Obama (August 4, 1961-?) won two consecutive terms, and supported the first woman to run for the presidency of the United States, Hillary Clinton (October 26, 1947-?), his competitor in the Democratic Party. She did not win, but Democrats continued their efforts.

The surprise came with the nomination of a black woman in the midst of fierce competition and accusations of being extreme left-wing liberals. Let’s see what Ms. Clinton said in her last speech when she congratulated Trump on his winning that race: “Our campaign was never for one person or even one election campaign, it was for the country we love and to build an America that is hopeful, inclusive and big-hearted.”

If her goal was just to reach the White House, she lost, but as Democrats’ goals are much bigger and go beyond one election campaign or winning for only four years. Here it is worth noting some important differences between the candidates and their parties to understand the circumstances of this race.

Unlike last election (Trump v. Clinton, a white woman), this race is between Trump and a minority woman. With the support of the party leadership, she was decisively nominated for the presidency, while the Republicans struggled to nominate Mr. Trump for another term.

Experienced in difficult positions as Attorney General and Vice President, Harris, shook her head as Trump attacked immigrants by saying that they were criminals and dangerous and that they eat pets in their owners’ homes, such as cats and dogs.

She sarcastically smiled as he uttered baseless accusations, telling him that these were just lies. The moderator added that there is no evidence of the truth of what Mr. Trump said. In another response, she met him with a broad smile when he commented on her achievements as VP lies again because the documents and facts prove the truth of her words, not his.

Again when Trump attacked the Democratic Party, Mrs. Harris was agitated as she shook her head and responded with a stern and strict tone. She summarized her agenda: First, help and encourage small business owners. Second, help working families through direct support for raising and educating children.

Third, help first time home buyers with $25K down payment, who are mostly young and ready to start their families.

The competition between the Democratic and Republican parties, is historic and the pace is escalating whenever there is a change in their positions. When one of the parties adopts a position the other competes to gain the support of the American people.

A look back at history reveals that American society usually consists of three main classes: the rich, the middle class, and the poor, to whom most social, health, educational, and other assistance programs are directed. There is usually a narrow segment in between that is not covered by much assistance.

They are those above the poverty line, but their incomes are not stable to ascend to the middle class. These people cannot always provide for all their needs, and not eligible for much government assistance. On the other hand, we see that the difference in annual income for members of the Democratic and Republican parties on the average does not exceed ten thousand dollars annually.

Democrats see themselves closer to the lower classes in society. The Republican Party is more aligned to the wealthy. Thus, programs adopted by each are completely different. The democratic orientation is to provide more services to the poor and middle classes to ease the economic burden on families with limited income.

This is not geared to achieving socioeconomic justice in society as socialist ideas never took root in America from the beginning. Election campaign accusations of being socialist, far left, or extreme liberal often make headlines.

Republican programs are more often directed at the wealthy in general, diplomacy supported by the use of force if necessary and reducing taxes on the wealthy and corporations to enable them to achieve more growth, scientific and technological successes.

More than 65% of Republicans do not believe in welfare and social programs such as food, housing, education, health, etc. that Democrats promote. The remaining 35% of Republicans believe in the importance of these programs and most of them are from the lower and middle classes, most of them have humanitarian and religious motives and to keep social peace and order.

Obviously, democratic thinkers and decision-makers are leaving their mark on the political history of the United States. They want to stand on the right side of history.

Their moral high grounds is dealing with poverty in society and equality between the different sectors and races of the people on the basis of non-discrimination on the bases of race, skin color, gender, religion and age in law enforcement, social services and programs related to receiving aid from the US federal government.

On this legal basis, democratic decision-makers work to involve all religions, sects, races and ethnicity in the political process, starting from the party base to higher echelons of the party and governments.

U.S. President Donald Trump with former Vice President Joe Biden after being sworn in as the 45th president of the United States January 20, 2017. Photo: AFP

In 2020 elections, President Biden chose a woman of Indian and African origins to be his running mate and eventually his VP while in the previous elections, the white Hillary Clinton lost to President Trump. Trump is trying once again to ride the wave of the historic divide between whites and people of color inside and outside the Republican Party in the 2024 elections.

With Trump’s nomination again Republicans have slipped further and further towards the far right or what is known as radical right. To this Democrats responded by nominating the vice president, a minority woman of mixed African and Indian origins. If anything, this indicates the widening gap between the two parties and the polarization of society, which they call a ‘divided society.’

Regardless of the many details, including Trump’s failed coup attempt on January 6, 2021 against the American democratic system, it must be said that the democratic institutions withstood the coup plotters proving that US democracy remains strong.

The weak position of the Republicans in the face of the extremists led by Trump is accelerating their march toward failure while accelerating the democratic march to achieve more gains for the benefit of the American people in general, as well as limiting the radical right.

If the Republicans continue to accommodate the radical right, we believe that this will lead them to a clash between radicals and moderates, who have led their Party for nearly 200 years. We believe that the radical right is a minority, but active and powerful.

They have money and arms. However, they have limitations as well as the Republican Party power base is in the cities and remains as such for the foreseeable future.

Nemat Sharif, a political analyst, a contributing writer and columnist for iKurd.net.

The opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of iKurd.net or its editors.