Editorial: American swatch

The Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, and her Republic counterpart, former US President Donald Trump have agreed to face off in a debate on September 10. The rendezvous holds deep significance, vis-a-vis the loyalties of the American populace, for the November polls. The previous edition of this debate, saw the Democrats field a bumbling President Joe Biden, putting up a sorry show, rife with moments of spaced-out incomprehension, utterances of gibberish, and general trailing off of thoughts and words, to the chagrin of his A-team. Biden was pitted against an emboldened Trump, who was coasting along on the powers of his sharpened misinformation rhetoric directed against the Democrats and the fake news media.

Trump’s pitch note is built on the framework of fear-mongering and the ‘otherisation’ of minorities and immigrants. Biden, who has since stepped down from the race for the Oval Office, had delegated the task of rebuilding an inclusive model of politics in America to his next in command, Harris, a woman who wears her Black identity and her Indian heritage proudly on her sleeves. Sadly, it’s that multi-cultural identity of Harris that Trump has now weaponised against her.

At the annual convention of the National Association of Black Journalists, in Chicago, Trump had questioned whether Harris was even Black, to start with. Multi-gold medallist US gymnast Simone Biles cheekily took on Trump by tweeting in Paris: I love my black job (in response to Trump’s allegations of illegal immigrants taking away black jobs). Later, Trump took another jibe at Harris’s Madras ancestry by posting a picture of her clad in a saree, seated alongside her grandfather. He captioned it as ‘appreciate your love of Indian heritage’. That’s rich (forgive the pun) coming from a billionaire of German and Scottish descent. The irony of Trump’s territorial tirade is not lost on Americans, when you consider that his Vice Presidential pick JD Vance’s wife Usha Chilukuri calls Telugu her mother-tongue.

On a good day, Trump might have been tickled to see the excitement that broke out among the Andhra-Telangana diaspora in the US, who were undoubtedly pumped at the prospects of a VP for a mappillai. It might be baffling that Donald would want to alienate that community with his nationalist barbs. The average household earnings of Indian-Americans are in excess of $100,000, which places them as the highest earning ethnic group. Also, they record the highest voter turnout, compared to any other Asian-American groups. But here’s the caveat – Indian Americans make up just 1.3% of the US population and they mostly side with Democrats, which might explain Trump’s dismissiveness towards mixed race voters, and his dependency on the White electorate.

Harris and Co know which side of the bread is buttered. Black Americans are said to make up for 14% of the eligible voters in the US, numbering 34.4 mn voters. As of now, Trump hasn’t really made major inroads into the black vote demographic. A CNN poll for last July, showed that Harris has the backing of 78% black voters, with Trump bagging 15%. Harris has also trumped her opponent by raising $377 mn in her campaign war chest compared to Trump’s $327 mn. Her running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz also seems to have a reputation for conversion of Red districts into Blue. The elections this time around are truly worth its weight in the democratic soul of America.