Seismic shift in US politics

JUNE 27 may go down as one of the most consequential dates in American history.

That day, Joe Biden made a disastrous appearance in a televised debate with Donald Trump.

Age was already a liability for Mr Biden, 81, from the moment he sought office. But it had been plausible to argue it brought, if not vigour, wisdom; it had been possible to fight against things like special counsel Ben Hur’s assessment of him as an “elderly man with a poor memory.”

After the debate, however, in which 51 million Americans saw him unable to keep pace with Mr Trump’s lies, age became kryptonite. Mr Biden’s withdrawal on July 21 was inevitable.

It is nonetheless a momentous, selfless decision, rightly praised by world leaders, including our own Prime Minister, and we today commend the US President’s example.

This was not ageism. Mr Biden is not the same figure who once stood at a podium at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s, in 2013 and addressed local reporters with sparkling wit. He is not even the same figure of the State of the Union in Washington, DC, months ago. He read the room – including his own party’s – and passed the torch in a manner not unprecedented: Lyndon Johnson did the same in 1968.

If the close of Mr Biden’s formidable 54-year career – which, critically, came as he nursed the impact of covid19 in seclusion – is remarkable, so, too, is his endorsement of Kamala Harris.

Five decades after Shirley Chisholm, the daughter of Caribbean immigrants, sought, against hopeless odds, the Democratic presidential nomination, Ms Harris is poised to change the face of her party. It is a seismic shift.

But Mr Trump has already signalled his wish to keep things the same.

Even before Mr Biden’s withdrawal, he had begun to deploy misogynist and offensive tropes against Ms Harris, drawing attention to her physical appearance and deeming her “crazy.”

It is worth asking whether the country that moved, in 2016, from Barack Obama, the first African American president, to Mr Trump, in the process rejecting Hillary Clinton, will embrace Ms Harris, 59, who is of Jamaican and Tamil Indian ancestry.

However, times change. The reversal of Roe v Wade, engineered through Mr Trump, 78, means Ms Harris is poised to make a case on abortion rights, an issue that shaped the 2022 midterm elections. Her status as a former prosecutor, too, is a sharp contrast. Her age now becomes an asset, as might her running mate.

A week ago, after the attempted assassination of Mr Trump, the outcome of the election looked to be a foregone conclusion for some.

But a day is a long time in politics. There are just over 100 days to go. Expect earthquakes.