By Monish Tourangbam
The US presidential election campaign 2024 is giving more suspense and drama than a Hollywood thriller. Since President Joe Biden’s disastrous performance in his first debate with opponent Donald Trump on June 27, Democratic Party members and star fundraisers blamed Biden’s advancing age and pressured him to step aside for a younger replacement. Therefore, Biden’s call to end his bid for the White House was being anticipated yet it opens a can of uncertainties. While announcing his decision, Joe Biden simultaneously endorsed his Vice President Kamala Harris’ candidacy for the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party. Speaking from the Oval Office, President Biden said, “I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America’s future, all merited a second term. But nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition.” “So, I’ve decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. It’s the best way to unite our nation,” he said.
In the last few days, heavyweights of the Democratic Party including former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi and fundraisers have largely coalesced around Kamala Harris, boosted campaign funds and injected new energy among minority, young and independent voters. But if there is anything this election season has shown, it is that nothing is certain until it is certain. Harris is clearly the front runner to become the new presidential candidate of the Democratic Party, not only because of her nation-wide recognition, but also from the point of campaign logistics and fundraising as the incumbent Vice President. However, if there is one thing this U.S. election has shown, it is that nothing is certain till it is certain. It is anyone’s guess till the Democratic National Convention (DNC) scheduled in the later part of August, unless developments within the Democratic Party throw new surprises. The National Conventions of both parties are important dates in the election fixture, as they not only confirm the presidential and vice-presidential candidates, but also adopt the Party platforms (akin to election manifestos).
Prior to this, another transformative event of the 2024 campaign unfolded right before Donald J Trump formally accepted his nomination in the Republican National Convention (RNC). A failed assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania nearly took the former President’s life. One of the assassin’s bullets left Trump with a bloodied ear, and some iconic moments becoming the highpoint of Trump’s campaign trail, most particularly pictures of a defiant Trump, with his fist high up in the air, surrounded by U.S. secret service agents and an American flag in the background, shouting, “Fight, Fight, Fight…” The image is already the overarching theme of campaign merchandise, and many speakers during the RNC recounted it as nothing less than God’s providence, for Trump to “Make America Great Again.” Trump said, “I’m not supposed to be here tonight,” even as the crowd emphatically responded, “Yes you are!” “Not supposed to be here… I thank you, but I’m not, and I’ll tell you, I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of Almighty God,” he added.
Once a fierce critic of Trump, having called him a “moral disaster”, Ohio Senator, James David (J D) Vance, is now the running mate for Trump. J D Vance echoing all the noises of Trump’s “America First” slogan said, “We’re done importing foreign labor, we’re going to fight for American citizens and their good jobs and their good wages. We’re done buying energy from countries that hate us; we’re going to get it right here, from American workers in Pennsylvania and Ohio and across the country.” Trump’s 2024 campaign managers are clearly shaping the Republican Party, in the image of his personality. Republican heavyweights and Trump critics like Mitt Romney, former Vice President Mike Pence or former President George W. Bush were missing from the RNC, while fierce opponents during the nomination race, such as former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley came around to support his candidacy.
Even as Trump made a rather solemn call for unity, analysts were busy, counting the number of times his long acceptance speech at the RNC, at more than 90 minutes, disregarded facts and were misleading. “As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny…We rise together, or we fall apart. I am running to be president for all of America, not half of America, because there is no victory in winning for half of America,” he said. Supporters of the Trump-Vance campaign, from different occupations, took to the podium to harden the call for aggressive action against “illegal immigrants” advocating the “border wall” plus “mass deportations” and making America the leading fossil fuel producer, repeatedly chanting “drill, baby, drill.” As the Republican National Platform says, “America needs determined Republican Leadership at every level of Government to address the core threats to our very survival: Our disastrously Open Border, our weakened economy, crippling restrictions on American Energy Production, our depleted Military, attacks on the American System of Justice, and much more.”
How will the Trump campaign, until now, used to attacking Biden’s four-year record, and his old age, shift gears and readjust its campaign strategy, with Kamala Harris as the most likely opponent? Biden ending his race, and Vice President Kamala Harris emerging as the most popular choice to take up the baton, has injected fresh blood into the Democratic camp. But will it sustain as the campaign juggernaut moves ahead or will it fizzle out like soda pop? We might just have to wait and watch!
(The author is Director at the Kalinga Institute of Indo-Pacific Studies (KIIPS).)
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