The Prosecutor vs. the Felon

In this week's Camino a Ítaca we divert our gaze away from Spain to across the Atlantic to matters that will have global implications. The irony of it all supercedes anything writers can produce. Click over to read the originally published version in Spanish in the HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF en castellano abajo) 

It’s a situation that would supersede the great Oscar Wilde’s ironic capabilities and one which would perhaps leave the gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson at a loss for words due to its inherent absurdity.

But after Biden’s slow motion car crash into forced retirement, the United States is now faced with a situation where a Black woman candidate is infinitely more viable than two white men: the incumbent and his ex-president opponent.

A woman who for years as a public prosecutor put criminals like her opponent in prison now stands a very good chance of becoming the next President of the United States and by proxy, of the free world. And the underlying irony is what she represents, precisely everything that her opponent, the convicted felon fears.

It is sad that there are people who cannot and/or will not allow themselves to be convinced by logic but here we have a woman with an exemplary public record standing against a convicted criminal.

Her opponent is a man whose supporters innocuously believe will somehow maintain and defend their Christian values, yet willingly overlook the reality. This is a predator who has often boasted about how his popularity enabled him to freely grope women’s genitals and who has been convicted of paying hush money to a porn star for an affair they had. And then on top of that, someone who has been convicted, not simply accused, of sexual assault.

They also fervently believe that this shyster is some sort of wizard with money management, yet forget or ignore that he has had to file for bankruptcy…six times. Despite all this, his cult followers continue to light candles for this exposed used car salesman.

They seem to be willing to overlook all of this to support someone who will defend that deep down conservative fear that someone somewhere they consider inferior to themselves is unjustly being treated as their equal.

The thing is, much more that the coddled billionaire who inherited his wealth, Kamala Harris is a much more accurate representation of what the United States is today. She is the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants. Yet in the mind of the American public, Harris’s Blackness wins out; her South Indian ethnicity demoted to a secondary, apolitical category.

Her blended family aligns with modern America: she is a stepmother to the children of her spouse; she does not seem to have a relationship to the long-suffering wifedom that plagued the last female candidate, Hillary Clinton. 

It contrasts so sharply with her bigoted opponent. It’s easy to forget that his political career began with a campaign to convince the public that Obama was not born in the United States. This past week has seen him awkwardly trying to figure out how to hate Harris from scratch when it seems likely that any of his infamous slanderous slogans will somehow fly back in his face.

Faced with all of these incongruities, I’m reminded of the 19th century escaped American slave, Frederick Douglass’ words when speaking about the fourth of July under slavery. “At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed.”

If that’s what it takes, then so be it.