Alan Cohn: We believe in Kamala Harris

Image via AP.

All elections are important. Not all elections are this consequential.

At their best, our Presidential Elections are a competition between two great parties with competing views about how best to achieve a common goal of peace, prosperity and freedom.

But not this time.

There are moments in history when citizens of a great nation choose which path to take and, in doing so, embrace their destiny.

Our choice is progress. Our choice is looking to the future and continuing the never-ending pursuit of “forming a more perfect union.” Building a better, more prosperous and fairer nation for all Americans, for every man, every woman, every child, every family and every small-business owner who remains dedicated to the proposition that if you work hard, you should have a fair shot at the American dream.

Their path is darker and devoid of hope and aspiration. It doesn’t pursue the better nature of our angels. It traffics in grievance and anger. It peddles a phony narrative that things were better in the past when women knew their place. As did minorities. It’s now used by those who have no real answers, no real solutions, and don’t really care to. But they have brilliantly tapped into the aggrieved, giving them a face, a voice, a name and a following. And by doing so, they’ve built a forcefield insulating themselves from accountability for private and public failure.

It disguises itself in the illusion of toughness. It derides our friends and allies in favor of despots and dictators, and it pledges fidelity to their own brand of foreign policy, which we can aptly describe as “Russia First.”

It’s like an old broken record that keeps skipping on a scratch, repeating, “It was rigged. It was rigged.”

We believe those dark days need to be over. We won’t go back to that time when every day was a soap opera fit for a “drama king” and an assault on our sense of right and wrong. Respect for how we talk about and treat our friends and political opponents was reduced to insults and self-serving displays of self-gratification.

We need to fight. Because, as the Vice President says, “When we fight, we win.”

We seek leaders who don’t tear down America but boldly seek to build a nation true to its promise.

This is our moment, and there’s no room or excuse or ambivalence.

It’s a time for leaders.

We believe in a street-savvy prosecutor who’s taken on thugs and rapists. We believe in a District Attorney who took on gangs, championed law and order, and never sought to evade it. We believe in an Attorney General who took on corrupt corporations and fraud. We like that matchup. We believe in a U.S. Senator who knew how to ask a tough question. We believe in a Vice President who’s become the leading voice in making the case that women have the right to make their own health care decisions and who has been a full partner to a President who rescued this nation and delivered us from a deadly pandemic. We believe all those skills are needed right now more than ever.

We believe in a woman who will be the next President of the United States. Her name is Kamala Harris.

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Alan M. Cohn is a Peabody Award-winning journalist and the 2020 Democratic nominee in Florida’s 15th Congressional District.