Kamala Harris excels in the U.S. Vice Presidential debate

Vice Presidential candidate Kamala Harris advanced an inclusive vision for the U.S. while incumbent Mike Pence parrotted Trumpian rhetoric, writes contributing editor-at-large Tess Lawrence.

YES SHE CAN!

Senator Kamala Harris has shown she’s got the right stuff to take the oath of office as vice president (VP) of the United States of America – and step up as president if needs be.

Thursday's debate with incumbent VP Mike Pence gave us a glimpse of the measured incisiveness that has forged her reputation as a lethal judicial inquisitor, arbitrator and lawmaker.

Staged at the University of Utah, USA Today moderator Susan Page had less of a hard time than Chris Wallace did the other week, with Trump’s irritating interjections. Although Pence, mimicking his lord and master incessantly talked out of time and over Harris, doing himself a great disservice and exposing his lack of control and earning her visual disdain to boot.

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Mike Pence a deadbeat away from the President

There was more than a plexiglass barrier between Harris and Pence. They are divided by ideological walls as well as the sporadic suburban civil wars fuelled by the continuing brutal deaths of black lives and the awful systemic racism that roils all facets of the American Dream and long ago poisoned Mom’s once comforting Apple Pie.

President Donald Trump, sociopathic onanist

They are wars into which President Donald Trump has thrown incendiary devices designed to inflame his apostles and non-believers alike. Let alone recall his callous and bizarre retort in the face of the shocking 200,000 and more deaths of the American family caused by COVID-19, that the disease “affects virtually nobody”.

Trump’s dogged refusal to specifically name, shame and denounce white supremacy was upheld in the vice presidential candidates debate by his political lackey and ardent page boy, Pence, who has never been his own man as far as the Trump Administration is concerned.

Pence's fawning over Trump is embarrassing

Clearly, Pence was despatched by COVID-19 superspreader Trump to sing his praises. Period.

Don’t worry about policies, the truth, any of that nonsense.

And don’t worry about that fly that decided to squat for ages on Pence’s head, either. What was it doing all that time?

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How many eggs did that fly lay on Pence's head? And what about his red eye that made us wonder if he should have another COVID-19 test?

Whilst there was no crossing of the Rubicon by either aspirant, Pence was again parroting the lies propagated by Trump’s Administration.

Here’s one of them that triggered a visceral reaction in me – and not just because for months, I’ve been investigating a Royal Commission and Inquiry for Independent Australia, involving the harrowing corrupt activities and mismanagement of the coronavirus.

Not long into the debate, Senator Harris alluded to Trump’s maniacal jealousy of his immediate predecessor President Barack Obama.

Harris nails Trump's obsession with Obama and Biden

Here’s what she said in the debate:

'...There is a weird obsession that President Trump has had with getting rid of whatever accomplishment was achieved by President Obama and Vice President Biden. For example, they created within the White House and office that basically was responsible for monitoring pandemics. They got rid of it.'

Vice President Pence replies:

"Not true."

He is lying. It is true.

In June, under the headline The global plandemic? There wasn't one, IA wrote about Trump abolishing the pandemic response team set up by the Obama Administration and referred to Anthony Fauci’s 2001 explicit warning of an infectious disease outbreak.

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It said:

In fact, Dr Fauci warned of an infectious disease outbreak as far back as 2001.

What did Trump do about Fauci’s 2017 warning? Why, the next year he put the kibosh on the National Security Council's pandemic response team, of course.

Unquestionably, Senator Harris won the day and the debate. As the youngest of the gang of four vying for presidential office, she’ll be celebrating her 56th birthday in a few days and may yet see out the year in sharing the administration of the White House with Joe Biden.

This U.S. election is about reclaiming America’s democratic soul. As observers it must be noted that the system that delivered Barack Obama is the same system that delivered Donald Trump.

Here’s why. The Electoral College has reached its use by date.

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In an opinion piece and video in The New York Times the other day Jesse Wegman pointed out the goddamn truth and everyone knows it:

'Five times in our history, presidential candidates who have won more votes than their opponent have still lost the election. Why? Our 230-year-old jerry-built system for picking the president, known as the Electoral College.'

But the truth holds little currency in American politics these days, or in political life generally throughout the world, and sadly, as we have seen so often in Australia, even in our own backyard.

It is time the people of the world reclaimed our governments.