Harris versus Trump: A fight for America's future

WASHINGTON -

Vice presidential running mates are picked. The two political parties' delegates have made their respective nominations official. In less than 90 days, the electorate heads to the polls to make their voices heard.

Vice-President Harris and former president Donald Trump are now the embodiment of contrasting visions seeking to shape the trajectory and pathway of the nation. Theirs is now a fight for the future; a battle over ideas, values, and identity.

GOP contender Trump, despite the denunciations, recriminations, and rejections, has already cast the die for his portrait of America under a second term. The controversial Project 2025, a 922-page policy prescription offers a clear, albeit frightening blueprint for a re-imagined federal government beginning in the year 2025 should Trump win in the fall.

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Authored by many former senior officials and cabinet secretaries from the Trump Administration including Ken Cuccinelli, Dr. Ben Carson, and Peter Navarro, Project 2025 is described as “…the opening salvo of the 2025 presidential transition…” which offers clear mandates for “White House offices, Cabinet departments, Congress, and agencies, commissions, and boards.” A whole-of-government approach for re-orienting every lever of power to meet a conservative agenda.

Such highlights include:

• Elimination of the Department of the Homeland Security and Department of Education;
• Elimination of such terms “gender equality” and “reproductive rights” from every federal rule, agency, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists;
• Completion of the border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border; and to
• Maintain a “biblically based, social science-reinforced definition of marriage and family.”

Meanwhile, Democratic presidential nominee Harris, while not as descriptive and definitive, is promising a continuation of many of the policies implemented and proposed under the Biden Administration. Such initiatives include the most recently proposed term limits on Supreme Court justices and restoring freedoms on abortion as the law of the land. A campaign still less than a month old, Harris’ nascent candidacy is still taking shape as she seeks to further define herself and project her image of governance under a Harris administration.

Gone are the stale, minuscule fights over age and character defects that underscored the race between Biden and Trump. In its place, an ambitious, grandiose and ideological test that seeks to challenge, engage, and press voters to act. To choose between a dystopian world void of basic freedoms where certain people are locked out or prohibited from vying for the American Dream, or an expansion of the welfare state enlarging the social safety net for the nations most vulnerable.

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The Vice-President’s full-throated amplification of her role as a full governing partner of the Biden Administration presents both a defence and appeal to remain in power. The Harris campaign’s unifying spirit, aspirational messaging, and historic fundraising gives Democrats what they hope is a capable warrior to match the deafening and raucous roar of the Trump maga-phone.

Analysis by Bruce J. Schulman, the William E. Huntington professor of History at Boston University, of the Biden/Trump rematch, succinctly underscored the potential changes to the U.S. political landscape if such a race had continued. He states:

"Over the course of U.S. history, presidential rematches have signaled momentous political upheavals by revealing instabilities in the electoral system and exposing tensions in the coalitions of the major parties. They tend to mark the end of an era—the last contest before major changes either in the system for selecting presidents or structure of the parties."

In the aftermath of the debate debacle, Trump’s fascist impulses seemed to be on a glide path to ending 250 years of American democracy. All the while, an ethically bankrupt Supreme Court and a comically broken and dysfunctional Congress appearing completely powerless to stop the authoritarian vicissitudes creeping toward Washington.

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However, the groundswell of activism and enthusiasm powering the Harris candidacy is rapidly morphing into a movement that could be a potent bulwark against the fascist tentacles that, until just weeks ago, were poised to latch onto U.S. political power. Still, with Harris atop the ticket, Professor Schulman’s prescient prognosis of change appears likely. Political and institutional realignment is afoot and both candidates are pushing to be the agent of that change.

U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris admires the crowd during a campaign rally, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

As a new candidate emerges, testing a nation’s long-held notions around race and gender, another one remains committed to pushing the boundaries of the electorate’s sensibilities of basic trust and control. A political tug-of-war playing out in real time over the direction and leadership of the country.

Ex-president Trump’s MAGA base has shown remarkable resiliency, influence, and longevity in American politics. However, Vice-President Harris is building a phalanx of politically engaged and astute voters affectionately known as the “K-Hive” which the left hopes can match the MAGA dynamism.

Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Atlanta, Aug. 3, 2024 (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

For now, former president Trump and Vice-President Harris are not only on opposing sides, but also occupying different realms of political space.

Harris, either by design or happenstance, has taken a page from the lofty ethereal and elevated positioning of former president Barack Obama’s groundbreaking 2008 campaign. A campaign that moves to inspire young people; galvanize the politically ambivalent; and motivate the moribund.

Trump, on the other hand, grounded in a reality permeated by fear; wrought with cynicism; and distrusting of the existing system of checks and balances. This is the fight being waged and the electorate is now, finally vested. For this is not just a fight for control or for change but more importantly, it is a fight for destiny.

Eric Ham is a bestselling author and former congressional staffer in the U.S. Congress. He served as a contributor to TheHill.com and The Washington Diplomat. He resides in Washington, DC.