Suzanne Harrington: Kamala Harris is Trump's worst nightmare

Vice President Kamala Harris addresses the members of the American Federation of Teachers at George R. Brown Convention Center on Thursday, July 25, 2024 in Houston.

Optimism! Ever since Joe Biden did the right thing and stepped aside, so that he can be remembered for his 50 years of public service rather than being the old man who wouldn’t go, the political air has been freshened with the scent of hope. Kamala-scented hope. 

Which makes her sound like a candle, but that’s what she is — a flicker of optimism amid all the derangement. A flicker that will hopefully catch light and burn her path to the US presidency.

For much of her vice presidency, Kamala Harris has been vacuum packed in bubble-wrap and stored upright in a cupboard in a disused wing of the White House. This is because she is not just a woman, but a highly-accomplished brown woman, and thus far considered too frightening for all those Americans who like their politicians male and pale. 

She has not taken much space in the public consciousness (my partner was calling her Camilla until five minutes ago) other than occasional unflattering portraits popping up in Politico or The New York Times suggesting she’s a bit female and in charge.

Christ, let’s hope so. If ever the world needed a capable, no-nonsense woman, it’s now. Let’s hope she wipes the floor with her opponent, whom in the past she’s compared to “the little man in the Wizard of Oz”. 

Certainly, Trumplethinskin (I’d love to take credit for that, but can’t) excels at putting on a show. Unreality shows, hollow orchestrations of red white and blue outfits with matching balloons; shallow showbiz, high on razzmatazz and ear bandages, low on thinking.

Can Kamala yank back the curtain to reveal a tiny orange man trying desperately to project himself hugely beyond his Maga diehards, for likes and TV ratings? Because that’s all he wants: ratings. 

Can she dismantle the cult of personality around the Mango Mussolini and make America sane again? (Relatively speaking, that is; the US, home of cannibal capitalism and the gun fetish, has never been sane, but since 2016 it is an asylum in which the lunatics have fully taken over).

Harris could reverse this, were she given the chance; this requires a majority of US citizens to vote using their brains rather than their bile. Are they up to the task? 

Already American media naysayers are whining she doesn’t have charisma, or she’s cold, or she smiles too much, laughs too much; the presidential race as a high-school personality contest.

They’ve been here with Hillary; this is finally a chance to hit reset.

With the votes of women, brown and black people, progressives, reformers, and anyone who thinks, Harris could put the presidency back into the hands of grown ups rather than the cult leader of Maga. 

He looks more unhinged than ever standing next to a younger, more accomplished, articulate, competent candidate. 

Harris is Trump’s worst nightmare. Let us hope it’s a recurring one, that haunts him all the way back to his Florida gold taps.