The Soul of America

Biden’s campaign will focus on reuniting Americans around the values of respect and coexistence that Trump has shattered.

A battle for America’s soul. This is how the campaign team of Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate nominated to oust Donald Trump from the White House, has defined the upcoming presidential election; it is an accurate definition. The Nov. 3 election, far from serving as purely a means of electing a president, is also a test of which values most Americans will prefer to represent themselves and their country, both at home and abroad.

Biden, who, if he were to win the election, would be the United States’ second Catholic president — the first was John F. Kennedy — presents himself as a beacon of light as opposed to the darkness that surrounds Trump’s political ideologies. His campaign will focus on portraying him as having the calling to become president and to lead a movement to reunite Americans around the fundamental values of respect and democratic coexistence that Trump has tirelessly attacked with a vengeance during his time in office.

The polls are clearly favoring the Democrats right now. The disastrous health management during the pandemic has put Trump in a very difficult position. Not only because the United States is the country with the worst record of those infected and deceased, but also because the severe economic consequences of the crisis make it impossible, come election time, for Republicans to wave the flag of economic recovery. This is the trump card they were counting on just a few months ago.

For Biden, Barack Obama’s vice president, getting nominated was not a bed of roses. To achieve this, he had to get pragmatism to prevail among the Democratic base and sweep away more liberal proposals, such as those represented by Sen. Bernie Sanders, from the political arena. There were doubts as to whether the more progressive wing of the Democrats would remain loyal to Biden. Still, the Democratic Convention has since dispelled those doubts and, unlike four years ago with Hillary Clinton, this time the whole Democratic Party seems willing to work side by side to remove Trump from the Oval Office.

In this sense, the nomination of Kamala Harris as vice president, the daughter of immigrants of Jamaican and Indian origin, established among the economic and cultural elite and with a flawless professional and political career, has been a success for Biden. She brings an essential added value to important parts of his electorate that were not initially enthusiastic about a 77-year-old candidate who has been in politics for half a century.

Even though all the polls favor the Democrats at the moment, we know from experience to be wary of predictions. Trump still has the challenge of convincing those who voted for him four years ago to do so again; furthermore, the campaign will be long and dirty — mail-in voting, accusing Biden of having dementia, etc. — and what’s more, the setting is one of great political volatility. The countdown to the battle for America’s soul has begun.