By Partha Chakraborty-
Less than four weeks to go for the US presidential election and the race could not get any closer. The playing field changed drastically in July, much has been said by, and said about, the two tickets since. Barring an October surprise in the next two weeks it is unlikely that anything new will move the goalposts and both sides are nibbling at the margins.
I will start with a few axioms. No, this is not the most significant election in history, though it might be one of the few most significant ones in our lifetime. No, democracy is not on the ballot; we will have elections in 2026 and in 2028, and thereafter. Counting of electoral college votes may be a show, but no, they will never be a farce; outcomes will never be pre-ordained, nor will a verdict bypass the rules on the books. This is not the end of America as we know it, the Republic is alive and the American Experiment is going strong no matter who wins. Just to belabor the obvious, neither candidate is a Fascist, nor a Marxist, or a racist; nor will they turn into one if elected.
There is a palpable pride in the community in having an Indian-American within hair’s breadth of the US Presidency the first time ever. Further, possibly the first ever woman behind Resolute Desk could be of Indian origin. As a proud Indian-American, and an avowed feminist, I am elated on both counts. That said, I also realize that the next President shall be tested on many fronts. Harris doctrine, or lack thereof, will come up short in each of five top areas as I outline below.
Far away, the Dragon is sure to flail its tails in the South China sea and in the Himalayas. For decades the US kept China out of Taiwan with a doctrine of strategic ambiguity. That, unfortunately, is losing its shine. Domestic priorities, and an instinctively passive stance of the US administration, will incentivize Chinese autocrat Xi Jinping to aim for low-hanging fruits, e.g., expeditionary forays into disputed islands or border skirmishes with India and Nepal. Sanctions are no deterrent for China and Russia; the two bad actors on the world stage have perfected ways of avoiding them. In place of strategic ambiguity, we need a new doctrine of strategic unpredictability. It might involve opportunistic occupation of islands in the Philippine Sea or sailing armadas through South China Sea in full view – both are unthinkable today. The surprise, even audacity, of such a tactical stance will carry an unambiguous message while a Chinese response will be limited under MAD. China understands power that flows from the barrel of the gun but has no fear of a rebuke at the UN. A Harris administration is more likely to go for the second and thus fail miserably.
The US economy is in goldilocks right now but I look closely for fissures when things look too good. A geopolitical flare-up will push the economy into a tailspin. When that happens, I want a President who oozes confidence and bravado – not wishy-washy feelings of ‘joy.’ We need a President who calls the winner, unequivocally, and for whom the winners always are American workers, American consumers, American businesses, American manufacturing capacities, and American capitalism. We need a President who will appreciate the bipolar nature of the world we live in, and willing to play a zero-sum game, just like we did during the Cold War. During that time, it was not gauche to expect America to prioritize interests of the Western block and mute negativity, even when it had near-term economic costs. We won the decades-long Cold War not by living in a utopia of free-trade. Without question, the next Cold War has already started. I need a President who recognizes that reality and helps allocate resources to friendly shores. Economics textbooks do not teach that, but we can learn something old anew; Harris & Co. will not write that updated screed.
Sentiment against immigration has reached a boiling point. It was inevitable, but avoidable under a more sensible and proactive administration. Today’s economic migrants are making a mockery of the asylum process every day at the Southern border. I am an economic migrant myself, and it took more than twenty-two years before I was granted citizenship – in between I earned a Ph.D. from an Ivy League school, nurtured a family, founded many businesses, survived near-death health scares, paid my taxes, and maintained my status every single month I was living here. I am just one of the aspirational millions; the US is for, by and of people like me. We are driven by the same values of family, freedom, and faith and the flag. We do not particularly those who skip the line or create a mess because it makes rest of us look guilty by association. Not for nothing, the Harris campaign is faring poorly amongst immigrant communities of all hues.
Who gets to have the bullhorn on American values is on the ballot in November. Growing up in India, I dreamed of America as a land where hard work, self-reliance, pride in community, excellence and celebration of measurable achievements are prized. Not so these days. Americans are more dependent on the Government than they have ever been. It is fashionable, even preferable, to hate American Exceptionalism on college campuses and to be openly racist and antisemitic at the instigation of some of the faculty. American Pride needs a re-awakening, now more than ever. By the same token, we need accountability enforced on unelected bureaucrats, we need freedom of speech to be truly free of aspersions cast, we need no-consequence busybodies at the UN ignored when they besmirch us or our allies. I do not see Ms. Harris sprint ahead with that torch on any of them, if anything she will run away from that responsibility.
Lastly, the Middle East is on fire, almost literally. Despite endless prevarications of the Biden-Harris administration, realities on the ground have turned in Israel’s favor. She has her non-state rogue enemies exactly where she wants them – scampering, bleeding and bewildered. But they are still there, and more importantly, so is their patron saint – Iran. The Jewish state is ready, willing, and able to take the fight to their doorstep, probably within weeks, but she cannot count on full-throated moral, and possibly material, support from a Harris administration. At best, this lack of resolve will keep in place today’s tinderbox of missed opportunities – for Israelis, for ordinary Palestinians in West Bank, for innocent Gazans used as pawns by Hamas, and for the freedom loving people of Iran, to name a few. At worst, the fight will come to our doorstep in a here-to-unimagined shape or form, just like we saw on 9/11. Time to get the job done; a Harris administration cannot be trusted to be an ally.
Harris’ campaign must be complimented in turning the race from being a referendum against the incumbent to a referendum against Trump bluster in such a short order, thanks in no small parts to Mr. Trump himself. That said, months into her candidacy we still do not know who the real Harris is, and why. She is not Trump, that is for sure. Other than that, her single-issue candidacy rests on a promise – codifying Roe – that she has no capacity to deliver in her first term. She needs to deliver on other matters for her base, and that makes her hostage of the illiberal left, just like the Democratic Party is. I have repeatedly cried hoarse that the Democratic Party, of which I am a member, is run by apparatchiks who remind me of the “professional intellectuals on the left” of India – “bhadralok aa(n)tels” in Bengali – a coterie I hold in fear, loathing, contempt, and disgust. Well-meaning as the illiberal left pretends to be in the US, their mendacity and duplicitousness stand naked in full view, despite them being markedly better in messaging. They are lurking in plain view for their pounds of flesh, and a Harris Administration is a willing prey.
I have spoken with community members throughout the country over the last few months and I see three distinct sentiments on Harris’ candidacy. First generation – women and men who were born in India and came as economic immigrants – have mixed feelings about her. Their children, born in the US, are head over heels in favor of an ‘Auntie.’ The generation after, still in college or younger, are not so sure. Without question, my small-sample unscientific survey is rife with implicit selection biases. Still, that supports a hypothesis that a significant number of Indian-Americans are thinking about their bottom-line issues first, and identity second – exactly what you would expect from an upwardly mobile cohort confident and mature on their own feet.
I speak only for me, and nobody else. It is clear to me that without a base of her own she is captive of a progressive posse, which undermines her capacity to drive the right decisions in times of great turmoil I foresee. Chameleon as Kamala might be, she will not change colors from 2020, and will not rise to the occasion. Therefore, Ms. Kamala Harris has not earned my vote.
