Moses was an interesting guy. In his infancy, his Israelite mother sent him down a river in a tar-covered basket to save him from certain infanticide following the Egyptian Pharoah’s edict that all male Israelite babies be killed. An Egyptian princess found him lodged in the bulrushes at the side of the river and brought him back to her palace to be raised under the aegis of the Pharaoh—but he observed his brethren suffering under the yoke of Egyptian oppression and said, as any prophet would, “Let my people go.” This was particularly difficult for Moses because he had a speech impediment.
Moses led the enslaved Jews of Egypt out of servitude and into an uncertain future. God certainly helped: He sent the 10 plagues, parted the Red Sea, and got the Israelites out of Dodge. But then they wandered in the desert. They wandered in the desert for a really long time: 40 years, according to the Bible. And just as they finally approached the promised land of Canaan, Moses reached the end of his road. He could not take his people, his band of weary refugees, all the way home. That job was consigned to his younger brother Aaron—who frankly, in today’s terms, would have been branded a “coyote,” a smuggler of “illegals,” and sent to prison.
But I digress.
Joe Biden is an American Moses. He rescued us from the jaws of a mentally ill Donald Trump. He pulled us back from the brink of the pandemic. He restored our economy and our standing on the world stage. He has navigated, fairly successfully, the war in Ukraine. He passed laws protecting the poor, the elderly, and our children. He has worked hard to save our planet and to make a difference for ordinary Americans. Biden is the definition of a “mensch”—a really good human being. Not a perfect human being, and not terribly dynamic, but a pretty good one—just like Moses.
Biden has taken us to the brink of recovery from the toxicity of the Trump presidency, but we are not quite there yet. He has tried—with limited success—to shield us from the most draconian decisions handed down by the Supreme Court. But if Trump is reelected, we can kiss all of that goodbye. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas have already telegraphed—through their wayward wives—that they would retire during the next Trump presidency to make way for two more morally bankrupt justices who would continue the task of dismantling American democracy. They would infect the court for another generation, if not more.
Trump and the Supremes are the torch bearers of the far right. Those sort of torch bearers resemble not the Statue of Liberty, but the Neo-Nazis of Charlottesville. I don’t know about you, but I prefer torch bearers of a different stripe.
Biden has tried his best to move us forward, but it is clear that he has run out of steam. Thankfully, he has a younger sister to guide us home: Vice President Kamala Harris. Just as Aaron assumed the responsibility of guiding his people to the promised land, she stands ready to shoulder the burden of preserving American democracy.
Biden has now stepped aside—he is simply too old and too frail to continue. Harris is free to choose her own running mate. I think Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona would be a politically savvy choice, but what do I know? I am sure she will make a careful decision; she is politically astute. This I know absolutely: I will vote for her regardless of who she invites to be her running mate.
Harris will be savaged and reviled on the right as an incompetent DEI candidate, because it seems that a segment of the Republican electorate just cannot get enough of sexism and racism. It has already begun, and it will only get worse in the months before the November election. Harris is a strong, smart, principled, dynamic woman of color. The MAGAverse will try to eviscerate her, but clearly they have never bothered to engage with strong women of color. This is unfortunate, because strong women of color are nothing short of amazing, and I have personally been inspired by them my entire life, starting with Harriet Tubman, then Sojourner Truth, and, later, Shirley Chisholm. Harris has that kind of strength, wisdom, and humanity.
Although it is difficult to feel confident about anything these days, I think there is a good possibility that Kamala Harris will be the 47th president of the United States, and, like Aaron, she will take us all the way home.
