Harris, Woman For Whom United State’s Presidential Door Opened in 1984

Harris, Woman For Whom United State’s Presidential Door Opened in 1984

By Moses Akaigwe

 

The 50th United State’s Presidential Election held on Tuesday, November 6, 1984, was very remarkable, not because the incumbent Republican President Ronald Regan defeated his Democratic Party rival, Walter Mondale. No. But, even that was predictable then.

What was remarkable and historic was that for the first time, one of the two main political parties in the US had a female Vice Presidential nominee in Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro, who went on to actually run on the same ticket with Mondale.

And, what was also memorable was that when it became clear that Reagan (and Vice President W. Bush) would remain in the White House for another four years, Ferraro while addressing a crowd of her supporters made a very passionate and prophetic remark which is still resonating almost every election year.

Obviously referring to how close she had come as a woman (albeit unsuccessfully) to becoming America’s first ever (female) Vice President, the Congresswoman told the cheering Democrats: “A door has opened that shall never close again.”

Farraro’s comments, transmitted live by VOA, and monitored by yours sincerely {a student then) through my inevitable world receiver, is still ringing in my ears, decades after.

Like a nostradamic prediction, Ferraro’s comment seemed to have embarked on a gradual journey of coming true in an ascending manner, starting 24 years later with the selection of Sarah Palin by Republican Presidential candidate, John McCain, as his running mate.

Exactly 34 years after Ferraro’s peep into the future, Hillary Clinton aimed higher by becoming the first female major-party nominee for president when the Democrats pitted her against Donald Trump in 2016.

Sadly, Clinton lost, and personally, I am yet to recover from the disappointment therefrom.

Fast-forward to today: Thanks to President Joe Biden opting out of the electoral process, Kamala Harris has ‘graduated’ from being the Vice President, to not only the second female, but also “the first Black woman, and first South Asian person,” to run the race to the White House.

She earned the presidential ticket by scoring the requisite number of votes cast by the Democrats at their recent convention, which cleared the way for her to run against Trump in today’s high-stakes polls.

Is Kamala Harris the woman to ‘tame’ the ‘wild’ Trump and become the 46th President of the United States of America? Will she become the first woman of colour to occupy the White House? Is Kamala the woman for whom Geraldine Ferraro, a fellow Democrat,‘ opened’ the door in 1984?

I am neither a prophet, nor do I possess a crystal ball. But, last night, I dreamed of celebrations in the African-American communities, among people of Asian descent, in the ‘Blue’ states, among all progressive-minded Americans, and across the world where the mere mention of the name, Trump, is sickening.

# MOSES AKAIGWE is a Lagos-based journalist (mosesaki@hotmail.com)