Ho Ho Ho! We Want the Ho!

Several times a month, I travel by car through Southwest Washington. The stretch between Raymond (population 3,081) and South Bend (population 1,746) is rife with State Patrol and local police who vigilantly monitor the many speed traps. It’s slow going on Hyw 101. Trump rallies, populated by signs, not people, sprout like weeds between the wetlands and the food trucks. Some signs read: Joe & Ho Gotta Go.

In Trumpland, they call Kamala Harris the Ho, but Trumpers are nasty people. Slurs are to be expected. What is not expected is how dismissive the Democrats are of our esteemed Vice President Kamala Harris. It’s not clear why she isn’t being given her due to run for President, backed by a solid wave of Democratic leadership.

Throughout her tenure as Vice President, Kamala Harris has had a low profile, too low for most of us to understand. Everyone kept asking: Where’s Kamala? Eventually, she was given the border crisis to solve with no support behind her to fix anything.

The NYT ran a story three days ago, “The Reintroduction of Kamala Harris,” asserting that Kamala Harris has stepped up. If Biden falters, she can lead. Just for clarification, Biden has already faltered. Biden needs to go, but Harris must stay!

I don’t know what is wrong with President Biden, but it’s not old-age or a cold. Something neurological is wrong with him. His condition will undoubtedly deteriorate, and require around the clock home care or admission to a nursing home. Trump is also destined to stay at home, wearing an ankle bracelet. The other option is a jail.

When Biden ran in 2020, he said he would be a one-term President. It’s time that he makes good on his word. Biden was a good President, but it’s time to pass the torch, and in this case, the best person for the job is Kamala Harris. Former Prosecutor, U.S. Senator, and current Vice President, there is no man better qualified for the job. There is only one problem, she’s not a man.

There have been women heads of state all over the world. The first woman to serve as president of a country was Isabel Peron (Argentina). Other significant women leaders include Angela Merkel (Germany), Gold Meir (Israel), Indira Gandhi (India), Margaret Thatcher (U.K.). Prime Ministers Benazir Bhutto (Pakistan) and Jacinda Ardern (New Zealand) were the first women to give birth to a child while in office. World Powers are not the exclusive domain of women leadership. Samia Suluhu Hassan served as President of Tanzania for three years. And most recently, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo was the first woman to be elected as President of Mexico.

Here in the United States, self-defined as one of the most progressive nations on earth, women have been denied their rightful place as President. The real problem is how Americans perceive female leadership. From small rural towns in Washington State to New York City, there is colossal resistance to electing a woman as President. What’s wrong with America? We should not have to be forced to choose between two old white men, one senile, and the other a psychopath.

As I travel along the stretch between Raymond and South Bend, the reality of life there is giddily apparent. Oft-called a wild and wooly lumber mill town, Raymond was made famous by the grunge band Nirvana who played their first gig there in 1987. Between a Dollar Store sitting at one end of town and a Denture Clinic at the other, the relatively new Riverside Art Gallery pays homage to seventeen local women artists. Any day now, I expect to see a new wave of signs that read: Ho, Ho, Ho! We want the Ho!