There are 106 days to go until the US presidential election, but there is a date that is currently even more central to the electoral campaign: August 19. It is the day that the Republican Party convention will open in Chicago. Usually a hot date, where delegates confirm the party’s indications and give their joyful support to this or that candidate. But today, no one knows who will be the name indicated to challenge Donald Trump. In the frantic hours following Joe Biden’s endorsement of his vice-president, Kamala Harris, the unconditional support of the party’s big names has been rare and lukewarm. At the moment, the only big names who have openly sided with the current vice-president have been Hillary and Bill Clinton. For a few hours, word had been circulating that Michelle and Barack Obama would also support them, but they denied everything, declaring themselves confident in what the convention will decide. An attitude similar to that of several governors, who have taken their time: “the convention will decide…”
The feeling is of a party in difficulty, not because it is surprised by the step back of the current tenant of the White House, in fact betrayed by his own Democratic companions, but because now divisions and internal struggles will emerge.
Within the donkey (animal symbol of the Democrats) there are in fact two big souls: the more moderate one and the one with a strong left-wing pull. The latter includes, for example, Bernie Sanders and especially Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the young woman from the Bronx who in the imagination of many was supposed to be the symbol of the youthful and more left-wing rebirth of the party, also much loved by the young people of the local Democratic Party. Unfortunately, however, times are hard for both of them. The moderate, more centrist wing has the clear upper hand, also for questions of economic support for the potential candidate and so Ocasio-Cortez was one of the first (and few) to side with Kamala Harris.
There has also been a lot of talk in recent hours about Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer as a possible vice-presidential candidate with Harris. Moderate, highly esteemed in the good living rooms, strongly committed to abortion and against any type of restriction, Whitmer has little, indeed very little popularity outside her state and the political world. It would also be a geographical choice, given that Michigan has always been one of the key states that ultimately decide the fate of the presidential elections, but the fact that in her social media statement yesterday she limited herself to thanking Biden for his choice and his work without ever mentioning Harris makes it clear that the road is long, very long.
Indeed, the belief of many US political experts, especially those of the Donkey Party, is that they are trying to save what can be saved rather than win the elections. That is, to prevent the Republicans from controlling both the Senate (now considered lost) and the House after the elections. And this would be a real disaster, much more than the already painful defeat against Donald Trump.
