By Daanyaal Matthews
The 2024 elections of the United States are drawing closer with the Republican party set on its nominee, Former President Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance, and the Democratic party conclusively backing Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz, following the Democrat National Convention that took place this weekend during which Former President Barack Obama announced his support for Harris.
The support of Barack is unsurprising except for its timing, which is weeks after President Biden both announced his exit from the presidential race and subsequently announced his backing of Harris, which was seemingly unsupported by Democrat party seniors, such as Nancy Pelosi and Obama, who were mum on Harris’ nomination.
Some have argued that the lack of support was due to Democrat leaders desiring to wait for the convention to gauge the interest of constituents on her potential to win.
However, all those rumours were shattered when Obama, accompanied by his wife and former first lady Michelle Obama, officially passed the torch to Harris in the presence of thousands of Democrat voters, urging onlookers to vote for Harris rather than Trump, whom he argues would set the North American state back.
For Professor John J. Stremlau, the initial hesitancy from Obama towards the nomination of Harris was not to overshadow her being appointed but rather to allow it to grow naturally, stating:
“There was a strategy behind it and that they wanted to not cast any shadow on Biden but also to let it carry its own momentum.”
Arguably this strategy made Harris look unwanted, with many senior members of the Democratic party hesitant to fully support her position; however, the raucousness that bellowed at the United Center most certainly set the stage for November with the party officially unified under the banner of Harris against Trump.
For the Republic of South Africa, the major contention between the two candidates lies in a policy plan titled ‘Project 2025’, a policy plan crafted by the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank with alleged close ties to former President Trump. The plan would seemingly introduce sweeping conservative reforms that would pivot the western state towards a more Christian conservative form of governance, which has been heavily criticized as being fundamentally opposed to the ethos of American culture, which has been submerged in the separation of state and church since inception.
For Stremlau, Project 2025 would be negative for relations between the Republic and the United States; thus, he argues that the appointment of Harris as the official nominee of the Democratic Party is beneficial for the Republic of South Africa if she were to take the helm as Commander in Chief of the United States.
“I think that there is a room for a serious discussion about the future of US-South African relations, and if you had Kamala Harris and Tim Walts in power and the government of National Unity here, there’s a lot that could be done to make sure that both administrations succeed and are proud about their partnership, not for any other reason than international reason, but just simply because it’s productive for the peoples of both countries,” argued Stremlau.
Photo: RawPixel
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