The Democrats just made their life a whole lot harder

An alternate title for this post could also be: "Is the US Ready to Elect a Woman of Colour as President?

As I stated in a previous post the election in November was going to be about Donald Trump and whether Americans wanted to have him back as President. Although he was up against an old man in Joe Biden I believed that Americans would again reject Donald Trump for the highest office in the land. More people hate Mr. Trump than love him and that would have carried the Democrats as long as they could bring out their vote. Yes, Joe Biden is an old man but, to be brutally honest, he is a white old man so many people who prefer such as President could safely plant their vote there if they were inclined to vote against Donald Trump.

Now that advantage for the Democrats is gone. There are many Americans who dislike Donald Trump, who would not vote for him, who would also dislike the idea of a woman of colour as President. This would be particularly true in some of the states the Democrats have to carry in order to win, Georgia being a very good example. That is unfortunate but that does not make it any less true. BTW, one of the strikes against Hillary Clinton was she is a woman. That was not the only thing that went against her but do not be so naïve to think that it was not a factor. 

I do not believe that those who hate Donald Trump and who would be uncomfortable with Ms. Harris as President will switch their votes. However, they may just decide to stay home. I do believe that the GOTV efforts of the Democrats in several key states will much more challenging. 

I believe that VP Harris would probably make a good president and looking at her resume she is not any less qualified than some of the other candidates who have won the presidency in the last 30 years but you cannot deny that her gender and colour will be a factor for a significant number of voters come November. I am not saying she cannot win but her path to victory is probably narrower than Joe Biden's would have been, the recent hype about his age notwithstanding.

The election was always going to come down to voter turnout. Whichever side is most successful in getting their voters to come out is going to win. The Democrats just reduced their chances of being the side that accomplishes that task.