Thank you for reposting this!! It feels so good to feel somewhat excited and hopeful again. Of course anyone who has moved any distance through our political system will be problematic on some level or another - but that’s the beauty of a democrazy (Hah! That was a typo, but I left it because it’s apt), it should allow for shades of gray and for leaders to evolve and grow and improve. So far, everything I have heard her say makes me pretty damned happy and cautiously optimistic.
Great interview, Rekha, a thoughtful and persuasive valentine for a woman who has overcome daunting obstacles and risen to the heights of American politics despite many undeserved challenges.
It's only shortcoming is that it accepts American politics as a given, without objection, at a moment when we are in a political and geopolitical crisis like none our nation has ever before experienced, a multifaceted crisis that may well be existential. Moreover, several key aspects of this still developing crisis were evident in the run up to the 2020 election and long had been apparent even then.
Unfortunately, VP Harris, for all of her accomplishments is representative of a party, but more importantly, a political system that can accurately be described as sclerotic, rigid, unresponsive, and seemingly unable to adapt. Everywhere Americans look they see evidence of a political class of oligarchs who are devoted to domestic and foreign policies that have brought our nation into conflict with nature itself and into disrepute with most of the other nations of this benighted world, many of which are now actively seeking new partnerships with the world's other superpowers while the remainder look at America with, to be generous, increasingly skeptical eyes.
Perpetual wars abroad and the growing threat of nuclear war, epidemic gun violence and gun massacre murder in our own country, our government's bipartisan support for arming the ghastly genocide of a captive and defenseless people, women and children mostly, in the Holy Land, the brutal repression of America's best and brightest young people when they dared to protest nonviolently on their campuses against that unspeakable genocide. All of this and more though we are still, if only just, within living memory of WWII, when almost one-half million American men and women gave their lives in the successful effort to defeat, unconditionally, fascist genocidal regimes in Europe and Asia, with, I might add, the able and heroic assistance of one of the very nations our government is now threatening with nuclear weapons.
Our problem is that, at present, the heights of American politics are at an all time low. Surely we need to recognize and begin to address the seriousness of the situation. I'm reminded of our first president's Farewell Address, in which he warned against foreign influence.
"... The Nation, which indulges towards another an habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable, when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and bloody contests. The Nation, prompted by ill-will and resentment, sometimes impels to war the Government, contrary to the best calculations of policy. The Government sometimes participates in the national propensity, and adopts through passion what reason would reject; at other times, it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to projects of hostility instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of Nations has been the victim.
"So likewise, a passionate attachment of one Nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite Nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest, in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter, without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite Nation of privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly to injure the Nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained; and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens, (who devote themselves to the favorite nation,) facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding, with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation.
"As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent Patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practise the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the Public Councils! Such an attachment of a small or weak, towards a great and powerful nation, dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter.
"Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens,) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake; since history and experience prove, that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of Republican Government. But that jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defence against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation, and excessive dislike of another, cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots, who may resist the intrigues of the favorite, are liable to become suspected and odious; while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests. ..."
If George Washington's wisdom echoes from too great a distance, we might look to John F. Kennedy's famous "Peace Speech" delivered at American University on June 10, 1963, 61 years ago. Many have come to think of that speech as President Kennedy's Farewell Address. He was assassinated only six months later.
Sadly, indeed tragically, today neither major party seems capable of producing a Washington, a Madison, a Hamilton, a Lincoln, an Eisenhower, a Kennedy, or a Carter. The corruption nurtured by perpetual war is systemic, deeply entrenched, its beneficiaries protected by a bodyguard of lies, while inconvenient truth goes begging.
Julie, I appreciate reading about your interview with Kamala Harris! I will be most happy to VOTE FOR KAMALA for President of our United States. She is outstanding as a person, a woman and as a candidate for President in 2024.
guess who else is badass cool? @Rekha Basu!
Thank you for giving us the chance to learn again what it was like for Kamala growing up and how those experiences shaped who she is now.
Thanks for reposting this. A great interview!
I hope she is able to share her vision and values in a way that connects with people, much like she did with you!
Thank you for reposting this!! It feels so good to feel somewhat excited and hopeful again. Of course anyone who has moved any distance through our political system will be problematic on some level or another - but that’s the beauty of a democrazy (Hah! That was a typo, but I left it because it’s apt), it should allow for shades of gray and for leaders to evolve and grow and improve. So far, everything I have heard her say makes me pretty damned happy and cautiously optimistic.
Great interview, Rekha, a thoughtful and persuasive valentine for a woman who has overcome daunting obstacles and risen to the heights of American politics despite many undeserved challenges.
It's only shortcoming is that it accepts American politics as a given, without objection, at a moment when we are in a political and geopolitical crisis like none our nation has ever before experienced, a multifaceted crisis that may well be existential. Moreover, several key aspects of this still developing crisis were evident in the run up to the 2020 election and long had been apparent even then.
Unfortunately, VP Harris, for all of her accomplishments is representative of a party, but more importantly, a political system that can accurately be described as sclerotic, rigid, unresponsive, and seemingly unable to adapt. Everywhere Americans look they see evidence of a political class of oligarchs who are devoted to domestic and foreign policies that have brought our nation into conflict with nature itself and into disrepute with most of the other nations of this benighted world, many of which are now actively seeking new partnerships with the world's other superpowers while the remainder look at America with, to be generous, increasingly skeptical eyes.
Perpetual wars abroad and the growing threat of nuclear war, epidemic gun violence and gun massacre murder in our own country, our government's bipartisan support for arming the ghastly genocide of a captive and defenseless people, women and children mostly, in the Holy Land, the brutal repression of America's best and brightest young people when they dared to protest nonviolently on their campuses against that unspeakable genocide. All of this and more though we are still, if only just, within living memory of WWII, when almost one-half million American men and women gave their lives in the successful effort to defeat, unconditionally, fascist genocidal regimes in Europe and Asia, with, I might add, the able and heroic assistance of one of the very nations our government is now threatening with nuclear weapons.
Our problem is that, at present, the heights of American politics are at an all time low. Surely we need to recognize and begin to address the seriousness of the situation. I'm reminded of our first president's Farewell Address, in which he warned against foreign influence.
"... The Nation, which indulges towards another an habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable, when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and bloody contests. The Nation, prompted by ill-will and resentment, sometimes impels to war the Government, contrary to the best calculations of policy. The Government sometimes participates in the national propensity, and adopts through passion what reason would reject; at other times, it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to projects of hostility instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of Nations has been the victim.
"So likewise, a passionate attachment of one Nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite Nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest, in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter, without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite Nation of privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly to injure the Nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained; and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens, (who devote themselves to the favorite nation,) facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding, with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation.
"As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent Patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practise the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the Public Councils! Such an attachment of a small or weak, towards a great and powerful nation, dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter.
"Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens,) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake; since history and experience prove, that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of Republican Government. But that jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defence against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation, and excessive dislike of another, cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots, who may resist the intrigues of the favorite, are liable to become suspected and odious; while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests. ..."
If George Washington's wisdom echoes from too great a distance, we might look to John F. Kennedy's famous "Peace Speech" delivered at American University on June 10, 1963, 61 years ago. Many have come to think of that speech as President Kennedy's Farewell Address. He was assassinated only six months later.
Sadly, indeed tragically, today neither major party seems capable of producing a Washington, a Madison, a Hamilton, a Lincoln, an Eisenhower, a Kennedy, or a Carter. The corruption nurtured by perpetual war is systemic, deeply entrenched, its beneficiaries protected by a bodyguard of lies, while inconvenient truth goes begging.
Julie, I appreciate reading about your interview with Kamala Harris! I will be most happy to VOTE FOR KAMALA for President of our United States. She is outstanding as a person, a woman and as a candidate for President in 2024.
Thanks Beth Bishop, Clive, Iowa
I remember this column! Thank you for posting it again so we can see her again through your eyes. XXOO