Kamala Harris vs. Trump: The Showdown That Could Redefine the 2024 Election

By Kaffie Sledge

Humpty Trumpty’s sitting on a wall. Humpty Trumpty better get ready for a great fall.

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men won’t be putting Trumpty back in the White House again. 

Perhaps Donald Trump thought he could humiliate President Joe Biden into slouching out of the presidential race and selecting some paleface to lead the Democratic ticket. 

That, however, was not to be. The president selected Vice President Kamala Harris, who hit the ground running, vowing to win the election, and challenging Trump to a debate. Anything Trump has to say about her, Harris said, “Say it to my face.”

Trump has said the president is the most important person on the ballot, so he selected Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate. 

The Atlantic Daily reported, however, that vice-presidential candidates are highly scrutinized. Harris has selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who has an enviable track record.

The words terrified and discombobulated have been used to describe Trump’s response to running against Harris. 

This is no doubt the reason he initially wanted Fox News and an audience present in order to debate Harris. The two have now agreed to a debate on Sept. 10. We will see how Trump and his bully tactics fair in a faceoff with Harris, a smart, accomplished woman, who is a former criminal prosecutor and former California Attorney General.

Trump, a pathological bully, shows little or no interest in legitimate issues the country is faced with. In some serious instances, he has proven to be a negative influence. 

Trump is himself a proud boy. Under his tutelage knuckle-dragging racism came out of the closet. He turned being pro-white into a despicable stance, pushing all other races and ethnicities to the bottom of the barrel to be treated with total disregard by whites.

White nationalist hate groups in this country increased 55 percent throughout the Trump era, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) reported, and a “surging” racist movement continues to be driven by “a deep fear of demographic change.”

“Nationally, there were 155 such groups counted last year, and they were present in most states,” SPLC reported. “These groups were counted separately from Ku Klux Klan groups, racist skinheads, Christian Identity groups, and neo-Confederate groups, all of which also express some version of white supremacist beliefs.”

Trump cares less about face-to-face, toe-to-toe debating, than he does non-issue related attacks that get his gullible supporters riled up: He questioned Barack Obama’s birthplace. Now he is questioning when Kamala Harris turned black.

Harris has always been black. 

Black votes, which seem to have been on Trump’s mind, are set to be at an all-time high.

NPR reported that tens of thousands of black women mobilized to support Harris. 

Black voters, however, are not the only ones Trump needs to concern himself with. Groups organizing to support Harris are growing and expanding rapidly, and falling in place with the Spanish-speaking group that is going to Spanish-speaking-only homes telling residents to register and vote for Harris.

On a recent trip to Atlanta, we drove down Springdale Road. “Harris for President” placards were in just about every yard of this upscale neighborhood. I saw no Trump placards.

Harris seems to be the candidate for whom many people were longing. She came on the scene talking back to Trump and dancing with a group of youngsters. Now supporters are popping up everywhere.

“White Dudes for Harris” says they organized because for the longest time liberals have been ceding white men to the MAGA right. 

“Throughout human history, a lot of time white men organized, it was with pointy hats on,” said Ross Morales Rocketto, lead organizer of the white dudes' organization. “The reason we’re doing this is that the left has been ceding white men to the MAGA right for far too long.”

Point well taken. 

In 2020, 57 percent of white men voted for Trump; 80 percent of black men turned out for Biden, Rocketto said.

Harris seems to have attracted supporters from both sides and the middle: First-time voters, Asian, black, white, and brown voters; voters who vowed to sit this election out; there’s also Megan Thee Stallion’s “Hotties for Harris” and “Republicans for Harris,” and many, many others.

Trump is threatening trouble if he doesn’t win. If that’s the case, I hope he and his blind followers know that any post-2024-election fights will make the Montgomery Riverfront Brawl look like a game of musical chairs.