Biden's nomination awakens Democrats

There have been many moments during Donald Trump's term in office when a significant proportion of American citizens have become disconnected from the political reality of their country. Not because they are convicted and confessed democrats, but because they are ashamed of the way the 45th president of the country has carried out his work during the three and a half years he has been in the White House. Even Republicans. That disconnect has kept an illusion dormant, that of regaining the presidency after the unexplained (or perhaps explainable?) defeat of Hillary Clinton in November 2016 having garnered more votes at the polls but fewer delegates to the Electoral College. The way Trump is handing his job as president is the expressive phrase with which the leader's assessment polls are published daily in the world's leading power, and it has been from the beginning of the mandate sufficiently detached to give Trump a semblance of popularity that polls reflected that lethargy but hid opinion guarded in the Democratic ranks.

On the night (Spanish time) when Joe Biden's election ticket was announced, last Tuesday, August 11, friends of either Republican or Democratic leanings sent their messages of hope and congratulations to Europe for the decision to nominate Kamala Harris as vice presidential candidate. Dozens of messages flooded our phones from states like Florida, California and New York. The potential voters of that ticket, whether out of conviction in the possibilities of Biden-Harris or out of visceral rejection of Trump, finally saw possibilities, beyond the polls that for weeks have given the former vice president a comfortable advantage but with the real risk that any unexpected event would put his opponent back at the top of the polls reinforced by the ostentation of power in moments of insecurity and uncertainty. Kamala's profile, well known in California where the most intoxicated messages came from, has awakened this collective illusion because they see in her the strong character necessary to confront Trump-Pence, in the face of Biden's indolence and his tendency to disappear when they come badly. Many of these potential voters are already pining for the television debates, regulated by law in that country, in which they are sure that Harris will destroy Pence mercilessly. Or that's what they're broadcasting, at least. 

The Milwaukee convention has made official the candidacy of Biden, the political express from Scranton, Pennsylvania. The man who had enough patience to wait for Hillary's 2016 coup and wage the battle when the U.S. future test actually takes place next November. The United States is not the Hollywood movie people who have been clamoring since day one of the administration for Trump's downfall and have not accepted the outcome of the ballot box. The United States is tens of millions of citizens who are proud of their country and want to make the right choice at a time of social and historical crossroads, in a context where the world seems to be collapsing and the harassment of American leadership is coming by land, sea and air. And because of the virus, especially because of him and because of the wrong way the president has dealt with this pandemic that could take away his power. Bill Clinton and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have shone on the HD screens, although the latter has been given so little time that it would seem a wish of the party apparatus to fade away alongside the also more radical progressive Bernie Sanders. And the starring role of Jill, the candidate's wife, has picked up the baton from former First Lady Michelle Obama the night before, in an atmosphere of somewhat restrained celebration as she awaits the candidacy acceptance speech that will close the #DemConvention. 

Now Trump will have to hit back with his election next week at the virtual convention that cannot be held in Jacksonville as the president had hoped, because Florida is still immersed in a brutal health crisis that has also sunk its economy and labor fabric. So far he has tried unsuccessfully to polarize the television news with his mini-tour of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Arizona, trying to show courage in the face of COVID-19 while his rival stays home and intervenes by video conference at his own nomination party.