Who’s It Gonna Be
No Me Digas. Op-Ed: Keith Price
Okay, our next Democratic Vice Presidential nominee is going to be a woman. She will probably be a black woman. If only Joe Biden would have just said that he was going to pick the best candidate instead of committing early on that his pick was going to be a woman of color, then we would not be so caught up in this guessing game. Also, when Sen. Klobaucher bravely exited from the running while rooting for a woman of color, she gave Sen. Warren’s chance at the number two spot on the ticket a Tonya Harding chop to the kneecaps. The question of “who’s it gonna be?” is being asked on EVERY f***ing political talk show. Can I just say for the record, “enough already?” We get it.
There is truly an embarrassment of riches with the selection that Mr. Biden can make. People are drawing their lines in the sand about who will be the one with the slightest amount of political baggage to help carry Uncle Joe over the finish line. Please note that not only is it a woman that needs to help out a man, but a highly qualified woman of color, preferably a black woman (No tea, no shade to Sen. Tammy Duckworth, because she is FIERCE!) who will help get this white man in the end zone for the presidential touchdown. Look at me with a sports reference.
As the wait continues, the large amounts of vitriol are being hauled out by the opposition research conducted by the Republican party on these women. You can already hear, “but her conviction rates”, “she’s never run for office before now”, “Benghazi”, “she praised Castro and the Scientologists”, “she’s too ambitious”, etc., and without naming anyone, you already know to whom some of those quotes are attached. I would like to point out the current president never ran for office nor worked in government, and we see how well that is working for our country. I look at our nation and sometimes wonder, how have we made it this far? We are like the four-year-old that keeps trying to stick a knife into the electric socket. Meanwhile, the roots of avarice, racism, and misogyny are so deeply entrenched in our society that just when you think we are on the brink of living like civilized humans, the bottom falls out, and we start regressing towards some offshoot brand of antebellum America.
In all fairness, every woman being considered will be an asset to the ticket. Many names are already being dragged through the mud. However, I am bracing for the horror show through which the conservative media will put that person. It will start with the low hanging fruit of race and gender and then go to even darker places to discredit her. Certain factions of liberal-leaning media will also find a way to get some microaggressive commentary about whoever is chosen.
I believe it will be sage black women who are going to save this planet, especially if folks can support them and get out of their way. Black women have historically proven that they are tough. Fighting misogyny and racism is par for the course for ANY women of color with ambition and a strong sense of self. I am thrilled that it might be a black woman holding the second-highest elected office in the country. Of course, she will be held to a higher standard than past candidates like Geraldine Ferraro, Sarah Palin, and Mike Pence, but she can not outshine the top of the ticket.
I will admit that this is supposed to be humorous, but is it wrong that I want her to be the type of black woman who will not only fight the hard fight but will not be afraid to roll her eyes when the media tries her patience with nonsense? Is it so terrible that I want her to be refined, yet be able to break from protocol to remind people that they will NOT disrespect her in public? Is it too much to ask that I want her to be the type of black woman who is not afraid to take off her house shoe and just throw it at this country with perfect aim? It cannot be wrong to want her, be it at the grocery store or presiding over the U.S. Senate, to cut our behinds on aisle 3 and not care who’s watching, because we are not going to be embarrassing her in this store, is it? That is the type of black woman that I want to see as VP. If it is a stereotype, I do not care. Because when she becomes president, imagine how many people will be watching their P’s and Q’s when she walks into the room?
However we look at it, no one can deny that this process has gone way past the “lesser of two evils” argument that you hear every major election. This feels like we are getting closer to the end of a nightmare, horror, sci-fi movie. If only the heroes get those votes in via mail, absentee, or early polling, then we can pull this country over, kick out the hitchhiker, get back on the road, and start this journey all over again. As ridiculous as it reads, it really is also crazy to think that it is sort of true.
Our current president fancies himself as an alleged successful financier/real estate mogul with his name on hotels around the world. In fact, one of his hotels is down the street from the White House. How supervillain is that reality? It feels as if we have been living under an Orange Lex Luthor for the past 4 years. This is all happening, while journalists are clamoring and climbing all over each other to know “who’s it gonna be?”
I do know one thing: if he steps away from the 2 or 3 potential black women with whom he has been teasing the country as a potential running mate or even Sen. Tammy Duckworth, and then ushers in the female equivalent of a Sen.Tim Kaine, Joe Biden will lose this election. If he does choose any one of the qualified black women, he can certainly ride out his political career by being sandwiched between the first black president and vice-president, kind of like an oreo cookie. Even with Sen. Duckworth, he could also be the president with the first woman of color as vice-president. Historically I think that is not a bad place to be, either. What say you? Who’s it gonna be?
