In the presidential election that pits Vice President Kamala Harris against former President Donald Trump, there should be no question as to who should be elected. The most casual observer should be able to see that Donald Trump is a clear and present danger to this country, to democratic ideals, to global security, and to the rule of law. He has promised to begin a revenge tour if he is elected in November. He has promised to round up over 12 million people now living in this country, place them in concentration camps, and then deport them to countries throughout Central and South America. He has ridden the Big Lie about losing the 2020 election for the last four years, and now declares that the only way he could lose in 2024 is through massive voter fraud. Apparently, the only fair election is when he wins. He simply ignores the fact that 60 judicial rulings determined that there was no election fraud in 2020. However, Trump has never allowed the facts to get in the way of a good conspiracy theory.

Trump has been convicted of 34 felonies for falsifying business records. He has been ordered to pay $454 million for civil fraud related to his business practices. He has been charged by the federal government for lying about possession of classified documents in his private residence in Florida. The United States House of Representatives has voted twice to impeach him. He encouraged a mob of his MAGA loyalists to storm the U.S. Capitol in a failed attempt to overthrow the will of 80 million Americans who voted for President Joe Biden. He spread the false story about Haitians eating cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio. He spread the “birther narrative” that Barack Obama was not qualified to serve as President of the United States because he was not born in this country. He has advanced the age-old antisemitic trope that if he loses the election in 2024, it will be the Jewish community that is responsible for that loss.

He took out a full-page ad in the New York Times calling for the death penalty for the so-called Central Park Five. He refused to apologize for his actions when it was proven that none of those young men was guilty of that crime. He completely failed in the face of the COVID crisis. His only significant legislative accomplishment was a massive tax cut for the wealthiest persons in our country. He has cozied up to dictators in Russia, China, North Korea, Venezuela, and Hungary. At the same time, he has insulted and alienated  our traditional allies in NATO. Despite all of this, he is still running neck and neck with Kamala Harris in this election. How is this possible?

It cannot be that Vice President Harris is less qualified for the job than Donald Trump. She has served as Vice President of the United States, a U.S. Senator and the Attorney General of California, and the District Attorney for San Francisco. By contrast, when he was elected President in 2016, Trump had no political experience whatsoever. His claim to fame was being a successful businessperson and reality TV celebrity. He boasted that because he was a “star,” he was free to “grab women by their private parts and just start kissing them.” The truth is this “successful businessman” declared bankruptcy six times. He was forced to pay $25 million in fines when Trump University was proven to be a fraud. The Trump Foundation was forced to close for mishandling funds. The Trump Corporation was stripped of its license to do business in his home state of New York. Trump Steaks, Trump Airlines, and Trump Wine all flopped in the marketplace. Now he is pushing Trump sneakers, Trump Bibles, Trump trading cards, and most recently Trump watches. Donald Trump is a grifter of the highest order who has used the presidency to enrich himself, his family, and his fellow billionaires. Despite all of that, he remains tied with Kamala Harris to be elected President for the second time. How is this possible?

The answer may well reside with two longstanding biases that lurk in the dark corners of American life: racism and sexism. Kamala Harris is an African American/Southeast Asian woman. There are no flaws in her resume. There are no scandals she has had to hide from public view. She does not face legal proceedings in New York State, Georgia, Florida, and Washington, DC. If she is not elected, she is not afraid that she may end up in prison. She does not owe over $85 million in court-ordered settlements for sexual assault in the dressing room of a New York City department store and then defaming the character of the person she assaulted. Twenty persons have not accused her of sexually assaulting them in hotel rooms, airplanes, and in her residence. Considering all of this, why is this election too close to call?

Many voters in our country are left with a very simple question: is Kamala Harris tied with a deeply flawed candidate like Donald Trump primarily because of her race and gender? Are the people of this country willing to vote for a black woman to be their President?

Sadly, this question applies to black and white voters alike, and especially to black and white male voters. There are black men who would fight to the death to prevent a return to the Jim Crow era and the laws that once restricted their ambitions and talents based solely upon their racial identity. However, many of those black men seem perfectly content to let sexism govern their political choices.

Many white male voters are taking a sharp turn toward a rigid form of patriarchy that views women as unqualified for leadership in any arena of public life. I personally know men who voted for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in 2016 solely because she was a woman. The same is true for some men— black and white — who will not vote for Kamala Harris because she is a woman.

This is a uniquely American problem, because most of our closest allies around the world have long since elected women as either President or Prime Minister for their nations. That includes Great Britian, Ireland, Canada, Israel, Norway, India, Pakistan, Germany, the Philippines, Poland, Liberia, Canada, Denmark, Greece, Namibia, Moldova, Argentina, Iceland, Portugal, Bolivia, Lithuania, Finland, Croatia, and many more. What is it about the United States that has kept our country off that list of nations with female heads of state?

Much of the vitriol in our politics today can be traced to the reaction of many white voters to the election of Barack Obama as our nation’s first black President in 2008 and again in 2012. Today, this nation faces a similar challenge, this time deeply rooted in both racial and gender bias. If the United States is ever going to achieve that more perfect union, we must cross these two bridges and leave racism and sexism forever buried in our nation’s past.

 

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The Rev. Dr. Marvin A. McMickle, pastor emeritus of Antioch Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio, is interim senior minister, First Baptist Church of Greater Cleveland. He served as president of Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, Rochester, New York, from 2011 to 2019.