Against the backdrop of rising coronavirus which exceeds one million deaths in USA political campaign for presidential election has begun following announcement of nominating vice-President of Democratic Party on 17 August. This is the third time that woman was chosen as Vice-Presidential candidate. Geraldine Ferraro was the first Vice-Presidential candidate with Walter Mondale of Democratic Party in 1984 while Sara Palin was nominated as Vice-Presidential nominee with John McCain in 2000 of Republican Party. Senator Kamala Haris has been chosen as Vice-Presidential candidate for Democratic Party of the United States in the convention of the party on 17 August of 2020. Kamala Harris was immediately past Attorney General in California before being elected Senator. She is the second African-American and first South Asin American senator to get the nomination of the Democratic Party. Senator Kamala Harris is the product of Jamaican father and Indian mother while her husband belongs to Jewish.
There is criticism against Democratic convention that they ignored Latino as speakers in the convention Since Latino are expected to be an important demographic in key swing states like Arizona and Florida. Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez, Newyork Congresswoman Alexandria Oscasio- Cortez and New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grishan have spoken only.
A pale of gloom has been prevailing in the United States in the wake of killing Black American in Minnesota on 25 May followed by huge demonstrations around the country until two months ago demanding reform of Police in local communities, apart from accountability and transparency. There were 686,665 full time law enforcement officers employed in the United States of America. Of them 35.4 percent belonged to White Americans while 11.6 percent employed from African-American. That means three times less than the White American employed in the Police Department. A lack of Black officers especially in communities with large African-American population has been cited frequently in the wave of police deaths of black that sparked riots in cities from Ferguson, Baltimore, Missouri last year and this year riots took place in many parts of America while latest riots took place in Kenosha of Wisconsin on 24 August when black man was shot at several times by police while he was leaning into vehicle. Huge protest rallies rocked the city while Governor Tony Evers of Wisconsin could not sit ideally who is reported vehemently criticized the police and declared state of emergency.
It is really interesting to note the United States being the oldest democracy in the world but presently is confronting hatred against African-American in particular, political rhetoric and confrontational politics which goes beyond imagination. However, the present administration of America is run by Republican President Donald Trump whose own sister described him as rude while his niece described him as the damaged product of an absentee mother and a sociopathic father. The book was written by the niece of President Donand Trump quoting Donald Trump’s own sister.
At a Convention of the Republican Party on 24 August Donald Trump was re-nominated to contest for President second term. Although the President was looking for either postponed or delayed the election in view of pandemic-19, but the constitution did not approve either postponed or delayed the Presidential election. As America is battling the Coved-19 virus the election as of now did not make much headway. The president is being criticized for not taking effective measures to control Covid-19 while he seems to be critical of China for spreading the disease. In fact, President Trump blames China for the pandemic because of malfeasance of China. Let us see who wins the presidential election his year because the presidential election this year assumes more importance than any previous year in history.
(Mr, Hossain is retired diplomat from Bangladesh and former President of Toastmaster International club of America, writes from Virginia)
