America electing a woman of colour as its vice-president will definitely excite many people, but there will be some who will be apprehensive, just as they were during former president Barack Obama’s tenure, said Indian-American journalist and author Fareed Zakaria in conversation with senior journalist Kaveree Bamzai at TNIE Expressions, a series of live webcasts with people who matter.
There is no doubt that Hillary Clinton faced some degree of opposition just because she was a woman, said Zakaria.
“You can see this in the vote for (Joe) Biden. He gets a certain number of white suburban voters who didn’t vote for Hillary. Clearly, something was going on there. The truth is, Kamala Harris has not cut a very large figure on the American stage, but I don’t think it is her fault — we’ve had a pandemic Normally, you assert yourself by travelling around the country with a lot of media — all that has been curtailed. It is fair to say that she hasn’t had an impact yet,” he added.
“I think it will all change as we are approaching the post-pandemic world with the vaccines. And once that reality of a female vice-president, a woman of colour, is asserted, I think it will excite a lot of people.
But what the Obama case shows is that there will be other people who will be apprehensive,” said the host of CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS.
What Biden’s cabinet largely represents is that running a government is hard; it’s important, that people of competence and experience matter, said Zakaria.
“You don’t choose someone you met at a cocktail party or somebody you think looks good or somebody you heard defending you on television — this is how Trump would literally choose his cabinet. Biden is picking low-key people who have a lot of experience in governance. The same is true in India. It is very hard to get the government right,” he said.
Talking about Kamala Harris and her Indian connection, Zakaria said Harris is regarded more as a Black American than an Indian-American.
“But the truth is that she has both identities and that’s part of the reality of America today. You have these mixed, multiple identities and she can emphasise one or the other depending on where she is.”
The debate about whether Trumpism will leave America as Trump leaves the White House has been raging for quite some time.
“The way I would put it is, Trump was never personally very popular. There was a part of the country that was crazily devoted to him. But his average approval rating is among the lowest since the late 1940s. But he became a tribune for a certain group of people who feel disposed, who feel as though the world is leaving them behind,” said Zakaria.
Commenting on the way countries dealt with the coronavirus pandemic, he said it was nothing short of a tragedy.
“It has been badly conceived, badly executed and as a result, India may have the worst economic fallout from Covid-19 in the world,” Zakaria said.