I believe the building blocks of the human world are not atoms and molecules, but stories. Ever since the days when we sat around the campfire regaling the tales of the hunt — or the days when we began to call forth the gods we worship from the great sea of the collective unconscious — human beings have been, first and foremost, storytellers. It is the essence of who we are.
As such, we create the reality we live in through the lens of stories — the more dramatic and evocative, the better. We boil down the incredibly complex world around us into simple yet compelling narratives to help us make sense of it all. And thus we call order out of chaos and give meaning to our lives.
In the 2020 presidential election, I have come to believe there is one candidate above all others who embodies the story that can and should defeat Donald Trump. That candidate is Kamala Harris.
I used to be a supporter of Bernie Sanders, and I still deeply respect him for all that he has done for the progressive movement. I also have a great respect and admiration for Elizabeth Warren, Andrew Yang, and several other Democratic candidates for president. I will not only vote but actively campaign for any Democrat who emerges as the nominee against Donald Trump.
But after seeing Kamala Harris’s strong performance in the first presidential debate, and reflecting upon her life story, I believe she is the candidate of destiny — the one who will most likely get the Democratic nomination and become the next president of the United States.
It’s not really about policy. It rarely is. The average voter votes based on overall impressions, and whether the story of a particular candidate resonates with what they see as the story of their country and their world, or what they believe it should be.
Senator Harris is an interracial woman who is the daughter of immigrants, who, through her own merit and striving to advance herself from humble origins, has achieved success in law enforcement putting criminals behind bars, represents her state as a lawmaker, and now aspires to the pinnacle of public service as president. What could be more American than that? And what could be a clearer contrast to the racism, misogyny, xenophobia, inherited privilege, lawlessness, and selfishness of Donald Trump? Harris embodies all the American values that Trump scorns. She would be the fullest possible karmic swing of the pendulum towards an America of hope and justice and equal opportunity for all, after four long years of a president who has swung our nation in the opposite direction.
It really is as simple as that.
And that’s why, because so often in the history of our country and of the world, the greatest story has emerged victorious at the very time when a people needed a newly inspiring tale to add to the great legendarium of our species, I believe the story of Kamala Harris defeating Donald Trump for the presidency of the United States is a story that is destined to be written into the book of life.
Now, it is up to all of us to do the writing.