Saturday 7 November 2020

business as usual

On this day of convention breaking-firsts for US governance—historic departures that were long overdue but nonetheless whose time had arrived—first with Jeanette Rankin in 1916 becoming the first woman elected to federal public office, representing Montana in the House of Congress, then in 1989 with Douglas Wilder and David Dinkins as the first African Americans elected respectively as a state governor (Virginia) and as mayor of a major city (New York), next in 2000 with Hilary Clinton elected senator representing the state of New York—the first former First Lady to have an independent political career, Kamala Devi Harris is announced as the vice president-elect of the United States, highest office held by a female (and daughter of Jamaican and South Asian immigrants as well), deputy to former vice-president and forty-sixth president Joseph Robinette Biden, Junior, unseating the incumbent, impeached Donald John Trump.