Harris faces the sexism directed at Clinton and the racism directed at Obama

Donald Trump has openly said that if he wins in November and returns to office, he won’t be a dictator, “except for Day 1”. Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, the right-wing think tank that organised the potentially country-altering Project 2025, has said, “We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”

And on Monday at a rally for J.D. Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, an Ohio state senator named George Lang said, “I’m afraid if we lose this one, it’s going to take a civil war to save the country, and it will be saved.”

Into this storm, Vice President Kamala Harris has been drafted as the new best hope for the Democratic Party and perhaps for democracy as we’ve known it; indeed, she was the only option to replace President Joe Biden this late in the campaign.

After Biden’s disconcerting debate performance in June, I, like many others, was concerned that the debate over changing the top of the ticket would be a pretext for Democratic insiders to swing open the door to multiple alternative candidates, that they were operating under a delusion and didn’t understand the stubborn maths of the Democratic coalition.

Fortunately, Democrats appear to have avoided another intraparty skirmish. Exhausted by weeks of infighting over Biden’s withdrawal, they’ve quickly coalesced around Harris, who has collected enough delegate support to make her their presumptive nominee.

Democrats appear to have embraced the reality that black voters, traditionally the most unshakable voting bloc in their party’s fold, will be crucial to their chances of victory. Republicans have been making a concerted and at times effective effort to peel away black votes. And recent national polling suggests Trump still has a slight edge in the race overall. But by selecting Harris – the first black, Asian American and female vice president – Democrats are giving themselves the best chance to counter the Republican effort; skipping over her would have been politically catastrophic.

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So here’s the Democratic Party’s next test: protecting Harris from the vile onslaught coming her way.

In just the past few days, we’ve already seen attacks on Harris that go far beyond the political and into the personal: social media is swirling with smears about Harris’ past relationships. Tim Burchett, a Republican Congress member from Tennessee, called her a “DEI vice president,” a snide reference to diversity, equity and inclusion that carries the unmistakable implication that a woman of colour can’t possibly be qualified to hold the second-highest office in the land.