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To the Editor:

When President Biden succumbed to pressure to withdraw his candidacy for re-election this year, he reluctantly chose Vice-President Kamala Harris as the standard bearer of the Democratic Party. Remember, this is the same individual who ran for President in 2020 and withdrew when she saw the proverbial writing on the wall.

What led to Harris’ defeat after she had received the blessings from high-profile celebrities, like Oprah, Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, and former President Barack Obama?

“This is a collapse of the Democratic Party,” exclaimed consumer advocate, corporate critic, and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader.

Nader, author of numerous books, including Let’s Start the Revolution: Tools for Displacing the Corporate State and Building a Country That Works for the People, was interviewed by Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman on November 6, the day after the presidential election. Nader continued: “It all started, Amy, when the Democrats abandoned half the country to the red states. That is devastating. Then, they started getting corporate cash in 1979, dialing for the same commercial values. That blurred their difference from the New Deal-type Democrats to the corporate Democrats.”

Nader is positing that the Democratic Party of today has lost its way. It is not the same Democratic Party of Franklin Delano Roosevelt from 1933 to 1945 (when Roosevelt died in Georgia). Neither is the Party the same as it were under President Kennedy’s New Frontier program and President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s Great Society pursuits.

Let us be honest. Sister Kamala Harris failed to connect, meaningfully and appreciably, with economically – stressed and marginalized communities on Main Street. Instead, she allowed Wall Street and billionaire donors to dictate the terms of her campaign. This was an utter disaster and national humiliation for those who held Harris in high esteem.

As we reflect, do you remember that destructive debate between Biden and Trump? If I were Biden, I would have made an Oval Office presentation and appeal to the American people and refused to grace a debate stage with a man with over thirty felony convictions. A convicted felon—like Trump—is not eligible to vote. Likewise, he is not eligible to run for president. Of course, we can see that there are different strokes for different folks.

Additionally, Nader, Senator Bernie Sanders, and other Progressive Democrats, through relentless hardihood, have warned the Democratic Party about the consequences of abandoning the poor and those who often choose between heating and eating during bitterly cold winters. Further, Progressives believe that corporations have too much power and are undertaxed. Hence, they listen askance to corporate Democrats who refuse to promote policies to ameliorate the deteriorating conditions of forgotten communities.

Finally, countless Americans cannot afford $600 for an emergency. Also, struggling Americans ill afford to pay rent or own a home, a key tenet of the American Dream philosophy. Due to ineptitude and a lack of compassion from Democratic Party operatives, this country now must deal with another chaotic Trump term and MAGA sympathizers.

Keith W. Cooper

Greenville, NC