*My brain connects almost every thought I have with music. Anything—an emotion, a conversation, a situation, or an image—can bring a song or lyric to my mind.
That part of my consciousness, armed with a playlist spanning a lifetime and including nearly every musical genre known to man, has always operated independently of me.
And the moment it was revealed that President Biden, after weeks of public conjecture, was stepping away from his presidential campaign and handing the baton to Vice President Kamala Harris, the radio station in my head (to hell with Spotify) instantly cued up Funkadelic’s urgent, raucous 1974 funk rock groove, “Standing On The Verge of Getting it On.”
Written by P-funk bandleader George Clinton and the unit’s guitar hero Eddie Hazel, the anthemic “Verge” was Funkadelic’s bold, vainglorious declaration that the band is music and popular culture’s big new thing. To wit, this verse: “Even if you don’t admit it/the time for change is here/and here we are /we’re just for you.”
To my brain, that lyric spoke to Harris’s mission. In a New York minute short of Biblical, Harris was suddenly running for president. That evening, after a day of fresh giddiness, a friend, in a hopeful lilt, asked, “Do you believe Kamala can do this?”
The real question is, can WE do this? Is a segment of America willing to move, either sprightly or begrudgingly, past the systemic, institutional racism and sexism that is our foundational existence to make a woman of color president?
In the first twenty-four hours of announcing her candidacy, the Harris campaign raised $81 million, mostly from grassroots donors, suggesting that, on some level, the answer to that question is yes. Weeks and millions more in donations later, the Harris/Tim Walz ticket has transformed from a fast-moving train to a soaring rocketship, generating more combustive momentum by the day.
Since Harris announced her run, people have described an emotional burden lifted from their shoulders. They report waking up in the mornings feeling optimistic instead of bleak pessimism. It’s like the abused parent or child finally out from under the control of their abuser.
To paraphrase the Maria Grever/Stanley Adams classic, “What a Difference a Day Makes,” popularized in 1959 by singer Dinah Washington, what a difference a campaign makes. Of course, not everyone believes a woman can or should be president, even though women currently run 26 countries worldwide. Many of those doubters are women.
On the evening of November 8, 2016, I’d gone to El Cholo, a renowned Mexican restaurant in metropolitan Los Angeles, expecting to watch on the bar TV Hillary Clinton’s win over Donald Trump and celebrate with a cross-section of folk that is the restaurant’s clientele. Clinton’s loss was heartbreaking for most of us at the bar, nursing margaritas and beer over guacamole, chips, enchiladas, and tacos.
“Honey, you didn’t really believe Hillary was going to win, did you?” asked a fashionably dressed middle-aged Black woman four stools down, leaning forward to address me past the bar patrons separating us. “This country will never have a woman president,” she continued. “Never. For one thing, women are too emotional. Chile, their “feelings” would always have us in wars.” I was too stunned by Clinton’s defeat to remind this woman that men have helmed all of America’s wars.
Lots of women and men feel the same as El Cholo lady–that a female can’t do the job of the nation’s commander-in-chief. I understand being caught up in such prejudice. There was a time, many years ago, when I didn’t think a woman could play bass. Didn’t trust her ability to artfully hold down a band’s bottom. I know. It’s ridiculous. Let my public admission here serve as my flogging. I’ve long known the truth. Women can do anything.
But I gotta keep it real: While thrilled that Harris became vice president, I’d be lying if I didn’t concede my enthusiasm waned shortly afterward. Traditionally, vice presidents shadow the president’s policies; I get that. However, as VP, Harris seemed to have no real professional persona of her own that I could see. I regret that it’s since become a Republican licking stick, but I, too, am puzzled why Harris took so long to visit The Border after Biden announced she’d do so. It just seemed like the easiest thing to do.
However, just as Biden isn’t who he was more than three years ago, neither is Harris. She has evolved, exhibiting a presence and self-assurance that I noticed long before she became the Democratic presidential candidate.
Indeed, Harris has moved way beyond my last paragraph. Today, she faces a challenge that few presidential candidates have faced in America’s history. The economy? Infrastructure? Harris is tasked with saving the future of American democracy itself. That’s all. No pressure.
At some point in “Standing On The Verge of Getting It On,” Funkadelic’s Ray Davis, heralding the arrival of a new groove and a new sound, in his submarine-deep baritone, quips: “Us is what time it is.” Hell, yeah. Us. As in WE. People, let’s do this.
Steven Ivory, veteran journalist, essayist, and author, writes about popular culture for magazines, newspapers, radio, TV, and the Internet. Respond to him via STEVRIVORY@AOL.COM
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