Let’s make it President Harris after all

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President Joe Biden should resign.

No, not because he messed up the Democratic Party’s presidential selection process, or because he didn’t govern well, or because he’s too old and feeble. That’s all looking to the past.

This is for the future: He should resign so that Kamala Harris becomes the 47th president.

The benefits are many. The U.S. will finally get a female president, breaking a Boston Red Sox-style curse that more than superstition would truly make it easier for the next woman who pursues the office. It would inspire the countless little girls, especially those of color, who were told they could reach for those heights, only to be heartbreakingly told never mind.

For Democrats looking for even a small opportunity to yank Donald Trump’s chain, they could chortle at his having to revise his next presidential number to 48, as well as sharing the Jan. 20 ride to the Capitol with a President Harris.

But it’s out of healing, not revenge, that I’m making this suggestion. And I’m not the only one, or the first. Author and podcast host Steve Krakauer proffered the same idea back in August, just after Biden dropped out of the race. In an eerily prescient column in The Hill, he wrote:

“... Imagine it’s a couple weeks after the Democratic National Convention, and the Harris glow is starting to wear off. … Trump and Harris are neck-and-neck, and Trump is trending in several key swing states. … What better misdirection for the public than to ensure the story that’s on people’s minds in the days leading up Nov. 5 is not the economy or immigration, but the excitement of a new president installed at the last minute?”

Wait — this guy predicted the Harris glow wearing off and Trump trending in swing states? Remind me to check with him the next time I buy a Powerball ticket.

The Democrats missed that opportunity, but it’s not too late to change history, and for the better, and for all of us. It’s a small way of giving all voters the candidate they chose (or most of them, with respect to backers of Jill Stein and the other also-rans).

It does have one complication. Congressional never-Trumpers looking to serve him a taste of his own Jan. 6 tactics could thwart Trump’s certification in the Electoral College by delaying or neglecting to confirm a new vice president. As Mike Pence heroically showed in 2021, that responsibility falls to the sitting VP.

But if the better angels of my fantasy prevailed, one would be quickly appointed and confirmed. The obvious choice is Liz Cheney. Not only would you have the first bipartisan executive branch since Lincoln-Johnson (which admittedly didn’t go that well), you’d have all-female leadership of the most powerful nation on Earth.

That’s what Trump would face on the Capitol steps when he comes for his swearing-in: a dais that would include a Black current and former president, and one of them South Asian, a Jewish First Gentleman, a Black former First Lady, a South Asian incoming Second Lady, and the first father and daughter vice presidential duo. A reflection of America if there ever was one.

Understandably, Democrats aren’t looking forward to Jan. 20, and even that spectacle wouldn’t prevent whatever’s in store afterward.

But if nothing else, a President Harris of equal stature as her successor would offer a glimpse of Biden’s Rose Garden vision, where “we see each other not as adversaries but as fellow Americans.”

Robin Washington is a producer-host for Wisconsin Public Radio and a former editor-in-chief of the Duluth News Tribune. He lives in Duluth and St. Paul and can be reached at robin@robinwashington.com.