Joe Biden is honestly like most other candidates that have run for president: old, white, and male. He is not particularly progressive. He is not nearly as eloquent as people would like a president to be. And he has made several mistakes, particularly about race, as Harris herself has pointed out, in the past and has still not acknowledged his errors. He is the stereotypical white, male boomer.
However, the fact that he chose Kamala Harris as his running mate, while not surprising, does give the ticket some traction. First, the obvious: she is the first African American and South Asian woman on a major party's ticket. That already gives Biden's campaign some much-needed diversity. Not only does her background make strides for both women and the black community alike, but she is also a political firebrand. She is headstrong, direct, and eloquent. Everything that Biden is not. I genuinely cannot foresee how a Biden-Trump debate will go - both men put their foot in their mouth all the time. But what is certain is that Kamala Harris will wipe the floor with Mike Pence. That is the kind of win Biden needs to prove that his administration would be a strong one.
Now, Harris definitely has some skeletons in her closet. Many are not pleased with the fact that in the era of ACAB, saying that the Democratic candidate has in essence chosen a cop. As district attorney and attorney general in California, Harris had to conduct a balancing act between the needs of liberals and cops of the area. Many times she stayed silent in cases of police brutality. Her office was also notoriously hesitant for initiating policies that would police the police. However, that is not to say that she made no progress. For example, she launched OpenJustice, an initiative that made public crime statistics collected by the state that included the use of force. This was lauded by both cops and the public.
It is clear that Kamala Harris, at least as an attorney general always tries to find a solution that makes both parties happy regarding police policing. This background would make anyone who has actually been watching BLM uneasy. However, this is what we have - or else we'll have another four years of the chaos that has been the Trump administration. Despite all her misgivings, Harris makes Biden better. The Biden-Harris ticket needs our support at least till November, and then after that, we can demand more progressive change for them to keep that support.
