Ever since the Biden candidacy terminated and Vice President Kamala Harris seized the mantle, the comfortable lead enjoyed by Trump in the polls has withered. They are now running neck and neck and an apparently bewildered Trump, whose whole persona was involved in a revenge bout with Biden to avenge his defeat four years ago, has been unable to adapt his strategy and rhetoric to meet the new challenge.
Then too, there is the contrast between the two vice presidential picks. Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota has been named the Democratic running mate. He comes across as a man with whom you could leave your car if you were working abroad for a spell and when you returned you would find it the same or in even better condition. In other words, trustworthy, straight-forward and reliable.
On the Republican side is J. D. Vance, who is proud of his hillbilly roots and upbringing; in fact he authored a book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” as a memoir of his Appalachian beginnings, its poverty and consequences. Made into a movie by Ron Howard, he did not spare the domestic abuse, child abuse, and the problems of addiction in a social setting where there were few opportunisties for economic advancement.
Perhaps he has lived through too much, however, there is the feeling with Vance that he is holding something back. Yet to get to Yale Law School from where he began demonstrates intelligence and perseverance. There he met and married a fellow student, the daughter of immigrants from India.
Trump, of course, we know well. From making up his own reality to a casual disregard for facts, Trump is Trump and his supporters love him. One fact does come to mind … that he kept us out of war.
People originating from India now constitute politically active minorities in lands ranging from Fiji in the Pacific to Malaysia, Sri lanka, Mauritius, East Africa, South Africa, the West Indies, Canada, and the United States. Should Kamala Harris win in November, she will be ruling the most powerful nation on earth, while others of India’s heritage rule the Indian subcontinent … plus at present also the country that spread them around the world, namely Britain.
Yes, Britain was behind it all. Indians work hard, and Britain, the ruling power, offered them a five-year indenture after which they could stay where they were or return home. After so many years, hardly any chose to return home where there was nothing beckoning, while there were opportunities where they were. Soon they were setting up small businesses, like shops, that sometimes became larger and larger, making a few very wealthy.
What were the Indians doing in the places they were sent? Mostly backbreaking agricultural work — harvesting cotton in Fiji, tea in Sri Lanka, coffee in Kenya, sugar in the West Indies and so on.
Supplementing this was the slave trade. African slaves to the Americas to meet the demands of the hungry cotton spinning and weaving machines in Lancashire and turning Manchester into England’s (maybe the world’s) cotton capital.
It is a long story of human exploitation and a long digression from the presidential election. Still, which candidate will be most fair to the underdog should remain an important question of concern.