The last couple of weeks of U.S. politics has taken us on a ride.
From an assassination attempt to pressure for the long-time statesman President Joe Biden to relinquish his re-election campaign, to the announcement of JD Vance as the running mate for Republican vice president, plus the Republican National Convention antics: It has been a rollercoaster of anxious emotions as we anticipate the future of our country, our democracy.
Julia Goldie Day
Then as we learned Sunday that Biden will not stand for reelection and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee for president, a small bud of hope bloomed in my heart. Very few Americans wanted to see the names Biden and Trump on the ballot again. Very real trauma responses are activated considering election outcomes with fears of repeating the sins of the past.
I’m grateful I may have the chance to vote for a woman for president for the second time in my lifetime. This time, I hope she will win the popular vote and the electoral count. It’s past time for the majority to rule. It’s past time for our country to join with other democracies in electing a woman as our leader.
“It’s past time for our country to join with other democracies in electing a woman as our leader.”
I spent some time yesterday liking social media posts of friends posting “I’m with her” with photos of Harris. Since I have 5,000 friends on Facebook (I have reached the allowable limit) I clicked “like” many, many times. Folks are excited, and they should be. We need new leadership.
I saw many friends posting how they were going to their “Black jobs” after the presidential debate in which Trump made the unfortunate comment about Black jobs being at risk from the alleged immigrant invasion. Biden reminded us a “Black job” includes being vice president of the United States.
During the Republican National Convention, a clip of Vance resurfaced from a 2021 Fox News interview with Tucker Carlson. Vance said, “We are effectively run in this country, via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too. And it’s just a basic fact if you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC — the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children. And how does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?”
Another friend of mine on social media, Darlene O’Dell, reframes this brilliantly. “It was a ‘childless cat lady’ who helped finance the ministry of Jesus, who Jesus saw when he looked down from the Cross, whom he appeared to at the moment of his resurrection, and whom he told to spread the good news. But no need to be insecure about this point, Vance. There’s plenty of room at the table for you, too.”
Today happens to be the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene and I, for one, will take the opportunity to take my lessons from the mother of our faith: “childless cat lady” is not an insult. As I have written in the past, Mary the Magdalene is the model disciple for us to embody her oneness with Jesus, and she mothers us still.
I pray for each of us as we live our lives of faith, as we prayerfully cast our votes, and whoever is elected that we may be assured of the vastness of the love of God.
I pray for the bud that blooms in the wilderness, the mustard seed of hope. I pray for peace and that our next election will take place without violence.
May each of us be mothers of peace and forgiveness.
And maybe adopt a cat and name her Kamala?
Julia Goldie Day is an ordained minister within the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and lives in Memphis, Tenn. She is a painter and proud mother to Jasper, Barak and Jillian. Learn more at her website or follow her on socials @JuliaGoldieDay.
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