Ka­mala Har­ris, the daugh­ter of a Ja­maican mi­grant, is tar­get­ing Caribbean mi­grants to as­sist her in the up­com­ing US elec­tions.

Coral Springs Com­mis­sion­er Nan­cy Metay­er Bowen was cho­sen as the vote di­rec­tor in Flori­da to mo­bilise sup­port.

Bowen be­came the first Black Hait­ian Amer­i­can woman to be elect­ed in 2020 and won re-elec­tion un­con­test­ed.

Two days ago, An­tho­ny Man wrote in the Sun Sen­tinel that, “Har­ris has now erased half of for­mer Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s lead in Flori­da.”

Vin­cent­ian-born Fad­hi­li­ka At­i­ba Weza has start­ed the Caribbean Amer­i­cans Unit­ed and said with 3.06 mil­lion Caribbean im­mi­grants, “when their chil­dren are fac­tored in, the num­bers are sig­nif­i­cant­ly in­creased.”

Ja­maican-born Una Clarke, the first ever Caribbean-Amer­i­can woman to be elect­ed to the New York City Coun­cil, said, “Ka­mala Har­ris has im­mi­grant roots. All im­mi­grants, in­clud­ing Caribbean-Amer­i­cans, should sup­port and vote for her.”

Mar­tin Fe­lix, a Grena­di­an-born pro­fes­sor at the FIT State Uni­ver­si­ty of New York, warned that the de­nial of the Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion to recog­nise en­vi­ron­men­tal is­sues, “would neg­a­tive­ly af­fect the Caribbean from floods, hur­ri­canes and ris­ing seas.”

Trinida­di­an Ernest McD Skin­ner, a po­lit­i­cal con­sul­tant re­sid­ing in Brook­lyn, has been mo­bil­is­ing fel­low West In­di­ans.

Har­ris’ so­cial jus­tice plat­form of tax­ing the rich and the pos­si­bil­i­ty of a first fe­male pres­i­dent has ex­cit­ed some.

Har­ris’ VP, Tim Walz, was praised by US Rep Deb­bie Schultz, of Broward, who said he was a “smart, big-heart­ed dad, a teacher, a coach, a union friend, and a ded­i­cat­ed gov­er­nor.”

Af­ter the as­sas­si­na­tion at­tempt on Trump, his po­lit­i­cal stocks rose. His cho­sen VP, JD Vance, al­so pro­vid­ed the ex­am­ple of an or­di­nary cit­i­zen who can ful­fil the Amer­i­can dream. How­ev­er, the tra­jec­to­ry of the pres­i­den­tial race was up­end­ed with Joe Biden’s ex­it.

Trump, who cam­paigned on an­ti-es­tab­lish­ment, may now be viewed as a cap­i­tal­ist be­long­ing to the old or­der. His por­tray­al by el­e­ments in the me­dia has put him as a tox­ic rab­ble-rouser who can in­cite in­ter­nal and ex­ter­nal dis­cord.

But Trump’s an­ti-im­mi­gra­tion sen­ti­ments are al­so re­flect­ed in oth­er coun­tries and tax­pay­ers may find it un­fair to house il­le­gal im­mi­grants.

Trump’s ap­peals to Chris­t­ian na­tion­al­ism are tied in with pro-life sup­port­ers. He backs lib­er­al gun ac­cess.

The dis­course on Olympic Al­ger­ian box­er Imane Khe­lif has re­mind­ed some about the De­mo­c­ra­t­ic lib­er­al left ide­ol­o­gy, al­low­ing chil­dren to choose their gen­der, share bath­rooms with oth­er gen­ders, force in­di­vid­u­als to use their pro­nouns, and even face chas­tise­ment and job loss if they of­fer dif­fer­ent views.

Free speech seems to be what the left de­cides it should be.

De­spite Re­pub­li­can de­nials, the De­moc­rats quote Project 2025, a Her­itage Foun­da­tion blue­print aim­ing to dis­man­tle de­mo­c­ra­t­ic rights. What is re­al or pro­pa­gan­da is left to be seen.

For­mer US House Speak­er Nan­cy Pelosi re­leased an in­sight­ful book, The Art of Pow­er, call­ing for the re­turn to stan­dards of com­mon de­cen­cy in pol­i­tics. She writes, “The cur­rent cli­mate of threats and at­tacks must stop.”

But, Amer­i­can pol­i­tics has been lit­tered with as­sas­si­na­tions, civ­il un­rest, and ver­bal vit­ri­ol. She wrote of the per­son­al vi­cious ver­bal at­tacks against her to the phys­i­cal at­tack on her hus­band in 2022.

She blames the rise in ag­gres­sion on House leader Newt Gin­grich. But Pla­to’s ‘Re­pub­lic’ stat­ed, “In a sys­tem in which every­one has a right to rule, self­ish peo­ple who care noth­ing for the peo­ple and are mo­ti­vat­ed by their own per­son­al de­sires, risk­ing dic­ta­tors, tyrants and dem­a­gogues at­tain­ing pow­er.”

Such is a risk of and to democ­ra­cy.

Har­ris’ mes­sag­ing, about how an im­mi­grant’s daugh­ter and a teacher (Walz) can as­pire to the high­est of­fices has mid­dle-class ap­peal. Her pos­i­tive, smil­ing, de­meanour con­trasts to Trump’s bit­ter, name-call­ing, and child­ish at­tacks. He should tar­get failed Biden/Har­ris poli­cies like open bor­ders, crime, de­fund­ing the po­lice, gen­der am­bi­gu­i­ty, and the hero­in epi­dem­ic, rather than per­son­alised at­tacks which ap­pear as racist bul­ly­ing.

BLM showed that Barack Oba­ma did not change the land­scape for blacks, so while the race and gen­der of a leader may give one a sense of pride, in the long run, it is which team can de­liv­er a bet­ter stan­dard of liv­ing, pro­tect cit­i­zens, of­fer equal op­por­tu­ni­ty, a safer en­vi­ron­ment, and an ethos which aligns to one’s moral com­pass, which might be para­mount.

All might not be of­fered in one po­lit­i­cal par­ty, so some­times one may have to vote con­science and not blind loy­al­ty. Like T&T, the USA is a di­vid­ed coun­try. Prob­a­bly we can learn from each oth­er.