Generation gap
As a 59 year old, Kamala Harris' potential ascendancy to the US presidency may not represent generational change but would be an important shift nonetheless.
It says a lot about the state of American politics that Kamala Harris’ campaign for the presidency is being pitched as “generational change”.
Harris — who will be 60 in October and is only three years younger than Barack Obama, who left the White House eight years ago — would be considered a seasoned candidate in Australian or British politics, as were prime ministers Anthony Albanese and Keir Stamer, who are both only two years her senior.
But 81-year-old Joe Biden’s decision to bow out of the race and endorse Harris as the (unofficial) presumptive Democratic nominee is an important shift for a few reasons.
Firstly, it allows the Democrats to run on the Biden administration’s record — hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure and climate projects, the first gun safety legislation in decades, expanding healthcare — with a fit and energetic 59-year-old woman at the helm, instead of an ailing Biden.
