In Royal Oak, Michigan, Maria Shriver met with Liz Cheney and Kamala Harris and asked the Vice President how she’s handling the anxiety surrounding the upcoming November election. The two joked about gummies, and then Harris explained that, like most of us, she does “wake up in the night.”
Harris also works out in the morning for her “mind, body, and spirit,” and she “eats well.” She said that she loves her family, but they aren’t together every day now since they’re covering a lot of ground. She also had some inspiring words for the rest of us who may have bitten off our nails or climbed a wall or two due to anxiety.
“Let me just speak to what people are feeling,” she said. “We cannot despair. We cannot despair. You know, the nature of a democracy is such that I think there’s a duality. On the one hand, there’s an incredible strength when our democracy is intact. An incredible strength in what it does to protect the freedoms and rights of its people.”
“Oh, there’s great strength in that,” Harris continued. “And it is very fragile. It is only as strong as our willingness to fight for it. And so that’s the moment we’re in. And I say do not despair because in a democracy, as long as we can keep it, in our democracy, the people — every individual — has the power to make a decision about what this will be.”
“And so let’s not feel powerless,” Harris said. “Let’s not let the — and I get it, overwhelming nature of this all make us feel powerless. Because then we have been defeated. And that’s not our character as the American people. We are not one to be defeated. We rise to a moment.”
“And we stand on broad shoulders of people who have fought this fight before for our country,” she continued. “And in many ways, then, let us look at the challenge that we have been presented and not be overwhelmed by it.”
“The baton is now in our hands to fight for, not against, but for this country that we love. That’s what we have the power to do,” Harris said. “So let’s own that? Dare I say, be joyful in what we will do in the process of owning that which is knowing that we can and will build community and coalitions and remind people that we’re all in this together.”
“Let’s not let the overwhelming nature of this strip us of our strength,” she added. “That’s how I feel about this.”
That’s exactly what we needed to hear. I thought the last election was the most important one of my lifetime, but Trump is getting worse, and it’s a frightening concept that the race is as close as it is. Hillary Clinton appalled MAGA with her deplorable remark, and now we’re faced with Trump and his cult-like following who want that day of violence he casually threw out there, deploying the military against Americans who don’t like him, and his bloodbath remarks. Oh boy, I’m biting my nails again.
