By Amanda Brucculeri
Boston University News Service
In an election that will result in either the first Black female president or the oldest elected president, political discourse has been flooded with talk of race, sex and age.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ rise to the top of the Democratic ticket was initiated by major concern about President Joe Biden’s cognitive state, after his debate with former President Donald Trump. Seventy-four percent of registered voters in July believed Biden was “just too old to be an effective president” at age 81, according to a poll conducted by The New York Times and Siena College.
Concerns over Trump’s age have also been growing among Americans. According to a poll by YouGov, the number of Americans who said Trump is too old to be president has grown from 35% to 44% between February and October of this year, and following recent ramblings and strange behavior at rallies, voters have also begun to raise concerns about Trump’s mental state.
Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally earlier this week was the crescendo of the campaign’s themes of racism and sexism. Speakers at the rally spewed misogynistic jokes, and not just at Harris. Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe joked about Taylor Swift being murdered by her boyfriend Travis Kelce, and businessman Grant Cardone told the crowd of almost 20,000 people that Harris “and her pimp handlers will destroy our country.”
Hinchcliffe also called Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage,” made a racist remark about a Black man in the audience eating watermelon and inferred that Palestinians are “rock-throwers.” Over the summer, Trump himself made inherently racist remarks about his opponent, claiming Harris “turned Black.”
Early voting data shows this rhetoric may play a large role in determining the outcome of the election. The latest ABC News/Ipsos national poll shows that Trump is 14 points behind Harris among likely female voters, compared to a 6-point lead by Trump among men. Trump leads by 11 percentage points among young male voters, specifically those who are less certain about voting, according to a Harvard Institute of Politics youth poll.
Since the Madison Square Garden rally, the Trump campaign has released a statement separating itself from the racist and sexist remarks made. But some aren’t buying the apology.
On Monday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told MSNBC: “They’re just realizing that they might have made a big error by saying out loud what they’re thinking.”
