There just are not a whole lot of larger-than-life heroes left in the US.

I am not sure why, but perhaps putting it under a microscope robs most celebrity of its panache and leaves so many potential heroes floundering in their own detritus. Maybe simple fact-checking has served to dull the authority of yesteryear’s heroes and many of today’s pretenders. Then who can speak for us? Who can move us to action, and who can inspire us to care about those who nobody seems to care about?

It will come as no surprise to many that Senator Robert F. Kennedy Sr. was my last hero. He made me a better human being. In his all-too-brief moment in the sun, he grew, and I grew with him.

Do we still have heroes?

Yet amid all the talk about fallen heroes, usually in the warrior context, we rarely examine how they actually lived their lives for fear of tarnishing their moment of truth. Most importantly, we have no agreed-upon standard for the “heroic” that ensures meaningful recognition of the heroes in our midst.

Is one shining moment enough? Is a neighbor a “hero” who hears the cries of a child who has fallen through the ice on a pond and, at some personal risk, jumps in to save the child. Or does the neighbor need to pull it off again to fully qualify, somewhat like the Catholic Church’s requirement for a second miracle on the way to sainthood?

Given the tragedies that often surround us and threaten imminent harm, there must be a whole lot of regular people out there who always seem to answer the call. Not the usual military “heroes,” but nurses, teachers, first responders and good cops, for example. Yet, are they heroes simply for being good at what they are called to do? I don’t know. But I do know that finding those who seem to innately understand that lifting up, reaching out and seeking equity and justice for all when it may be inconvenient to do so is a good place to start looking for real “heroes.”

Villains are much easier to spot. For them, kindness and empathy are signs of weakness, and personal gain is their only hallmark of success. Greed and corruption run deep in the villain pool. And, so often, the villains are the first to tell you that their self-proclaimed “heroic” acts justify their otherwise self-absorbed lives.

Most of us fit somewhere in between, hoping that our better angels will rise to the moment, but often hoping that the test never comes. What would you do if a pregnant woman was being harassed by some young jerk on a bus? Act, or feel relieved when someone else does?

Do we have heroes… in politics?

You may be asking what any of this has to do with much of anything. Well, in today’s divided and troubled times, it could prove critical to find some real heroes in our political midst, to identify what makes them our heroes and then test their message.

At the core of any message that is going to resonate with me must be a commitment to policies and programs that confront the obvious and ongoing inequities in our society. Somehow, a call to a collective conscience has to replace individual vanity and greed with empathy and active caring.

While I am still wishing and hoping, no new hero has emerged in the high-stakes race for the presidency of the United States. The Democratic candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, is not one of my heroes yet, but the Republican candidate, former President Donald Trump, is surely one of my villains. Harris seems like she actually might be able to do the job she seeks. Trump is demonstrably incapable of doing the job that he seeks. And that simple equation is good enough for me. 

Unfortunately, parsing every word and expressing every momentary concern is already distracting from the obvious. Every responsible public official should in the immediate days ahead be confronted with one question before any other: “Do you believe that a person who is a demonstrated racist, misogynist and immoral narcissist can be qualified to be president of the United States?” When they waiver or refuse to answer, you will know their answer. Ask your friends and neighbors the same question. If they waiver or refuse to answer, you will know their answer, as well.

None of the rest of the questions that we have really matter in the short time before the election. There is, of course, much that I would like to hear Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, talk about in the coming weeks. I would prefer that they do so without allowing the reporters and news readers on the prowl for sensation and their own glory to get in the way.

The September 10 “debate” between Harris and Trump should have been eye-opening to anyone watching with any doubt about the fundamental basic qualification issue. However, these presidential debates have often proven to be short on both impact and insight. We know who Trump is, and no debate is going to alter the stench that he leaves in his wake wherever he goes. I wanted a debate so that others might see what I already know, but more importantly, I wanted an accomplished black woman to kick Trump’s fat ass. She did just that.

As we have seen in this election cycle and before, policy proposals are often the last piece of the candidate puzzle to reach the voters. This is unfortunate because actual governing is about policies and the skill to design and implement the programs that bring those policies to life. 

This time around, we have to get the initial presidential choice right because we have seen the rapacious plan developed by Trump’s acolytes and the scores of right-wing lawyers and academics who have spent their professional lives undermining America’s institutional capacity to govern itself. If you wonder at Trump’s utter lack of any cohesive public policy statements, be assured that draconian policies are there and ready for deployment if Trump wins the upcoming election.

I will vote for Kamala Harris, hero or not, and I will try to do my part to ensure that others do so as well. And maybe this time, there will be enough collective energy to put her over the top simply because she is the only one in the race even arguably qualified for the job. Maybe then, we will find out if Kamala Harris is really someone special, so much more than the only responsible choice. Maybe even a generational hero.

[Hard Left Turn first published this piece.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.