One of the characteristics of the historic debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump has been the non-verbal language between the two, which has been little talked about. And it has been more this gestural language that has kept the world of politics in suspense. More than the luminous laughter of the possible first black woman who can win the Presidency of the United States, her great human and intellectual strength was revealed in the debate with that half smile at the barbarities of Trump who spoke with his lips pressed together like a lock.
Harris’ half-smile and Trump’s silently sewn lips, with a look of rage evoking contempt, could be a symbol of the political war that is open today in the world between those who want a day of bloody sunsets and those who prefer a dawn of light where everyone fits in.
Perhaps that is why the debate between the two leaders has had such a repercussion in the world. Not so much for its content, which was already expected, since the issues that press the world’s greatest power are well known, but for that certain gestural charge that the two contenders displayed: Trump with his already known stamp of undisguised machismo and violence, of contempt for tenderness, that of closed lips, the look that instilled fear, and Kamala Harris with her half-smile that was easy to identify with and that evoked not only security in her beliefs, but even compassion rather than contempt for the torrent of madness spewed by her interlocutor.
Harris won because she revealed herself, at every minute, first and foremost, as a woman, a protector of life, of all, without distinction of color or ideas. A woman who was both joyful and strong, capable of silencing the monster that was dripping with violence and lies. Even in the few moments when Kamala Harris showed a serious face, as if surprised by the barbarities that her opponent was launching like missiles into the air, she did not lose her calm. She looked at him seriously as if to say: “No! That’s it.”
No one is so bold as to predict whether the debate, perhaps the only one between Trump and Harris, will lead one or the other to victory given that we are living in a historic moment of psychological and value upheaval that we do not yet know where it will lead. What no one failed to notice when watching the debate and the images of the two pretenders to the throne is that they were face to face, two emblematic characters, like light and darkness, who spoke more with the gestures of their faces and their hands than with their words.
Both knew, before starting the duel, that more than words and proposals, their gestures and looks would acquire added human and psychological value. Trump’s, expected to be one of contempt for his opponent, a woman and black, and Harris’s, the queen of laughter and good humor, were the ones who sang and cheerful.
Was there perhaps a moment when a gesture took place that would go down in history and give Kamala the victory? Yes. And it was before the debate began when Kamala Harris left her desk, approached the person she knew would shower her with contempt and insults, and shook his hand as one would with a friend.
No one will know what Kamala Harris felt when she touched the hand of her opponent, who was more for violence than for dialogue and democratic debate. What is certain is that it was the most symbolic and elegant moment of that duel. A debate in which it will be difficult to forget the river of non-verbal gestures, which ran from the light of the eyes to the open hands, those that evoke peace and dialogue against the closed fists of hatred.
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