Philadelphia just reelected a Democratic nominee for mayor who is emboldened by his recent victory to most likely do everything in his power to see to it that the current President of the United States is defeated in his aspiration to be reelected next year.

Not only in his city —easy, because of the prevailing Democratic registration tally here—but everywhere else in the state, or the country, where his confident voice can be heard.

Mayor Jim Kenney hasn’t minced words when using that voice, particularly when referring to the current leader in the White House (“a fragile egomaniac”, he called him, when the Eagles were uninvited to visit) who has made the most vulnerable residents of the country —its most recent immigrants— his favorite shooting target to rally his followers to his rallies and the polls.

Mr Kenney, on the contrary, has spent his political capital protecting them, like no other mayor of Philadelphia has done, although they are the very people who can’t cast one single vote for him.

"Why?," we asked him when he came for an interview with AL DÍA.

“Because it is the right to do,” he said.

Principled statements like that, born out of conviction, not convenience, are the principled rocks Democrats can erect to stop Trump— or at least throw him off balance as he continues to exercise executive power with imperial confidence and arbitrary demeanor from the White House.

He already showed up for a rally in Pennsylvania this month, a few days after his main Democratic opponent launched his national campaign from Philadelphia, PA.

Why?

Perhaps because Mr. Trump knows, as much as Mr Joe Biden does, that the State of Pennsylvania can be ground zero of election 2020 and, why not, the cornerstone to build the way to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC.