President Joe Biden has withdrawn from the 2024 presidential race amid growing concern among fellow Democrats that he has no chance of beating Donald Trump this time around. “I believe it is in the best interest of our party and our country for me to withdraw,” Biden said. Posts To X, just before Throw He expressed his “full support and endorsement” of Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s new nominee.
“Democrats, now is the time to come together and defeat Trump,” Biden added. “Let’s do it.”
but can Harris “does this”?
It’s hard to say Harris will be successful. bad His cognitive impairment was so obvious that it led his own party to view him as a significant obstacle to the election, more so than Biden’s.
But the math of this equation gets a little murky when you remember Harris’ own ill-fated 2020 Democratic nomination fight and her political career before that: She was a really bad candidate, and even before that, she perpetuated some really bad policies.
Kamala Harris the Terrible Campaigner and Kamala Harris the Cop are easy to forget in light of Harris’ recent actions. Her tenure as vice president has been largely unremarkable. Her most notable traits are: Strange but harmless Word saladAnd political memories are short.
So Harris isn’t the best speaker? Surely she can overcome that. And maybe her lack of notable action as vice president works to her advantage. She’s essentially a blank slate, at least if you don’t look back too far.
But if you do Looking back?
The first thing we see is Harris’s disastrous 2020 presidential run. She didn’t offer policy positions. She couldn’t defend her past actions. She was constantly covered for treating staff poorly. She entered the race as a top-tier candidate with a friendly media following and big-name backers, but… He withdrew two months before the Iowa caucuses and was garnering just 3% support nationally.She wasn’t even rated as a top candidate in the polls. In her home state In California.
During that campaign, it was impossible to tell what Ms. Harris was on about, and not just because of the tensions of a national campaign: A defining feature of her career, which included her stints as San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general, was her ability to shift issues to suit the audience and the political climate.
This may have worked as a short-term strategy, but in the long term it has left her looking reckless, ruthless and a hypocrite. It would be incredibly easy for Republicans to portray her as someone who doesn’t stand for anything, or who they find most disliked. like A representative of “California Socialism.” (Never mind that Republican candidates aren’t always the most consistent supporters.)
Harris’ image as an elusive person, full of ambition and no ideology, Her unpopularity This criticism is arguably a bigger negative among American voters than the earlier common criticism that Harris is an overzealous cop and drug warrior.
Harris’ history of taking a tough stance on crime She becomes unpopular This tendency is evident among the left and radical wing of the Democratic Party, as well as among civil rights activists and criminal justice reformers — a tendency that will surely come back to haunt her if she becomes the Democratic nominee.
But this history may have been especially painful in 2020, when protests inspired by the death of George Floyd were still raging and momentum for criminal justice reform was still building. (Remember “defund the police?”) And it likely mattered more in the Democratic primary than it did in the general election, because those who quibble with Harris’ prosecutorial record are unlikely to see her as a welcome alternative to Trump or Republicans.
Instead, some of the lip service Harris has paid to progressive justice ideals, both in 2020 and in California, could be used by Republicans to turn safety-minded independents against her.
That is, Harris’ Reversal Her stance on judicial issues (not her actual record) may end up hurting her the most, leaving her vulnerable to attacks from both the left and the right and accusations of being too aggressive. and There is far too much leniency towards crimes, even when only one of them (aggression) is demonstrated in more than words.
I don’t know if Harris is a better or worse choice. For the Democratic Party More than any other candidate. I don’t know if she can beat Trump, but I have my doubts.
All I know is that if Harris becomes the party’s nominee, there will soon be heated efforts in the press, on social media and among celebrities to saint-ify her, both for the sake of her identity and in a desperate attempt to avert Trump’s reelection.
But while I want a woman president soon, and I don’t want Trump re-elected, I can’t pretend that Harris doesn’t have serious and disturbing flaws: Her extremely genial nature as vice president won’t stop her worst tendencies from flaring up again as president.
These tendencies include saying one thing during elections and then doing the opposite afterwards; using the state to crack down on problems like school absenteeism and drug use that many would agree are better solved with non-punitive approaches; Exploiting moral panics about sex for selfish purposes (While openly ignoring sexual misconduct by police officers in California.) It includes ignoring the Constitution, defending corrupt prosecutors, and finding new ways for government to intrude into people’s lives.
Remember: Not only did Harris help put parents of school-refusing kids behind bars, she wrote in her 2019 book: The truth we believe “Developing a statewide plan on school absenteeism was one of the reasons I ran for this position in the first place.” that That’s Kamala Harris (though she claims her incarceration was unintentional).
Critics have described Harris as a mysterious figure with political ambitions. mistakenBut this picture is incomplete. Several None of the things Harris has consistently advocated for are good.
Finally, here is a quote from an article I wrote about Harris in 2019:
During her 28-year tenure as a county prosecutor, district attorney (DA) and state attorney general (AG), she spoke publicly about racial justice and liberal values, bolstering her credibility as one of the Democratic Party’s rising stars, but behind closed doors she repeatedly fought for more aggressive prosecutions of not just violent criminals, but also those who committed minor and “quality of life” crimes.
Every Attorney General fights for state power and police authority. It’s part of the job. But Harris has repeatedly gone above and beyond the call of duty and fought for harsher penalties, higher bail, longer prison terms, more minor offense prosecutions, greater criminal justice involvement in low-income and minority communities, less due process for people in our justice system, less transparency, and less accountability for bad cops.
Her Early Years [2020] During her presidential campaign, Harris sought to position herself as a liberal reformer who was up to date with the times, but her record reveals a power-hungry, anti-liberal character – one that believes no crime is small or harmless enough to merit state clemency – that she now hopes to bring to the highest office in the land.
Whoever Harris is pretend Not this time, to use Harris’ famous phrase, but it’s not true.”Freed from the burdens of the past“
