When Kamala Harris Steps taken to replace Joe Biden falters At the top of the Democratic ticket, Not the slightest anxiety within his own party.
For many people, the only basis for judging Harris was her performance as vice president. which was unstable Before he could Hold your pace Been on the job for a few years, and smash and burn campaign He contested for the presidency in 2020, which ended long before votes were cast.
Harris quickly allayed those concerns, at least among fellow Democrats. Her charismatic campaign style has impressed everyone Huge crowds attended the rallies. He Title of Bofo Political Conference in August and easily defeated Donald Trump earlier this month one of theirAnd Probably only, debate,
Still, the fallout from her failed 2020 campaign remains, thanks to Harris’s left-wing leanings and her stances on issues like healthcare and immigration, which Trump and other Republicans have eagerly used to paint “Comrade Kamala” as ideologically opposed. Stepchild of Karl Marx and Chairman Mao,
Polls reveal one of Harris’s biggest weaknesses This Snap Presidential Campaign One perception is that he is “too liberal,” as stated by nearly half of respondents Recent ABC/Ipsos poll,
What is surprising is that Harris has never been the radical leftist that her positions in the 2020 campaign suggest, or that some might infer from her grassroots standing. San Francisco’s Progressive ClimateWhere Harris began her political career by winning election as district attorney.
“He’s center-left,” said Dan Morain, a former Times staff writer and author of the biography.Kamala’s Way: An American Life,
“This only what was she in san francisco.She was like that when she ran for (state) attorney general … He’s a prosecutor,” Moren said, and while prosecutors aren’t necessarily conservative “by and large they tend to be more conservative than the typical Democrat.”
It was political convenience — or, as some close to Harris say, necessity — that led him to take a left-wing stance.
One adviser to Harris who has known the vice president for years described the 2020 Democratic primaries as a series of ideological litmus tests and a contest to see how many in liberal factions would rally behind her. A large field of jostling candidates The adviser agreed to speak candidly on the condition of anonymity to preserve his relationship with the Democratic candidate.
He said, “If you do all these things right, you can live another day.”
Another longtime member of Harris’s political circle, who was equally cautious in discussing her 2020 campaign, said there was “a perception that the only way to the nomination was through moving to the left” and managing to beat out “Bernie” and “Warren” in the contest. (Those would be progressive icons Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.)
The move not only proved to be a strategic miscalculation but also turned out to be a move that voters, nervous about the pandemic, turned against it. More centrists turn to BidenBut for Harris, it was a sham. She was trying to be something she wasn’t, this other longtime observer said. Worse, “she took on so many positions that four years later she was left with nothing but baggage.”
It’s weird how that works.
As part of her transition, Harris supported Elimination of the country’s private health insurance systemsupported a ban on fracking, called for deep cuts to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and said he’d be willing to “negotiate” about allowing violent offenders to vote from their cells. More recently, CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski 2019 ACLU questionnaire revealed In which Harris supported taxpayer funding for gender reassignment surgery for detained immigrants and federal prisoners.
Harris abandoned her stances on healthcare, immigration, and fracking long ago. She abandoned her stance on jailhouse voting the very next day. In response to Kaczynski’s sniping, the Harris campaign gave this reply, which is a classic example of ambiguity: “The Vice President’s stance has been shaped by three years of effective governing as part of the Biden-Harris Administration.”
As for Harris, she has acknowledged a shift in some of her stances but insisted, “My Prices have not changed,
But there has definitely been a change in his political personality. running away from the image of a tenacious prosecutor in the 2020 race — when criminal-justice reform was A hot issue for many Democrats – Now she is making law and order the central plank of her bid for the White House.
There is obviously a big difference between running in a primary and campaigning in a general election, which requires appealing to a broad cross-section of Americans. Harris has benefited greatly from her move. Becoming the Democratic candidate overnightWhich didn’t require him to bow so blatantly to the political left.
But given her willingness to do so the last time she ran for president — even if it meant going against her more centrist leanings — voters aren’t wrong to wonder where Harris stands and how strongly she’ll stick to the values she holds dear.
In 2002, as a US Senator from New York, Hillary Clinton voted to President George W. Bush right to invade IraqAt the time it seemed like a politically savvy move for someone who Future presidential races and wanted to avoid the weak image that had plagued Democrats since the Vietnam War.
As it turned out, Clinton’s vote was a major reason she lost the Democratic nomination in 2008 to then-Senator Barack Obama, a staunch Republican. opponent of the Iraq War,
All of those candidate distortions come to mind Line from Hamlet: to thine own self be true.
This is a good recipe for life. And for politics too.
