Kamala Harris Has Now Become the Focus of the Battle

wlp22

Apr 29

I have never been a big fan of Kamala Harris, but I certainly would vote for her for any position, over any Republican, because the Republican Party has become the Fascist Party. End of consideration, therefore. Any Democrat is always far better than any Fascist running against him or her. So while I have preferences, as all we Democrats tend to do, to me it is now like a choice between eating a bland casserole dinner at worst, or taking strychnine. Amazingly enough Democrats disdained what they saw as the bland casserole in 2000 and 2016, to help get this country to where it is now, the poison just waiting to be drunk, with no sufficient anodyne.

Enough of the metaphors. and now focusing on Harris. I remember her running for Attorney General in California. All the Democrats for statewide office won handily, but she won by about 500 votes or so. Some of that had to be attributable to racism. Harris' parents are an Indian mother, and an African-American father. And some Democrats thought that she was too pro-police, not sympathetic enough to defendants.

The next time, she won easily. Then she ran for Senate. There was no competition in the primary, the field was cleared for her. And she won the general election. She served four years as Senator, and then ran for President. Her Senate term was unremarkable, she id not sponsor major legislation, but most freshmen do not. I didn't think she was qualified to run for President, but some others were not, either; and some that were, did not run.

She started the debates by attacking Biden somewhat circularly, and talking about how "she was that girl" who was bussed to an integrated school. I think that actually, from a well-off family, she had choices as to where to school. Anyway, she did not do at all well in the first two primaries, and then dropped out of the race. There was a sense that at least I had, that Biden had made a deal with her to drop out, support him, and she would be on the ticket; but it was not certain as to whether that were true

Ultimately, Biden won the nomination with crucial help from the Black vote in the South. It became pretty obvious that he was going to choose a Black woman for VP, though he apparently was impressed with Gretchen Whtmer, whom I favored. Karen Bass, Susan Rice, Keisha Lance Bottoms, were all rumored to be on the short list. It appeared as if supporters like James Clyburn expected a Black person on the ticket, and many women wanted a woman on it. So virtually by process of elimination, Harris fit the template. and she was chosen as VP on the Democratic ticket.

I had preferred otherwise, but of course there was no choice but to support Biden over the fascist. VP is usually not that important, though they can help; and of course there is always the question of what would happen if the VP needed to take over, for a short term or longer. In this dreadful era, it is more than a consideration.

Actually, I think that Harris has done well as Vice President, and I like her more now, though I still would rather have had Whitmer there, or some other people. Of course Biden was going to keep her on the ticket. this time. I have felt that her demeanor is somewhat preachy, as if there is no other legitimate position than hers. I think that part of effective campaign rhetoric when one is running for high office, is to at least acknowledge an opposing viewpoint, before showing that yours is better. Bill Clinton certainly had that ability. Biden does sometimes show that, too. It is not that we want them to take another position, but just to help the undecided voters to sense that one understands that the issues are difficult, but here is why you strongly believe in your side of it.

But the Republicans, whose only two goals are to take power, and to use it to trample individual rights, and give all the money to themselves and their rich friends, were quicker than I had thought, in their all-out effort to regain the Presidency. They were going to run against Harris.

Of course, they would continue their attacks on Biden, calling him bumbling, suggesting that he is senile; talking about his son Hunter. They'll keep doing that. But the minute Biden formally announced his second-term candidacy, they went right after Harris, that was their plan all along. First out of the gate was the abominable Niikki Haley, whom some people think is a moderate, because she speaks in softer tones and is a woman, but who is a loyal footsoldier who is shooting for the VP slot, and then to run for President four years later.

Haley acttually said that Biden would not be able to finish a second term. In other words, he will die, and Harris will become President. The classnessness of the comment is not their concern, they want to get it into people's heads. Of course Biden would likely finish a second term, but Republicans figure that if they can scare enough people to want to vote against Harris, this would be a big advantage for them. And the media went right after it, asking Karine Jean Pierre, who makes me yearn for Jen Psaaki every day, whether Biden would finish a second term, and she apparently bobbled the question somewhat.

So Republicans, who have no actual policies, other than whatever Russia wants globally, plus of course robbing the middle-class and poor, to give to the rich, will run against "wokeism," whatever that means, immigration at the Border, and all protections against fascism, including the FBI, State Department, and civil service; will be running against Kamala Harris. Oh, not directly, of course, but slyly, obliquely, telling their audience that if they vote for Biden, they are voting for Harris as president

Much of this could have been anticipated four years ago, but Biden and his advisors and some of his powerful supporters made their choice, so here we are We now need Kamala Harris to convince the voters that they should vote for her as potential president. Not because she would be likely to need to take over, but because Republicans always get to choose most of the focus of a presidential election, as the media follows right along.

And we now are going to have to fight the battle that the people who have the biggest influence in the Democratic Party have steered us to. And perhaps somehow being borne back ceaselessly into the past, I keep thinking that if Hillary had been accorded the nomination in 2008, where she won almost all the primaries, we would not be locked into this sequence, where the power in the primaries now resides in the Deep South; and Obama's former advisors are pundits on all the news shows. And his choice for VP then, who was primarily picked to counteract Obama's inexperience, is now running for his second term as President at 81; and the inexperienced VP whom Biden chose, with the strong urging of the "Obama Coalition," is either going to help him get it, and then become the nominee in 2028, or the Party will crash under the cumulative weight of those choices. History is filled with such chronological crossroads.

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