Music. Since Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee, we have heard a lot about vibes. We have been told that Harris is bringing joy back to American politics. We have been informed that she and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, are happy warriors, and that they have inspired democratic unity, enthusiasm and confidence. We haven’t heard details, not about Harris’s record or her plans. The first TV ad of her presidential campaign, for example, is heavy on biography and light on substance. It leaves out Harris’s four years in the US Senate, when she compiled a voting record that put her in the same company as left wingers Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Nor does the ad mention Harris’s run for president in 2020 when she called for the abolition of private health insurance, the decriminalization of border crossings and the passage of the economy crushing Green New Deal then dropped out two months before Iowa. The name of the man for whom Harris has served as vice president for the past three and a half years, also goes unuttered In the television spot, and Harris never says what concretely she would do as president, but her actions provide clues. In her first weeks as a major party candidate, Harris is aligned with forces in the Democratic Party pushing a left wing agenda like Biden. She masks radical change behind a genial, moderate smile. Unlike Biden, she has no discernible physical or mental infirmities, and can read a teleprompter without struggle. That makes her more competitive with Donald Trump and more dangerous
when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress on july 24 for example, Vice President, Harris was nowhere to be seen. She and roughly half of the Democrats serving in Congress skipped Netanyahu speech in protest or in fear of the consequences of associating with Israel amid rising anti semitism in their party. The next afternoon in Washington, Harris greeted Netanyahu by saying, like a teacher to an unruly student, we have a lot to talk about. When the talk was over, Harris appeared alone before the cameras. Harris said she supported Israel. She read aloud the names of the five Americans that Hamas holds captive. But then her speech took a turn for the worse. She suggested that Netanyahu, not Hamas, is responsible for the devastation in Gaza. She adopted the pro Hamas framing of massive, indiscriminate civilian casualties and widespread food insecurity in Gaza, she suggested that Netanyahu, not Hamas, is the real obstacle to a hostage deal, and proclaimed that the war in Gaza is not a binary issue.
In fact, there is no more binary issue in the world today than a democratic nation retaliating against a genocidal terrorist organization that rapes and murders innocents, hides behind hospitals and schools and burrows underground
on july 29 President Biden took to the Op Ed page of the Washington Post to announce his planned renovation of the US Constitution,
angered by recent Supreme Court decisions on abortion and presidential immunity, while saying nothing of the numerous cases on which the Court agrees unanimously and triggered by a flurry of spurious charges of ethical impropriety against two conservative justices, Biden proposed several drastic countermeasures. His reforms are the most daring assault on the separation of powers and judicial independence since the court packing scheme of 1937, finally, Joe Biden has something in common with FDR. Biden’s ideas are hypocritical. Only at the end of his 50 year career does he embrace turbulence, and then for someone else, his ideas are also unconstitutional, unworkable, and with the GOP controlled House of Representatives, dead on arrival. Biden’s core proposal isn’t high-minded or considered or realistic or connected to the rule of law. It’s a payoff to the left wing of his party. It’s a bid to mobilize the Democratic base this November, and Vice President Harris signed on immediately. When you shift your gaze from Harris’s scripted campaign appearances and wall-to-wall positive media coverage and look at Harris’s treatment of Netanyahu and her reckless approach to the Supreme Court, a more accurate picture of the Democratic nominee begins to emerge. A Harris presidency would be as incompetent and as unpleasant as Joe Biden’s, but even, if you can imagine, farther to the left. Who is Kamala Harris? She’s afraid we might find out.
