2 weeks Ago By [email protected] (kos)
Vice President Kamala Harris has one job. Literally, one job. To win.
Nothing else matters right now, and yet some people seem to have a difficult time with this. “As Vice President Kamala Harris makes a broad play to the political center, some Democrats worry that she is going too far in her bid to win over moderates who are skeptical of former President Donald J. Trump,” The New York Times reported on Thursday.
“In private—and increasingly in public as Election Day fast approaches—they say she risks chilling Democratic enthusiasm by alienating progressives and working-class voters.” The idea that anyone should be alienated because she’s working to appeal to voters is idiotic. So what if she’s campaigning with former Republican Rep.
Liz Cheney? Not only has Harris not made any policy concessions to her or any other Republican that has endorsed her, but also Cheney has now moderated her formerly strident anti-abortion views (which is causing consternation in conservative circles). To show the left’s uproar at Harris, The New York Times article cites Sen. Bernie Sanders, but if you read his comments, he’s not criticizing her for appealing to the political center.
“They want to hear her to be more aggressive in making it clear that she’s going to stand up for the working class of this country,” Sanders told the Times. But ..
. she has made that clear? Indeed, choosing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz—a stalwart proponent of unions —to be her running mate was a huge nod to that.
And her economic plan is aimed at helping the working class. Things like this are no doubt one reason Sanders is stumping for Harris. The war in Gaza, of course, pops up, with one young organizer telling the Times, “The tent is big enough for a guy who got us into a war with Iraq, and then the tent is not big enough for a Palestinian to speak for two minutes on the D.
N.C. stage.
” This is a reference, of course, to demands by a small group of undeclared delegates at the Democratic National Convention to have a pro-Palestinian speaker on stage. However, that’s not how conventions work, and no competent presidential campaign would’ve let anyone on stage that hadn’t endorsed Harris and wasn’t 100% guaranteed to stay on script. Not to mention that no one serious believes that a 2-minute speech would’ve mollified the crowd that calls Harris “Genocide Kamala” and are now demanding an arms embargo on Israel.
Before moving the goalposts, they claimed calling for a ceasefire would mollify them. You really can’t reason with people who think that Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, supports genocide , and think that Rep.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a sellout , going so far as to excommunicate her from their movement. Beyond that, this far-left group is so bad at wielding and using power that they didn’t even bother to defend two of their biggest champions in Congress, Reps. Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush, leaving them to the wolves, while criticizing AOC and Sanders for trying to save their hides.
Why would anyone go out on a limb for that crew when they are so quick to turn on their champions? “The vibes really peaked when she chose Tim Walz to be the V.P. candidate,” that young organizer in the New York Times story added.
“That time feels like it was so long ago.” I’m not one to discount vibes as a political factor in the election, but the reason the vibes peaked for this crowd is that they’ve been nitpicking every single thing Harris says and does for months. There was never any chance for her to meet their lofty expectations, especially not if AOC and Sanders can’t.
A couple of grassroots groups are quoted in the article, noting that they’re not seeing the intensity they’d expect given the stark choices facing voters. “We’ve contacted nearly a million young voters in swing states,” Stevie O’Hanlon, the communications director for the Sunrise Movement, told The New York Times. “And we are hearing that there isn’t the level of enthusiasm that there could be, given the contrast being so clear, and given how dangerous a Trump presidency would be.
” This complaint has nothing to do with Harris and everything to do with every single election since the dawn of time. Young people don’t vote in proportionally large numbers. That is further complicated this year by the rise of a massive gender gap among young voters, as young men are drawn to the fascist right .
It takes a lot of work and effort to turn them out, and there’s virtually nothing Harris could say today that would change that challenge. And no, Gaza seemingly isn’t the issue that would change those dynamics. The spring Harvard Youth Poll , conducted amid the height of the campus protests, found that Israel/Palestine ranked second-to-last among issues of importance, with just 34% saying the issue was important to them.
(Student debt ranked last, showing how little salience that issue has for young voters.) At the top of the list? Inflation, health care, housing, and gun violence. And what issues has Harris been talking about? Inflation , health care , housing , and gun violence .
People love to say, “But she’s not talking about this thing that I care about!” Except that more often than not, she is . Look, former Vice President Dick Cheney can go fuck himself, and he’s not the only unsavory Republican who has lined up behind Harris. But these aren’t policy endorsements; they’re existential let’s-stop-fascism efforts.
And if she’s not talking about single-payer health care or whatever your core issue is, that’s because the public support isn’t there to help her win the election. And remember, she has one job right now: Win the freakin’ election. Once she wins, have at her.
But for now, we can’t afford to take our eyes off the ball. Let's get to work electing Kamala Harris our next president! Sign up for as many shifts as you can between now and Nov. 5 to talk with progressive voters in key states who might not turn out without hearing from you!.
