During a speech in Iowa, Democratic presidential candidate Senator Kamala Harris assured the crowd that she wasn’t a “revolutionary” nor was she a “socialist.”
“I’m not trying to upend and blow up systems. I’m not trying to start a revolution. I am not a socialist,” she said. She’s also not going to be a candidate for president much longer. Her faltering campaign has been circling the drain for a couple of weeks and is not likely to survive the Iowa Caucuses.
Why that is speaks volumes about the current state of the Democratic Party. The center of gravity in the party has fallen off a cliff and even relative moderates like Harris have been left behind.
But just because a candidate says they’re not a socialist, is that true?
Harris acknowledged the issues ordinary Americans are facing, arguing that a political revolution is not necessary to address them. What is needed, according to the California Democrat, is to lift up ordinary Americans.
According to Harris, “capitalism assumes that everyone is starting out on the same base and then people will compete and the best will rise.”
That’s pretty much a socialist’s view of capitalism. It’s also a fantasy. Capitalism is realism. And realists know that everyone doesn’t start out on “the same base.” Some people are smarter than others. Some are simply born or nurtured with more ambition, more of a drive to succeed. Race, sex, creed doesn’t matter in the division of talent, ambition, and drive.
Certainly, wealth and privilege has advantages. But how is government going to fix that? Harris and other leftists never mention a solution that would be true to American traditions, maintain the liberty of the people, and still keep a capitalist economic system.
Many Americans don’t want to compete at all. What does Harris propose to do about them?
Harris is not doing well because she’s not radical enough. As far left as she is, the heart and soul of the Democratic Party is with Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Both Warren and Harris have now disavowed socialism. But what if the policies and ideas you are pushing are socialist? The left isn’t buying what she’s selling and neither are rank and file Democrats.
Harris’ comments come days after the Democratic primary debate in Atlanta, as she continues to slip in the polls. The former Attorney General of California is polling at 4 percent in national polls, and averaging at around 3 percent in the key early state of Iowa.
The senator’s remarks also come on the heels of former President Barack Obama’s suggestion that the Democratic Party should not move “too far left.”
Despite her dismal performance, Harris went through the motions of still being a viable candidate by filing papers to run in the South Carolina primary.
Kamala Harris has officially signed her papers to be a candidate in South Carolina’s Democratic presidential primary.
Harris signed documents just ahead of a Saturday night round table discussion in Columbia. The California senator is stumping in the state in what her campaign is calling a “Black Women’s Weekend of Action,” a trip focused on the contingency that comprises the Democratic Party’s most consistent supporters.
To be able to compete in South Carolina, she’s going to have to survive Iowa and New Hampshire. That’s going to be a problem as she fired most of her staff and closed offices in the Granite State. If she somehow survives Iowa, she will probably bypass New Hampshire altogether and throw whatever she has left into South Carolina.
It’s a Hail Mary strategy. But it’s all she’s going to have left.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member