Kamala Harris is a radical leftist who holds many expressed views far outside the mainstream of American political thought.
No leftist of her ilk has ever come close to being elected. In 1972, George McGovern lost 49 states and garnered only 37% of the vote. And McGovern was a moderate compared to Harris.
Joe Biden put Kamala Harris on the ballot in 2020 because she was 1) a woman, 2) black, 3) a radical-left liberal. She was named Biden's running mate to attract the base of the Democratic Party. In 2020, she pushed "Medicare for all," a ban on fracking, supported slavery reparations, proposed a "gun buy-back" program, and expressed the view that illegal border crossing should be decriminalized. By any definition, most of these views are far outside the mainstream and radical in nature.
Biden was a huge disappointment to the radicals. His attempts to govern as a "moderate" fell flat with moderates and radicals alike. And now Harris's radical political views are being thrown in her face and threaten to sink her campaign.
No worries. Harris is simply "reinventing" herself.
A big part of the Harris plan is to unapologetically change some of her more liberal positions, and claim her White House experience helped change her mind. Yes, when she was running for president in 2019, she was against fracking, for decriminalizing illegal border crossings, and for single-payer health care (Medicare for All).
No more. She has backed off all three.
She's also fine plucking popular Trump ideas, notably "no tax on tips" for service and hospitality workers — popular in Nevada, one of the biggest swing states.
A big and fair question is: What does Harris really believe?
Easy answer: She believes whatever it will take to win the White House.
Case in point: Harris's 2020 position on banning plastic straws. Last Thursday, her campaign said she no longer believes they should be banned.
At a town hall in 2019, Harris said, "I think we should " ban plastic straws. "We do need to ban the plastic straws," she added, noting that paper straws need to be improved.
Some progressive cities, like Seattle, have banned plastic straws and other single-use plastics. Environmentalists think this is essential to saving the oceans, and small businesses say they can't survive without them.
Harris has now dropped her support for banning plastic straws because it's very unpopular with Republicans and independents.
Harris now says she doesn't support a ban on fracking and building a wall on the southern border. These are not just issues on the periphery of American politics. They are bread-and-butter issues upon which she has had major flip-flops.
And the media is playing along with it.
The answer to all of these questions is obvious: Politics. Harris staked out all of her more liberal policy positions when she thought that the path to the 2020 Democratic nomination would be to portray herself as a more electable Bernie Sanders. Now that she is the Democratic nominee, she is walking away from them because she needs to appeal to the electoral middle.
I get it! But it also makes me wonder — and should make you wonder too — whether she actually believes in any sort of specific policies. Or whether everything is negotiable based on her political circumstances.
I am betting that six months after she takes office if she's elected, most of those radical-left positions will make a sudden reappearance. She will explain that her "time as president" has changed her mind.
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