The New York Times was quick out of the blocks with the Democratic pitch that Kamala Harris is a “pragmatic moderate.” It’s pulling your …
The New York Times was quick out of the blocks with the Democratic pitch that Kamala Harris is a “pragmatic moderate.” It’s pulling your leg. Joe Biden’s running mate had the most liberal voting record in the Senate last year — surpassing even Bernie Sanders — according to government watchdog GovTrack. Harris advocates late-term abortion, thinks Catholics are not fit to serve on the Supreme Court, has tried to criminalize climate-change denial and the manufacture of guns, wants to give taxpayer-funded health care to illegal immigrants and, as California’s attorney general, wielded power like a callous autocrat. But, if by pragmatic, the Times means this Barack Obama protegé will be whatever you want her to be, it’s correct. Her record shows her to be a gifted shapeshifter. The San Francisco progressive is prepared to pose as a law-and-order centrist in crucial states where suburban voters are nervous about violent riots. The panderer to the defund-the-police crowd once compared Immigration and Customs Enforcement to the Ku Klux Klan, but was endorsed by police unions when she was California’s top prosecutor. The hedge-fund darling presents herself as a woman of the people. She’s an Indian-American candidate to one audience, an African-American one to another. She’s the loyal understudy expected to usurp her benefactor if he wins. She’s an anti-racist, MeToo feminist running alongside a man she has accused of racism and has said she believes is a rapist. Like Biden, her moderate label is a phony play for swing states, but in this age, overloaded with hypocrisy as it is, it might work. Harris’ role is to bring out a few extra minority voters and suburban women to the polls where it counts: Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona and North Carolina. Yes, especially in North Carolina, where black turnout is crucial. In a close race, where every vote will count, she is on the ticket to reassure centrists that Democrats really are on the side of law and order.
