Dueling Kamalas
You can’t quite call it a flip-flop. That’s too mild a word for Kamala’s recent attempts at a 180. Recently a questionnaire surfaced which she had filled out for the ACLU while she was a candidate in the 2020 Democratic primaries, trying to outflank Sanders and Warren on the left. It revealed a number of extreme positions she held, or said she held (who really knows with the mutable Harris?):
A resurfaced American Civil Liberties Union questionnaire from when Kamala Harris was running for president in 2019 has revealed that she supports gender transition surgeries for detained migrants and that she wants to slash funding from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The document, which was first reported on by CNN, also asks then-Sen. Harris for her views on topics such as the U.S. prison system, D.C. statehood, abortion access and the decriminalization of drugs.
She also was for legalization of all drugs. On DC statehood, she wrote this:
Q:Will you commit to supporting D.C. statehood? If so, please describe your plan to achieve D.C. statehood.
Yes X No ?
Explanation (500 words): I have co-sponsored the Washington, DC Admission Act which would admit DC to the union, and will fight to pass it into law as president.
So she didn’t just vote for it, she was a co-sponsor. As far as I can tell she’s never taken it back, either.
Any regular reader of this blog knows that I’m no stranger to the idea that people can change politically. But I would have a bit more faith that Kamala Harris was one of them if she’d been giving speeches right along about her new positions; she most definitely hasn’t done so. And all she’s said about her supposed change of mind and heart is basically this sort of generic pap:
“The Vice President’s positions have been shaped by three years of effective governance as part of the Biden-Harris Administration,” a Harris campaign adviser told Fox News this week when asked about her responses.
If Biden’s governance has been so very effective, then why is she running away from it? Her “explanation” doesn’t even make sense on the face of it. The only thing that’s really changed about Kamala Harris is that she’s the Democrats’ nominee for president, and she’s desperately trying to escape her former self.
The debate tonight should be interesting. My wife is too nervous to watch, she says.
Mike K:
I’m with your wife on that.
“. . . and she’s desperately trying to escape her former self.”
Which is double-strange, insofar as her present “self” is her former “self”.
Oh, she’s an ourobouros, a self devouring snake!
It’s her campaign theme: Forward, unburdened by what has been.
But she is foundationally a San Francisco leftist. She claimed to hold those “values” throughout all her life until the present campaign began a couple of months ago, and she insists her values have not changed. We should believe her.
Harris is not saying anything. She’s letting unnamed staffers say things which she can ignore later if she wishes. The media is content to let her do this: they’ll pretend she really disavowed her earlier positions when she needs them to do so and they’ll pretend she never disavowed them when she needs them to do so.
It’s like how everyone know Obama was lying when he said he opposed gay marriage; the progressives were COUNTING on it.
It’s not going to matter to most who vote for her–they either hate Trump far more than they like her or they’re low info voters who like the way she looks and talks. The mainstream media will run interference for her just like they did for Biden in 2020.
@Bill Serra:they either hate Trump far more than they like her or they’re low info voters
I think there is a third and larger group: those who are content to be ruled by the Deep State and so know that who the Dem candidate is does not really matter, as they are not in charge anyway and won’t be.
Her polls are leaking support. Harris needs the win more than Trump does. He doesn’t have to go for a kill shot and he’s better off not trying.
Trump may surprise us with his control.
Trump is a master showman with decades of experience. Not to mention running for president twice, succeeding once and doing the job for four years. Under very trying circumstances I might add,
Harris, despite being a heartbeat away, hasn’t been serious about the presidency until six weeks ago. She is a very insecure person. Leaks from her staff (with over a 90% turnover, which says something about her leadership skills) say that she has often needed rehearsals for public appearances.
To me this is like an amateur wandering into a chess match with a grandmaster.
It doesn’t help that her campaign strategy has been to shield her from all unscripted solitary appearances until now.
I’m betting on the old grandmaster.
“@Bill Serra:they either hate Trump far more than they like her or they’re low info voters”
“I think there is a third and larger group: those who are content to be ruled by the Deep State” Niketas Choniates
A very large group of people, perhaps today the majority, welcome being ruled over by a benevolent nanny State.
Huxley,
From your lips to God’s ears.
Harris:
“I’m not who I am; and I am who I’m not. And you can be damn sure I’m not that arsehole felon with the orange hair.”
Democratic Machine and Media:
“WOW!! She’s really hitting ‘em outta the ballpark!!!”
Republicans: “Huh???”
Media: “Republicans pounce…”
– – – – – –
Harris:
“My values have NEVER changed.”
Republicans:
“Yer right. Ye’ NEVER HAD any values and you don’t have any now.”
DEMs and Media:
“Republicans are irredeemably RACIST AND MISOGYNIST!!!”
Etc., etc., etc….