What Type of Leader Does Kamala Harris Want to Be?
Senator Kamala Harris is making careful moves towards a strong 2020 presidential run.
Kamala Harris appeared on MSNBC last week to discuss Jeff Sessions’ visit to California and condemnation of the resistance to cooperating with ICE on deportations of many nonviolent undocumented immigrants. There she called Sessions and the Trump administration hypocritical for their flip flopping on state’s right issues and their actions overly political. But the key answer from Kamala Harris was on the question of whether ICE should exist. Kamala responded “Certainly” and cited that ICE is needed to deal with violent criminals, murderers, rapists and molesters. This is the latest line of Senator Harris taking centrist or conservative positions on key issues and demonstrates the type of political leader she’s choosing to be. Despite her moments of tacking left, she must decide as a potential 2020 candidate whether she wants to go against the grain or be just another corporate outlet to maintain the status quo.
Kamala Harris has had a blank slate to work with as a US Senator. During her campaign for Senate she was able to get the endorsement of Elizabeth Warren and took some mainstream left positions for Democrats that made her race a cake walk, and avoided significant criticism from the left. Only when she arrived on the national stage did questions of her record arise, showing itself to be quite conservative. As a Senator, Kamala has had her popular moments, grilling Jeff Sessions in a hearing, being the first Senator to co-sponsor Bernie Sanders’ single payer bill, and being the 8th most Senator to vote against Trump the most according to 538’s metrics.
Through these actions we see an attempt to appease the base of voters that are looking for a strong resistance to the Trump administration and a bold vision for the future. But when we’re talking about a potential presidential candidate, it’s a mistake to limit ourselves to these individual moments. More than being strongly anti-Trump or taking a few good policy positions like single payer, what’s needed is a leader committed to upending the systems and institutions that have brought us to this very moment. Someone who is open and honest about their intentions to go to war against the ruling class of America that has driven us into this hellish nightmare. A comprehensive look at Harris reveals that she’s trying to have it both ways to secure her spot at the top of the party.
Senator Harris’ comments on ICE fit right in with her roots as a prosecutor, and as someone who will tact to the center and the right to put her in the good graces of the powerful. To maintain her position as Attorney General of California, she sought to appease police and other agents of the carceral state, mentioned deep in this New York Times’ profile of the then Senate candidate. Upholding racist caricatures of immigrants, even if it harms her own constituents, is worth it to for her long term career prospects. Those on the left are correct that severely reducing the funds and scope of, if not outright abolishing, ICE is the way to protect the immigrant community. As stated before, this isn’t just about her individual policy positions. This is part of an overall strategy to appease the ruling class while throwing crumbs to the base. Her off the record speech at AIPAC, comically describing her devotion to Israel that’s been well documented, is another sign of her earnestly siding with the ruling class despite being totally out of step with almost all Democratic voters, not just the left.
Nothing better describes Kamala’s clear bias towards upholding the status quo than this Politico profile of her. The first key point says, “Though she’s not above taking swipes at President Donald Trump, Harris appears more at home working with Senate Republicans than wrangling with them.” This all sounds incredibly familiar to Barack Obama, who frequently criticized President Bush, but when he became President himself, repeatedly made overtures to congressional Republicans and tried to avoid conflict at all cost, leading to a series of centrist and milquetoast legislative achievements.
Further in the profile it talks of Kamala Harris voting against the bipartisan immigration compromise (one that would provide funding for the wall in exchange for DACA) where most of the more left-wing senators had gotten on board. But it describes as her waiting for them to make their position clear before she voted against it herself and wasn’t a deciding vote on the manner either. Then the piece talks about her support and fundraising efforts for many of the Democrats up for re-election in states where Trump won in 2016. The same Democrats who voted for the immigration bill, some the more extreme one put forth by Republicans, as well as the recent bank deregulation bill that along with other awful provisions will rollback data-gathering requirements intended to prevent racial lending discrimination. This is the clearest sign of all that Kamala Harris has no interest in challenging or changing her party to implement any of the policies that she’s signed onto. Her own individual position doesn’t matter when she fights for the re-election of 10 other Senators significantly to her right.
Ultimately, Senator Harris isn’t pushing the needle, she’s not out to change the game or fundamentally change American institutions. She’s not even willing to forcefully call her party out the same way that Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have. She’s out to appease as many people as it will take to get her the Presidency. This is clearly demonstrated by how she’s acted throughout her career, where she was a hard-nosed attorney general that even upset liberal reformists of the criminal justice system. She didn’t want to shake things up because she wanted the path of least resistance to Senator. Her remarks on issues like ICE and Israel combined with her steadfast support of moderate and conservative Democrats is the continuation of that trend.
She can change this if she wants, she’s a Senator of California, she will never lose an election here. Feinstein will likely serve just one more term, maybe even retire if Trump loses, making her the Senior senator. With Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren being on the older end of left wing politicians, a vacuum could very well form that she could step into. To do so, she needs to not just pick a couple left wing views, but to turn on those she has previously tried to appease. I wouldn’t hold my breath for this type of shift, but Harris is also not required to take her current path, and her supporters will have no room for excuses should she continue. In today’s America, you either fight for the ruling class, or you fight against it. What will you do, Senator Harris?
