Who really is Kamala Harris?
A closer look at the vice president's background and history
Kamala Harris reports growing up in a middle class neighborhood. Her mother was a biologist (specialising in endocrinology including the progesterone receptor gene), and her father was an economist (specialising in the development process in low- and middle-income countries that included Marxian economics and income inequality).
After graduating from the Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco she was hired as deputy district attorney before being appointed several posh assignments by California Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (who Harris was dating). She moved on to several other positions before running for San Francisco District Attorney in 2002. Next she was elected Attorney General of California in 2011, and in 2017 she was elected US Senator.
Kamala Harris- U.S. Senator from California
In 2019 Harris was rated as the most liberal of 100 senators although GovTrack deleted that web page and combined it with her 2020 voting records where she and Bernie Sanders were rated the two most liberal senators.
For democrats and independents worried about the leftward movement of liberal ideology and the growth of numerous problems in our nation, this is a concern.
As senator, Harris was also active in the aggressive questioning of SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh regarding unsubstantiated claims of sexual misconduct when he was a student.
After two years in the Senate and initially strong support in California, Harris sought the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination but dropped out before the California primary due to poor poll numbers. Despite that, she was chosen by Joe Biden to be his running mate, and she became VP in early 2021. During the run-up to the primaries Harris staked out positions based on life-long values that as Vice President she still claims to hold. Perhaps unwillingly, she was appointed by Biden de-facto Border Czar.
During her assignment she oversaw massive increases in border crossings that overloaded support systems across the country (even in sanctuary cities), and contributed to crimes that likely wouldn't have occurred if the border were more secure as it was during the previous president’s term.
2024 Presidential campaign of Kamala Harris
Even after the 2024 primaries were complete, Harris claimed President Biden was as sharp as a tack right up until the day Biden was forced to resign. Some questioned her honesty and transparency while others found it ironic to see those claiming the other candidate was a danger to democracy chose the democratic nominee by fiat rather than democratically based on votes of the people of the democratic party.
In the weeks that followed Harris’ anointment, she refused to have a press conference or even answer questions, while her campaign staff began putting out information that Harris has "pivoted" on many of her previous positions. Although when she did face some media scrutiny she maintained that her long-held values have not changed, and she can't think of anything she disagrees with Joe Biden on (she bragged about being the last one in the room during his biggest decisions including Afghanistan).
Here are some of the strongly held positions she's on record as supporting during her 2019 campaign and even more recently.
Decriminalise border crossings
Ban on fracking
Green New Deal and EV mandates
Single payer healthcare
Packing (expanding) the Supreme Court
De-funding the police
Reparations for descendants of slaves
Mandatory gun buyback program
Federal jobs guarantee
Gender transition surgeries for detained migrants & prisoners
Regarding flip flops on these and other issues, on Sept 8th Senator Bernie Sanders assured us Kamala Harris is not abandoning her progressive values rather she's simply trying to be "pragmatic ... in order to win the election" and I suppose for people who believe her opponent is as evil as hitler, lying and cheating to keep him out of office could be morally defended. Yet what if Trump isn’t comparable to hitler?
This is reminiscent of when Harry Reid stated that Mitt Romney hadn't paid any taxes for ten years, and after the election he confessed that he’s proud that this lie helped assure Romney's defeat in the 2012 election.
If Harris is serious about pivoting her positions, she's in office now; why is there no action to fix the problems she's helped create?
Could it be because she's a chameleon who can't be trusted to be honest? She’s counting on low-information voters who don’t connect the dots, and don’t foresee the ramifications of four more years of what we’re currently enduring.
The latest example is after California finally recognised that Prop 47 (which reduced penalties for shoplifting under $950) resulted in an explosion of shoplifting, the state (even the governor!) responded to public pressure. And now with a "tougher on crime" measure on the CA ballot, Harris has declined to comment on how she voted on Prop 36. The measure would make the crime of shoplifting a felony for repeat offenders, and would also increase penalties for some drug charges related to fentanyl. What kind of leader can't explain how and why she voted on an important issue (odds are she voted against the bill)? Apparently transparency and honesty are very low on her list of values.
Lifelong democrat Bill Ackman had this to say about democratic party policies under Biden and Harris. Here’s his list of ill-advised policies.
Recently Harris was campaigning with Liz Cheney, champion of the Military Industrial Complex who had this to say about Harris in 2020. How misleading is it that the activist media is highlighting sour grapes from Cheney and other Republicans either fired or cast aside by Trump as “evidence” Trump is unfit for office. Shouldn’t our president be strong enough to fire people if they’re incompetent (like those who bungled the withdrawal from Afghanistan and others who kept saying the southern border is secure)? Did the Biden/Harris administration fire anyone?
Support for economic opportunity
Harris claims to be looking out for the middle class yet she contributed to over 20% inflation since she took office by casting tie-breaking votes on massive government spending bills and following through on the Biden/Harris promise to "shut down fossil fuels" by restricting the increase in supply that was needed to prevent energy cost increases. She wholeheartedly supports the Green New Deal.
Now that the September jobs growth report was way below expectations (and numbers for the previous two months were adjusted down) how confident can we be we’re on a good path? Who was it who said "it's the economy stupid”
Another seldom-spoken problem is our still-growing massive federal debt that additional Federal spending programs continue to feed. We have to pay interest on that debt, which especially at higher interest rates means we have less money to meet social needs and national defense needs.
Harris has managed to deflect from the weak economy and the crisis of excessive immigration by repeating a list of hoaxes to drum up fear (with help from the mainstream media) including Trump's support of Project 2025 (he doesn't), the firing squad for Liz Cheney, being "dictator on day one" not to mention the "(automotive) bloodbath" and still even the Charlottesville "white supremacists" hoax. And they continue to resurrect the “Trump mishandled the global pandemic” hoax when it hit some countries even worse than the US and two factors enhancing our death toll were democrat states moving sick patients into nursing homes to infect others at risk, and the elevated obesity rate in our country compared to others. Perhaps the biggest hoax of all though is treatment of abortion as a "yea or nea" binary issue and conflating abortion with readily available birth control. Especially when there are so many other issues that affect women and girls, as outlined in this short article
Abortion is a controversial issue and obviously important to many, yet isn’t it strange the same people who decry “dangers to democracy” won't accept that states are democratically deciding what limits should be placed on it. They only support democracy when the majority agrees with them. Incorrectly casting abortion as a “yea or nea” issue ignore the difference between a 12-week fetus and a healthy baby a month before delivery. Rightly or wrongly, most Americans support choice in the first trimester (even up to 15-20 weeks in most states and for exceptions like rape and incest). Yet in the last trimester for cases where both mother and baby are physically healthy, the majority of Americans see that as murder (as they do in most other countries around the world) because by that time a second person is involved.
The challenge for each state is to decide at what point does the fetus become a viable baby, and that murky judgement was delegated to the states by the Supreme Court to be regionally and democratically decided by The People rather than a small group of judges not medically trained. Trump has repeatedly promised he wouldn't sign a national abortion ban since SCOTUS has ruled on the issue so it’s now settled legally. In most states (like Michigan) abortion is now more available and more prevalent than before the Dobbs decision overturned Roe vs Wade. The legal foundation of Roe was flawed and legal scholars across the spectrum from left to right agreed it was going to be overturned sooner or later with a long line of cases from various states waiting to be heard. This analysis shows why women now have more democratic power than they did with Roe.
To summarise, remember, only you can prevent the next four years from being as dismal as the last four. A liberal California politician isn’t needed and it’s worth noting that last year more people moved out of California than any other state.
Instead of Harris/Walz, consider the benefits of the GOP platform below. Even though Trump lacks the polished comportment we wish he had, beneficial policies for our families and friends are more important than mean comments and rude Tweets. And he’s already demonstrated he’s an effective president. Trump has a strong and ideologically diverse team in Elon Musk, Tulsi Gabbard, Vivek Ramaswamy, RFK Jr, Nikki Haley, and JD Vance among many others. Vote smartly in 2024.
note- this post was taken from a Substack article written before the November 2024 election yet still relevant to those curious about why the election turned out as it did.
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