As Democrats “celebrate” the announcement that Joe Biden is withdrawing from his re-election campaign, they must stand firm and claim that the default selection of Kamala Harris as the party’s nominee is a glorious moment. Just ignore that the party claiming to save democracy is violating that very concept, that the entire party leadership has lied about the president’s condition, and that we may never know how many backroom deals were made with Biden’s inner circle as well as throughout the Democratic orbit. Seriously – Democrats are asking you to ignore all of that.
Another detail to ignore is the record of the woman who rose to the top of the ticket. Kamala has a record emptier than a Sears storefront. An example of the media’s dichotomous standards is how her Dan Quayle-level performance was completely downplayed in the press. Her verbal ineptitude and lack of discernible accomplishments are equal to – if not superior to – that of the former, derided Vice President.
To judge Kamala’s record, we will look at the length of her mandates, but not first with her term in office, but with the days before it, in 2020. We had a perfect example of what Harris would deliver as Biden’s wingwoman at a campaign appearance in Miami, back when she was doing more PR because Biden was hiding from the press and frequently covering up the process.
In September of the same year Kamala made a publicity stop at Amaize Latin Flavors, a restaurant in the city of Doral. When she walked in smiling and shaking hands with patrons while cameras documented the visit, it was a peaceful affair. There were no huddled, smiling voters as a backdrop, as it was a unplanned visit, and the implications were quickly clear. Local social media was abuzz over her appearance, and the restaurant received backlash.
This was in a Venezuelan enclave, and residents viewed Harris as an emblem of socialism, the political movement that was tearing that country down. Many in the area, especially regular customers, vowed to boycott the restaurant. Her visit was not authorized, the owners were never notified, and the campaign did not deploy an advance team to determine whether a welcoming atmosphere existed. Her afternoon visit was met with so much resistance that the 6 p.m. news reported that the owners had completely denied involvement. This was a clear sign of political ineptitude, and it has continued during Biden’s administration.
Over the years, there has been enthusiastic reporting about how Joe Biden has assigned his Vice President certain government-related tasks. What has not been detailed with the same vigor is how Vice President Harris has performed in fulfilling those tasks. A look at the list of those tasks yields unimpressive results.
THE BORDER
Perhaps the most notable assignment Biden gave Harris was monitor the border crisis. It was a ridiculous mess. She was put in the job after her boss had repealed numerous Trump-era border security measures and record numbers of illegal immigrants poured into the country over the years with no sign of stemming the tide. As a result, the press scrambled to reinterpret her assignment, castigating Republicans who had used the term “border czar” and downplaying the importance of her duties.
The problem is that the government has built them into exactly this role, explain directly She was “put in charge of the immigration crisis.” What made this failure even worse was the length of time Harris did not even make it to the border to assess the crisis she was supposed to fix. In a particularly embarrassing Interview with Lester HoltShe explained, “At some point, you know, we’re going to go to the border. We were at the border. So this whole thing with the border. We were at the border. We were at the border.”
Abortion rights
Kamala has always been a vocal proponent of abortion, and the most notable development in this area during her term was the repeal of the Roe v. Wadesent the decisions back to the individual states. Harris was appointed to take up the issue after the Dobbs decision, but what has been accomplished is unclear as states began to impose stricter restrictions on the procedure.
Right to vote
Back when it was alleged that Republican-run states were passing laws restricting the voting rights of minorities (remember the Jim Eagle days?), Kamala was tasked with leading the movement to oppose these laws. Harris campaigned to Freedom of Choice Act John R. Lewis Act, Legislation that Politico boasted Harris used it as an “opportunity to put her stamp on a hugely important issue.” This was one of the bills blocked in Congress, leading to widespread calls to abolish the filibuster to push through Biden’s agenda.
Not only did this bill not pass, it proved to be completely unnecessary. All claims of suffrage being trampled upon and minorities being denied the right to vote were brushed aside when Georgia – the state that is seen as an example of the “racist” laws – saw record turnout in the primaries and elections.
Health problems of black mothers
As a senator, Harris had proposed recognizing Black Maternal Health Week, and Joe Biden began to realize it In his first year in office, he gave Harris a pet project. It … didn’t work out as planned.
The main reason for this development was the three times higher mortality rate among black women than among white pregnancies. The CDC measurement of these deaths by race shows that this discrepancy has remained largely the same from 2019 to the last year since it introduced this policy. At the same time, there has been an enhance in child mortality of black infants in 2022.
Expansion of broadband access
Kamala has often been blamed for being involved in or responsible for the introduction of broadband internet, but it is unclear how successful these efforts have been – and how much money they have cost taxpayers in terms of savings.
It was in February 2023 when she announced that 16 million households would save on their internet bills thanks to $175 million spent on minority facilities. But by summer, she said there was still a problem with the lack of connectivity, so a $90 billion “investment” had been made. to connect more underserved householdsThen last November we heard that there were still too many unconnected people – another 65 billion dollars wereWe can only hope that in the end they spent enough to actually get results.
Women in the world of work
One of Kamala’s first missions came in her first month in office when she promised Reintegrating women into working life. “This mass exodus of women from the workforce is a national emergency and requires a national solution.” The fact that 2.5 million women are leaving the workforce was a direct result of the pandemic, and the solution was quite simple: reopening the country after the COVID shutdowns. This is evident as the labor force participation rate of women is back to the actual point At that time, there were lengthy plant closures.
Racial and gender equality
This is an issue that brings with it a hopeless situation. Harris in the position to take on inequality of race and gender runs into the liberal paradox: the need to deal with race and gender controversies means that by solving these problems, you lose power. If you “solve” racial inequality, you lose that issue as a campaign issue. Solving racist or sexist problems would mean you can no longer blame your opponents on those issues, and you lose that talking point. Moreover, the real man in power would simply issue an implementing regulation to claim to be addressing the problem, completely overshadowing any work Kamala has done.
This four-year track record of Harris is not all that impressive when you look at the bottom line. What has been accomplished? What problems have been solved? These are questions without answers. So her upcoming campaign will surely consist of arguments that will be dutifully retracted by journalists, such as “I worked on abortion and voting rights for years,” etc.
We will certainly see few people distinguishing between the concept of “keeping working” and the reality of “achieving”.
