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August 14, 2024 - 8:00pm
Kamala Harris has historically been to the Left of the Democratic mainstream. But in the past month she’s been moving to the centre on the very few policy issues she’s actually commented on.
The newly minted Democratic presidential nominee has not yet released a first-100 days plan or a day one plan, and her campaign website doesn’t have a policy section, though she’s pledged to release information on her economic plan this week. She also hasn’t taken any media interviews since Biden announced he was ending his campaign, leaving the press and the public to wonder where she stands on key issues.
So far, the Harris campaign’s policy statements have reflected an effort to moderate her progressive reputation, particularly the positions she took in her failed primary campaign in 2019. For instance, she expressed that she was open to abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in 2019, and she’s done little to quell the public’s belief that she’s soft on immigration in the years since. In 2022, amid record-breaking illegal crossings, she claimed the border was “secure”, and her immigration-related responsibilities as vice president have focused on “root causes” of immigration rather than border crossings.
But in the past month she’s pivoted sharply on the issue, perhaps aware of the public’s strong support for stricter immigration control. One of her first 2024 video ads portrayed her as a border hawk, and over the weekend she told a crowd, “I went after transnational gangs, drug cartels and human traffickers who came into our country illegally. I prosecuted them in case after case, and I won,” adding that the US needs “strong border security and an earned pathway to citizenship.”
Harris has historically been progressive on climate and energy issues, which could pose a problem for her in the general election. She supported a ban on fracking in 2019, but she reversed that stance after her campaign began last month in an apparent concession to voters in swing states like Pennsylvania, with economies heavily reliant on the fracking industry.
Much has been made of the Vice Presidents’ sympathetic stance towards Palestine and her call for an immediate ceasefire in March. But this, too, has been moderated. Her campaign recently said she doesn’t support an arms embargo against Israel, and she condemned anti-Israel protesters who had burned the American flag near the US Capitol in July, in yet another instance of moving her tone toward the political middle.
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SubscribeThe far right freak-out continues!
I’m guessing that the Trump-Musk trainwreck on Monday didn’t help your nerves?!?!
Far-Right Freak-Out is my favorite Ted Nugent album.
I probably wouldn’t go around admitting that you are a Ted Nugent fan.
Pretty cringe, as the young folks would say!
Champagne Socialist: He’s hip to the kids!
I think we all knew that already…
I’m not on the far-right, nor am I freaking out. But until she has an actual policy plan, and has to actually defend it, I have no choice but to be lukewarm on Kamala. The shifting stances are also a little bit worrisome, but to her credit, things do change in the course of four years, so I am willing to give her a bit of a leash there. I’m just looking forward to her being clear about her thoughts on policy, taking some interviews, and I guess the debate. Then I can make a more informed decision.
If you are part of the Trump cult, which you obviously are, then you should be freaking out.
His disastrous “interview” with Musk along with his other catastrophic recent public appearances can leave no doubt that this clown has no business anywhere near the presidency. He is clearly unwell and needs to be medicated and left somewhere where he isn’t a danger to himself or anyone else.
Harris will unveil her platform at a time of her suiting.
Geez dude. I would suggest no one on this site talks about Trump more than you.
Au contraire, Jimbo! You respond to every single thing said about the fat clown that you worship, either praising his latest stupidity or sticking up for him when it is pointed out that he is obviously a crazy moron.
Enough already. Your tired name calling is simply childish, as is your love of socialism. I wish you would name a single socialist society that was successful for any length of time. And one that wasn’t forced down people’s throats by torture and extortion. The rest of us freedom loving folks with fight to the death to prevent socialism or Marxism from staining our society again. Move to Russia for heavens sake if you love totalitarianism so much.
Lighten up Francis
Do you mean “empty suiting”?
I like her policy about not taxing tips.
Well, it worked for Starmer. Say nothing, do nothing, think nothing, just look smart and genial.
In fairness, Starmer did purge a few Socialists too.
What record?
Now that Trump has disavowed project 2025 he (also) has no policies at all, a fact not mentioned in the article.
Go on the Trump website. There is a link that clearly states his policies. Why he isn’t talking about them is a big fail IMO. And why he hasn’t been talking about student loan debt forgiveness is another big fail IMO.
No doubt Trump superfan, Jimbo, has the Trump website set as his homepage!
Yawn.
What is this guy’s beef with you, Jim?
Jimmy is a very grouchy Trump cultist who gets upset when I point out his frequent errors in fact and judgement.
No idea. He’s an insignificant, very shouty clown. Not worth the effort.
Amen. Don’t feed the trolls.
“Kamala Harris has historically been to the Left of the Democratic mainstream. But in the past month she’s been moving to the centre”.
Whatever party or politics you support, this is Leadership 101: be at the centre of the party you lead so that you are broadly representative of the people who support you.
You can present this as rank hypocrasy if you like, I’d prefer to save that for when a politician’s actually doing something more harmful than “moving to the centre”.
It struck me who Kamala Harris reminds me of. It is Chance the Gardner, a simpleminded gardner from the 1979 film Being There who rises to becoming a candidate to replace the President as a result of those about him mistaking his simpleminded observations regarding gardening as profound metaphors for the political situation.
She is the Chance the Gardener or Chauncey Gardiner (as his backers mistakenly believe his name to be) of politics. Clearly the Democratic faithful have mistaken her simpleminded burbling about the significance of time and being unburdened by the past as profundity. Like Chance those about her have projected their own hopes and beliefs onto her. Just as Chance dressed in his employer’s expensive but old fashioned garb fitted the image his rich backers wished to project as their ideal President so Kamala fits the Hollywood image of the ideal first blackish woman President. She looks the part and her fatuous observations can be mistaken for wisdom as long as they are not seriously considered. She is the ideal accidental President from an updated Being There.
You do know that she is the Vice President of the United States, right? And that before that she was a US senator, a two term attorney general of California and so on and so on?
I also have to assume that you know who Chauncy Gardener is and that you have somehow mixed him up with Chance the Gardener from Being There? Chauncy Gardener is a safety for the Philadelphia Eagles….
Maybe come back when you have some semblance of a clue of what you are talking about!
So by your parameters George Bush II, Yale undergrad, Harvard MBA, two-term POTUS, governor of Texas (2nd most populous state in U.S.), successful businessman, and Air National Guard pilot, would likewise be the epitome of leadership? Or does credentialism only count for Democrats?
“Epitome of leadership”?
Not sure what that is meant to mean but W, like Harris, was nothing like a simpleminded gardener. Bush is perhaps simpleminded but he was very well known and reasonably accomplished.
Those were the days when Republicans were simply ill informed and distasteful of course, before you went completely nuts and decided that Donald Trump was your infallible godking.
I quite liked “Dubya”. He and John Newcombe used to tear it up in the old days.
That guy from “Being There” went on to be the safety for the Philadelphia Eagles? Wow! Who knew?
To be fair Kamala has an opportunity to clarify her positions on the important issues of the day and express her vision of the future. An opportunity to silence the naysayers who hold low opinions of her, if only she would hold a single press conference where the questions are unknown and unedited. Until then it’s perfectly fair to question her ability to lead and to govern.
Pray tell…what exactly are trump’s “positions on the important issues of the day and vision of the future?” Although it is fair to ask Kamala to “clarify” and not ask the same of trump. Because imagine trump clarifying anything – it is to laugh
Uh, Chauncy Gardner-Johnson is an American footballer. But Chauncy Gardner is a character in Kosinski’s novel . . .
I said she reminded me of the fictional Chance not that she was Chance in any literal and exact sense. She does so principally on the grounds that her simpleminded burbling and chortling seems to be regarded as profundity by her followers in the same way that Chances backers projected their beliefs into his enigmatic and simple gardening observations.
Unlike Chance who was portrayed as simpleminded but benign Harris is a typical political chameleon and is far from benign. Just as I have little doubt you knew I was aware of Harris’s career but sought to stir things up with a bit of misdirection.
So, you are saying she is going to win at a canter?
The first female POTUS could only be a woman of color. But to think, that could have been Nikki Haley (sigh).
I wonder if anyone here can think off an example of another left-wing politician pretending to be centre ground, perhaps in UK.
Um….pretty much every Leftist politician I have ever seen…. Certainly Keir Starmer.
I think the Democratic strategy for Harris is a Biden’s basement redux.
So another historic landslide loss coming up for Trump then!
What’s his strategy? Completely unravel publicly until he gets taken to a mental institution?
maybe “. . . to continue with total slaughter until everyone’s dead except Field Marshal Haig, Lady Haig and their tortoise Alan”?
I don’t think you know what a basement is. Unless you think a basement is “several rallies and events in many states with thousands of attendees.”
Blah blah blah. Rewrite history, never acknowledge what you have said in the past, reframe every position in the opposite of what you intend and then tell the American people to believe in me. Why must the left always need to reframe, obfuscate and lie about their intentions? Should be a big red flag for thinking people.
Because they don’t believe in objective truth, to them they are only narratives.
So we’ve gone from hidin’ Biden to “Where is?” Harris.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Harris the woman I have seen on the stage at all of those large Democrat political rallies? Doesn’t look like “hiding” to me!
This reminds me of the old adage: “hiding in plain sight”
Just watch the Tories here in UK do same thing after a leadership election that drags them to the Right first. These gravitational pulls happen on both sides largely because the more activist memberships don’t represent the majority.
Of course Harris got nowhere in her candidacy bid because she wasn’t seemed Left enough and had too much of the ‘Prosecutor’ backstory. Doesn’t mean the Republicans can’t pin an ‘extreme progressive’ tag on her in some media but it’s a bit more of a struggle than they’d like.
A country run along the lines of progressive identity politics is ready to elect its first female President because she is a woman of color who stands uniquely for that.
Donald Trump is making it easier to Kamala Harris to win with his lack of focus on issues and more energy devoted to personal attacks and grievances over 2020.
Some might mistake this remark for satire when in fact it may be just reporting.
“. . . We’re actually better off just running on this real wave of enthusiasm and energy. … It’s the best thing [Harris] can do.”
Indeed. Harris just needs to garner 270 electoral votes, by any means necessary. (The same goes for Trump. Which is why neither the DNC nor the RNC is going for much of a substantive platform. They just need feelings & numbers. Neither of them needs any “vision thing.” So Harris soft-pedals her support for BLM and wants to appear more tough on crime. So Trump soft-pedals Project 2025.)
Trump’s base will carry him. He can augment that base by trying to rope in more Black & Hispanic voters.
Harris’ base already knows her progressive side. Now she needs to rope in more centrists, and possibly even more women.
A little walk down memory lane: in 1944 FDR proposed that all Americans have the following rights:
The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the Nation; · The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;· The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living; · The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad; · The right of every family to a decent home;· The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;· The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment; · The right to a good education.
When was the last time we heard anything like this from a presidential candidate?
Who are these small people now aspiring to the office FDR held?
“. . . We’re actually better off just running on this real wave of enthusiasm and energy. … It’s the best thing [Harris] can do.”
Indeed. Harris just needs to garner 270 electoral votes, by any means necessary. (The same goes for Trump. Which is why neither the DNC nor the RNC is going for much of a substantive platform. They just need feelings & numbers. Neither of them needs any “vision thing.” So Harris soft-pedals her support for BLM and wants to appear more tough on crime. So Trump soft-pedals Project 2025.)
Trump’s base will carry him. He can augment that base by trying to rope in more Black & Hispanic voters.
Harris’ base already knows her progressive side. Now she needs to rope in more centrists, and possibly even more women.
A little walk down memory lane: in 1944 FDR proposed that all Americans have the following rights:
· The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the Nation;
· The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
· The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
· The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
· The right of every family to a decent home;
· The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
· The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
· The right to a good education.
When was the last time we heard anything like this from a presidential candidate?
Who are these small people now aspiring to the office FDR held?