Kamala Harris: Hillary Clinton 2.0?
Kamala Harris will likely be the nominee for the Democratic Party in November, but the process through which she attains that position will determine if she is able to beat Trump or not.
President Joe Biden officially dropped out of the race for President of the United States on Sunday July 21st. He shared a letter on his Twitter/X profile announcing his decision;
Biden later endorsed Kamala Harris and said;
“My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term. My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.”
Within hours, over $50 million dollars had been donated to the Democratic Party in an incredibly successful fundraising day for Democrats (NYT). A tsunami of endorsements for Kamala Harris began flooding in including from many of her potential in-party competitors like Gavin Newsom, Josh Shapiro, Pete Buttigieg, Phil Murphy (WSJ). Many left-leaning political commentators want the nomination to go to Kamala without question, but an important question needs to be asked which many people don’t want to ask. Is Kamala Harris even able to beat Trump? Or are we replacing Biden who has no path to victory with Harris who only has a slim chance with the odds of a coin flip?
Although Kamala Harris is the rightful successor to the Biden Administration, that does not mean she is a strong candidate. Remember in the Democratic Primary for the 2020 election she started at around 5% support, shortly peaked at 15%, then reverted back to 5% and dropped out even before the primary in her home state. In order to avoid the humiliation and embarrassment, an ex-staffer reportedly said dropping out early was preferable because “It’s better than finishing fifth in California” (CNN).
Some of the reasons she had to drop out stemmed from her own campaign and record;
“more than 50 current and former staffers spoke to the New York Times about dysfunction within the campaign. Many of them spoke on the record...
Harris' record as a prosecutor also earned her criticism throughout the race.
Harris previously defended the death penalty, despite being personally opposed to it, and fought against legislation requiring investigations into police-involved shootings.
She also prosecuted a number of people for marijuana offenses, despite admitting to having smoked marijuana herself.” (Axios)
Seemingly without any self-reflection, Kamala Harris then blamed her loss on systemic bias against her as a woman of color. Biden then chose Kamala Harris as his running mate after “more than 200 black women…within the Democratic party signed an open letter to…Democratic nominee Joe Biden calling on him to select a black woman as his running mate” (NPR). So, she was an unpopular candidate with an unpopular record who has a history of campaign mismanagement but was chosen for reasons not related to her talent as a politician.
If Kamala were to lose to Trump in November after having an uncontested coronation as the nominee, it wouldn’t even be the first time an unpopular heir-apparent would’ve given us 4 years of a Trump Presidency. The first time that happened was with Hillary Clinton in 2016. By analyzing the differences between 2016 and 2020, Democrats can avoid making the same mistakes. In the 2016 election cycle, Bernie Sanders was surging to the be the Democratic nominee by focusing on a progressive policy agenda focused on anti-corruption economic and political reform. Alternatively, Hillary Clinton had been serving as Obama’s Secretary of State and was selected as the heir to the Obama Administration by DNC insiders. Hillary tried to shift the focus away from Bernie’s strengths of economic and political reform onto culture war issues. She did that while dishonestly smearing Bernie as a racist and sexist who wouldn’t help in the fight against racism or sexism.
And the DNC allowed Hillary to use a Victory Fund meant for the Democratic Nominee to use in the general election instead in the primary against Bernie (Politico). DNC insiders forced Hillary onto us and Hillary’s opposition to the Bernie agenda meant that she could not run on his platform in the general election. By the time the race was between just Hillary and Trump, Hillary’s entire campaign revolved around culture war pandering, that she was entitled to be President, and that Trump was bad. That inwardly focused campaign of entitlement cost Democrats the 2016 election. Instead of slow-walking into another 4 years of Trump, Democrats should instead mimic the 2020 election cycle. Joe Biden did not get himself elected from his basement; the Democratic primary led by Bernie Sanders ushered in a policy agenda, a Democratic platform, which energized voters and won Biden the election.
“The most inspiring part of the 2020 election cycle was the Democratic primary which featured 11 debates and almost 30 candidates. The Democratic primaries were the main format where leftwing ideas and solutions to America’s problems actually got discussed. Multiple approaches on how to best address climate change, gun reform, healthcare reform, income inequality, criminal justice reform, immigration reform, foreign policy, and higher education were introduced and debated (Business Insider). Elizabeth Warren offered a wide array of popular progressive proposals regarding “student debt relief, universal child care, an ultra-millionaire tax, a tax on corporate profits, affordable housing and breaking up large tech companies” (Time). The many policy proposals helped focus attention on important issues rather than on Left-v-Right political drama and ended up influencing Biden’s agenda while in office.” (Philosophical Rebellion).
In 2020 just like in 2016, Bernie Sanders was surging to the nomination with an extremely popular policy agenda of anti-corruption economic and political reform, but the oligarch class refused to let him ascend to power. The Billionaire class swooped in to anoint Joe Biden as the nominee specifically to prevent Bernie from winning the DNC nomination;
But Joe Biden did not chastise the Bernie agenda, instead he adopted it. Together they created the Biden-Sanders Unity Taskforce in which Biden allowed his own platform to be influenced by the overwhelmingly popular policy agenda which Bernie represented. The most popular and truly good things Biden did in office are a direct result of Bernie Sanders’ participating in the primary and advocating for good policy. Even in the dying days of the Biden re-election campaign now in 2024, he tried to roll out as many Bernie proposals as possible to improve his favorability (Slate).
If Kamala Harris or any Democratic nominee is going to beat Donald Trump in November, it cannot be through an anti-democratic coronation of entitlement and campaign of Trump-Bad, Vote-Blue-No-Matter-Who. Instead the democrats need to host a series of debates and a process for many prominent Democrats to participate in an expedited primary before or during the DNC Convention. Voters could actually participate through proposing questions for the candidates and voting online for which topics they should debate. Even in the likely event that Kamala wins the nomination through that process, a Democratic Party platform will be widely discussed and propelled into the mainstream dialogue right before an election. Kamala would then appear as a tried-and-true nominee who beat other Democrats rather than the heir-apparent chosen by insider elites. That process would also have enormous benefits for any Democrat who ends up in the general election as well as the entire party in the House and Senate. If democracy is really at stake in this election, shouldn’t the Democratic Party at least try practicing it themselves? Ryan Grim brought up very compelling reasons for the DNC to host an open, robust primary at their convention in his article for Drop Site News;
The narrative for the past few weeks has been dominated by questions about Biden’s electability, cognitive fitness, and the trustworthiness of those around him vouching for him. By undemocratically anointing Kamala, the Democrats would leave the narrative focused on Biden dropping out and his inner circle covering up his decline. If the Democrats instead engage in a robust primary, the entire nation would be engulfed in wall to wall coverage of all the various policy priorities within the Democratic Party. I wrote Why Biden Should Participate in a Democratic Primary last summer to advocate for that exact situation;
“Primaries are a chance to promote and define the values of the party, they enable popular voices to vent their frustrations with our elected leaders, and they create the opportunity to advocate for alternate approaches to issues the nation is currently facing…The 2020 DNC primary offered an opportunity to critically engage with a wide array of leftwing perspectives and reevaluate what it even meant to be a Democrat. To miss that opportunity to compare leftwing ideas and visions for our nation in 2024 is a political mistake; Biden and all future incumbent candidates should participate in primary debates…
A DNC primary would have many benefits. It would engage the American electorate with perspectives from within the Democratic Party as well as offer Biden the opportunity to demonstrate his mental fitness before getting into the general election. Aside from a true lack of mental or physical ability, why would Biden and the DNC miss that opportunity?” (Philosophical Rebellion).
In the same way, Kamala Harris could bolster the entire Democratic Party by participating in a process of primary debates leading up to the democratic convention. That process would be a vital step in keeping the Democrats in power in the Senate as well as helping democrats flip the House. If Kamala Harris is anointed as the nominee, I think she will lose the general election. If there is a robust primary, I think any Democrat who emerges would defeat Donald Trump. I hope she is given the opportunity to earn the nomination and win the White House instead of having the nomination gifted to her just to lose the general election. I hope DNC insiders do not take away that vital step in this election cycle.
