Purgatory : Kamala
Robert Armin
Shipmate, Glory
Jo Biden has selected Kamala Harris as his running mate. From what I've read, she sounds great, but I know very little about her (I'm a Brit). What do those of you who know more about American politics than I do think?
Comments
Sen. Harris was my first choice for the nomination ... She's excellent ...
Sorry
Female, African American, and Californian!
:cool:
Eisenhower.
Seriously, though, jolly good luck to the both of them!
Nixon was Eisenhower's vice president. I'd imagine that Eisenhower thought very little of him.
T certainly knows how to win brownie points, doesn't he?
I really wanted Harris for the position of take-no-prisoners AG, prosecuting 100 Trump apparatchiks at a single bound et al. I'll take her as VP, and if she does good, President in her turn.
On the topic of women, let's not forget that Geraldine Ferraro was Walter Mondale's running mate.
Kamala Harris is tough, and I'm sure this was part of the equation when Biden was making his pick. An unbelievable amount of racism and sexism is coming her way.
This strikes me as a really good sign about Harris' ethics as a politician. It strikes me that she knowingly took political damage to oppose legislation that she felt would not be good for the administration of justice.
Before I become a fully paid up member of the I
This is actually a very important consideration. At 77, Biden had to pick a VP who is ready, day one, to step into the presidency, if need be. And he needs someone he can pass the baton to if he decides not to seek a second term (which I think is likely).
Her views have shifted to the left over time. She initially ran for San Francisco DA against a more liberal incumbent, saying he was soft on crime. Criminal justice reform has become far more popular since then.
Willie Brown had an interesting take on this, several days ago, in his SF Chronicle article. He's been mayor of SF, speaker of the California Assembly (which we have instead of a House), and has done assorted other things. Very openly loves power, but at least you know that up front.
"Willie Brown: Kamala Harris should say no to vice presidency" (SF Chronicle).
Oh, and she did run for president this time around, but bowed out of the race.
Definitely saying Indian this time.
I just can't understand this choice. At this moment in time when the BLM movement with talk about defunding the police is at its peak we're going to have a woman who was responsible for sending black men to prison in unprecedented numbers and for things like marijuana possession. Somewhere along the line, about the time she decided to run for president she changed from hard core law and order prosecutor to far left liberal and it all seems suspiciously sudden to me.
During the debates she told a story about herself, "I was that little girl on a bus" that was obviously pre-planned, the T-shirts had been printed and were sold after the debate. It presented an image to Americans of a poor African-American child, a descendant of slaves rising up from poverty. The truth is she grew up with great privilege, her father was a college professor, an immigrant whose grandparents had been slave holders in Jamaica. Her mother was a surgeon, an immigrant from India. Kamala's high school years were all spent in Canada. Add to all this her beauty and looks that can pass for white and she's just not what black women are talking about when they talk about how hard it is to be black in America every minute of everyday.
*https://youtube.com/watch?v=Cfp_IIdVnXs
Anything about KH's racial experience and how bad it is/was is way above my pay grade. I'm just mentioning some thoughts, news stories, etc.
I remember there was some controversy about what she said then. But if she really was bussed away to a white school*, it was likely a very difficult experience, and choking up is warranted.
I'm not particularly defending K. Just saying there may be different angles from which to view her and her actions.
The prepared t-shirts you mentioned? She was running for president, and that means planning strategies. It makes sense to me that she'd have her "bussed child" paraphernalia ready ahead of time.
As to sending black men to prison, I saw something today that said she was the most progressive attorney-general California's ever had.
I'm watching an excerpt of a show about Kamala on "ABC World News Now". Brief excerpt, but interesting. E.g., lived in Berkeley as a kid. Her Indian mom intentionally raised K and her sister as black women. Went to Howard Univ., one of the "Historically Black Colleges". Various college friends talked about her. One said that people often thought she and KH were professors, because they were all business and carried attache' cases. Etc.
*Younger than high school, IIRC.
With such wealthy and educated parents, I imagine she still could have become a lawyer, even without being bussed to another elementary school.
It's those misleading aspects I objected to, as well as her attack on Biden, which practically called him a racist.
I'm disappointed because Biden made such a point of saying that, in respect to this particular moment in history, he was going to choose a black woman as running mate. I thought the purpose for doing that was to have someone working with him who really understood, first hand, the problems of being black in America. I think most African Americans would agree that a large part of those problems stem from growing up in poverty and from having a black appearance -- which often results in racial profiling from those in power, from police to those in hiring positions. I just don't think Kamala Harris has had many of those experiences.
Is Kamala Harris an Establishment Democrat? Maybe. But I think the anti Trump dimension will be more significant this time. He will keep his 40% die hard loyalists. But I think Kamala will have a positive impact on the 10-15% floating voters who will decide this.
I hope so. But my faith in humanity to shove sticks up their own arses makes me pessimistic.
All well and good, but let's bear in mind that it's not just the vote count that's needed here; it's votes from the right voters in the right states. Hillary Clinton *lost* the 2016 election with a 3,000-vote majority.
Economically, yes, Trump is establishment. But I think what people mean when they say he's not establishment is that he's an outsider as far as the political establishment goes. IOW he didn't rise to power via the usual channels in DC or state capitals. He basically went from Manhattan landlord to TV show host to president with no stops at city hall, state capital, congress, or a military barrack. That gives him a very different public image than someone like Hillary Clinton, or indeed anyone has served as president.
CORRECT. My bad. Not enough coffee this morning; apologies.
No, it was a 3 million vote plurality.
You know, a lot of descendants of slaves have ancestors who were slaveholders (e.g. the descendants of Sally Hemings).
Not well enough to fool Berkeley Public Schools, apparently.