Opinion
The 2024 U.S. presidential election is Nov. 5 and there has been a vast amount of diverse opinions in the public discourse regarding the candidacy of Vice President Kamala Harris. Can voters trust Harris to lead the world’s most powerful country?
Representation
Harris is breaking down barriers as Barack Obama did when he was elected as the first Black U.S. president in 2008. If elected, she will be America’s first female president, which would show young girls it’s possible to achieve the highest office in the land
Perhaps more significantly, Harris is multi-ethnic. Her father is African Jamaican and her mother hails from India. Ultimately, Harris reflects the diversity America is trending toward.
An article from Pew Research details her identity in the following way:
- Multiracial background
- Child of immigrants
- Married Doug Emhoff at the age of 49, a Jewish American, who has two children from a previous marriage
- Childless
There has been an increase in cultural integration in America in recent decades, making individuals more complex in their identity. Laws have also been changed, such as state bans on interracial marriage which was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1967 in Loving v. Virginia. As a result of these two factors, attitudes have evolved which are more accepting of non-traditional alternative lifestyles, like childless professional women.
In a Medium article, Monica Selo describes why modern women don’t want children as much as they did in the past. The world is changing and women have realized having children will negatively affect their peace of mind due to the potential mental, emotional and physical toll it takes.
At the same time these cultural and social changes have taken place, others still have a hard time understanding someone can be identified as more than one race. For example, an article from NPR explains how people did not consider South Asians as Asian Americans because of their brown skin color. Some mistaken people with such origins as Mexican or Latino.
Even though she has an Indian name, Kamala Harris is reduced to being identified as a Black person, which she self-identifies as. The reason she self-identifies as Black is due her affiliation with those who founded Black studies departments in her college years at Howard University, a HBCU. Harris was also close to the Black nationalist movement in Oakland, Calif., where she grew up.
“…the primary paradigm that this nation was founded on was a Black and white paradigm. The invisibility of Harris’ Indian-ness is an allegory for the racial position of Asians in the United States. We are generally invisible, irrelevant, it seems, to the conversation of race. So when we talk about Kamala Harris’ race, people often will only speak about her as a Black woman. And that’s the way race operates in the United States,” according to NPR.
This can be compared to the Drake and Kendrick Lamar controversy, in which other hip hop artists were involved. The two exchanged “diss” records in the span of five months. Kendrick Lamar and Rick Ross, along with fans, questioned Drake’s racial identity.
His cultural identity was again put on trial, according to NBC News. Based on the article, there is a perception Drake is a “culture vulture” because he “steals” the sounds of other artists from different cultural areas such as Atlanta, New Orleans, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. Drake claims he was just appreciating those artists and specific styles of music. Lamar has challenged Drake on his racial identity. Rick Ross has also called Drake a “white boy” in his own diss track, “Champagne Moments.”
A.D. Carson, an Associate Professor of Hip Hop and the Global South at the University of Virginia, says the issue is Drake falling into personas that deviate from how he came onto the music scene as the melodic hip hop music artist rooted in transparency and vulnerability. Carson says people are asking how he benefits from white supremacy, which is a valid question. The reason is due to his biracial identity and his musical talent, as he has been able to appeal to different audiences by using the style of music they prefer. One can argue it is either exploitation or an appreciation of different styles of music.
In other words, Drake knows what it is like to have his identity questioned or misunderstood. He is just one example that other people can relate to, which makes Harris even more relatable.
Harris also represents the interests of women, as she has been a consistent supporter of abortion rights. Women should have the free will to have an abortion, or not, simply because they are human. There are so many pressures from being a mother as Monica Selo describes in her Medium piece. The Pew Research Center describes how the majority of women in America, 62%, disapprove of the horrific overturning of Roe v. Wade that lifted abortion protections at the federal level. If elected, Harris will attempt to codify Roe v. Wade through legislation passed by Congress which mandates abortion access in all 50 states.
Harris is reminiscent of Shirley Chisolhm. Chisholm personifies the struggle to increase participation by groups historically excluded from politics such as immigrants, African Americans and women. She was also the daughter of immigrants from Guyana and Barbados. She made significant impacts on educational reform and policies on anti-poverty. She was the first African-American woman to campaign for the Democratic Party presidential election in 1972.
Chisholm served in Congress for multiple terms as she was also a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus and National Women’s Political Caucus. She would lose her party’s nomination — in the face of racist and sexist opposition — to liberal anti-Vietnam War candidate, Sen. George McGovern of South Dakota.
The public viewed minorities differently in the early 1970s. Many felt Chisolhm wasn’t qualified to be president at the time.
Chisolhm’s perceived unfitness may also have been due to a political agenda that catered to the needs of minorities, who were a smaller share of the population compared to today.
She was an advocate for poor, inner-city residents when America was overwhelmingly white and held toxic attitudes about minorities and women. This made her policies radical because they didn’t align with what the majority valued and threatened their power.
Are Kamala Harris’ policies perceived to be radical because of her race?
Now, it doesn’t help that “she struggled to carve out an effective role in the vice-presidency, too, being saddled with a difficult policy portfolio including immigration and the failed voting rights bill,” according to The Guardian.
President Joe Biden even had to leave her out of legislative negotiations. However, according to Politico, her position as vice president may have played a part in why it was so difficult to pass legislation during Biden’s term. A lack of bipartisan support from Republicans has also played a part in the lack of success Harris had in passing new laws through Congress.
This correlates to another criticism conservatives like Donald Trump have levied against Harris. Namely, that she is a DEI vice president and not qualified for the job.
So, what’s the difference? I think it’s clear. One individual is a Black female and the other is a straight, white man. Yes, in the context of how the media portrays these candidates, it matters because it influences people and thought patterns of who to vote for in the presidential election.
Next, she co-owns Joe Biden’s disastrous policies which have resulted in:
- prices paid by business have increased by about 19% under Biden-Harris administration
- inflation that the middle/working class have been affected by the most
- attempts to blame hard-working business owners for price gouging
- open borders leading to crime
Harris wants to impose price controls on groceries that will neither reverse those policies nor reduce their impact. This begs the question, how should inflation in the U.S. be handled?
Voters say Donald Trump would help the economy, but the U.S. went into a recession-like era due to COVID-19 ABC News details how he left office with fewer jobs than before he got elected.
“Stop Kamala’s Radical Agenda,” explains her “dangerous policies.” The problem is the information conflicts with many media reports about her policies. For example, the article states Harris wants to abolish borders as it references her as a “border czar.” However, this is not true as she states how she wants to strictly secure the southern border, but also create a pathway for immigrants to become citizens, according to the New York Times.
“To make matters worse”, Harris said that we should have a “conversation” about whether terrorists like the Boston Marathon bomber should vote from prison. I really like this statement because I believe that talking about how things truly are is crucial for evolution and for that evolution to support the people. What about those people who were wrongfully jailed for marijuana, for example, and are not able to vote? People inmates in those types of situations should get the chance to vote.
In a world where more focus is being put on rehabilitation for those who commit crimes, the question is if incarcerated offenders should be able to vote. I see nothing wrong with having a conversation about these topics. This brings us to another point that the “radical agenda” story states which is how Harris wants to “reimagine” the role of the police.
An article from 9News, states she “has described herself as a progressive prosecutor who punished crime and helped nonviolent offenders turn their lives around.”
Dennis Mowder, a criminal justice professor at Metropolitan State University, states Harris wants to examine the underlying causes of crime and prevent those causes from increasing.
An example of her progressiveness in the criminal justice realm is the legislation of the Justice in Policing Act of 2020. This bill’s purpose is to reform law enforcement and strengthen accountability for the betterment of communities of the minority. Doesn’t this make sense? The police force should be “reimagined” because of past wrongdoings.
What is Kamala Harris’s stance on immigration?
At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August, Harris pledged to sign bipartisan legislation on immigration. The bill would expand detentions, prohibit most migrants from gaining asylum, provide funding for thousands of new Border Patrol agents and personnel and invest in new technology to catch drug smugglers.
It is a strict stance, but she also wants to hold on to our nation’s values, unlike Trump’s approach to immigration. The Republican nominee has called for undocumented people to be put in camps to eventually get deported back to their native countries.
“We can be a nation of immigrants who love their country and a nation with a secure border,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who helped construct the Policing Act in 2020.
What about her economic plan?
Harris has been “censorious and vague in pitching price controls. She wouldn’t go after all companies — only ‘bad actors’ that ‘exploit crises by ‘price gouging.'” Her “Agenda to Lower Costs for American Families” would reallocate costs through expanded entitlements and tax credits that would increase deficits by an estimated $1.7 trillion to $2 trillion over the next decade.
On the other hand, Trump has countered with a suggestion to end taxation of Social Security payments, which would increase deficits by approximately $1.7 trillion.
An article from DNYUZ states he made matters worse by pledging to eliminate taxes on tipped income, which they deemed a suspicious attempt to benefit industrial policy, encouraging restaurants as opposed to, say, home construction, or a bold attempt to buy votes.
Some of her spending plans are admirable, notably on child care, which will encourage work and tax credits for low-enough incomes to counter poverty.
Her other spending plans include the following:
- Make sure no one earning less than $400,000 a year will pay more in taxes.
- Expand the earned income tax credit to cut taxes for millions of workers.
- End income taxes on tips, according to the Tax Foundation
- $25,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit
Forecasting presidential economic performance is a hazardous business. For example, “in 1929, the newly elected Herbert Hoover, a millionaire investor and highly regarded Secretary of Commerce, was considered the best-prepared economic steward since Alexander Hamilton. As president, he was a singular failure,” according the New York Times.
Mark Cuban, a highly esteemed businessman, compared Harris’s approach to inflation to that of Trump. Cuban shared a quote from Trump where he promised to tackle the issue through rapid action by government agencies and executive orders.
Even Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, acknowledged the national debt went up during Trump’s four years in the White House, mostly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He also said that it doesn’t matter who proposes an economic plan for the US. Which option would you want?
Criticisms of Harris
The most significant criticism of Kamala Harris by U.S. voters is how few interviews she has done with journalists and a lack of specificity regarding her own policy proposals.
This has had an impact, as she has been on a press run lately on platforms such as All The Smoke, The View, The Howard Stern Show, The Late Night Show with Stephen Colbert and Fox News. The American people want to learn more about the vice president. These interviews build trust with her supporters and even those who don’t plan to vote for her.
She sat down with CNN in an exclusive interview that was very performative, according to the Washington Post, and failed to explicitly explain her policies. The questions were very broad and not thought-provoking enough for Harris to explain her position in a more introspective manner.
Matt Bai, a highly esteemed political reporter who has interviewed the likes of John McCain and John F. Kerry, has called for a return to traditional journalist edicts which would regain the trust between voters and politicians.
One constant criticism of Harris which she has turned into a positive is her change in positions on issues like immigration since her last presidential run in 2020. This signals she has an open mind, which is crucial for anybody in a leadership position with an opportunity to change and evolve in relation to public sentiment.
Isn’t America the land of opportunity?
Another admirable campaign promise is Harris’ pledge to select a Republican for her cabinet, if elected. This shows her spirit of inclusivity and how open she is to ideas that may oppose her own. We need more people in leadership positions like the presidency with these type of attitudes for the nation to evolve.
However, are all of her ideas on policies too idealistic? Perhaps. Her candidacy is comparable to former President Barack Obama. The Atlantic and NBC News describe Obama as idealistic and optimistic, as he bettered the country with the following actions:
- $800 billion stimulus bill signed in 2009
- Bailing out automobile companies such as Chrysler and General Motors following the 2008 financial crisis
- criminal justice reform with the clemency initiative
Both Harris and Obama have multiracial heritages. Their idealism comes from how they have experienced racial groups treat each other over time. I have become very aware of this concept too and I want to make this world a better place by influencing the thought patterns of public opinion and how we view race and gender relations in America. I want us to treat each other with compassion and kindness as much as we can.
It is human nature to do the opposite of this, but we can always do better. Harris and Obama believe in positive change. This stems from life experiences. If we want to be a catalyst for change, the only way to do so is to be idealistically optimistic in our actions. America’s leaders should do the same.
Featured image: Photo by joshua wann on Unsplash
