Kamala Harris favors woke, racialist politics ➖ a weak platform to stand on

Michael Shellenberger - Democrats who support Harris appear to think that her being a half-black woman makes her a unique and gifted politician. But Harris is the opposite of unique. She rose to the top by conforming, not standing out. Nor is she gifted. Throughout her political career, Harris hewed to the demands of Democratic interest groups and the political consultants who serve them. She inherited the political machine created by her former boyfriend, Willie Brown.

As a result, Harris has avoided facing substantial competition, and the one time she did in 2020, voters resoundingly rejected her.

Despite this rejection, Harris was handed a position as Vice President in what was widely perceived as a strategic move by Biden to put a black woman on the ticket.

Holding Harris to low standards reflects the soft bigotry and patronizing attitude of Democrats toward minorities. Because the Party has essentially coddled Harris, she has not been forced to grow as a leader in ways she otherwise might have.

That Harris is now consolidating support as Democrats’ best hope of defeating Trump points to a major legitimacy crisis for the Party, as well as for the media and the federal bureaucracies that are heavily aligned with it.

It was only possible for such an unpopular candidate to gain the Party’s support because, since 2016, Democrats and the mainstream media have gone to extreme lengths to subvert democracy in order to target Trump.

These lengths have included the Russia collusion disinformation campaign, mass censorship of political speech, attempts to criminalize political opposition, and an effort to prevent Trump from running for office again.

All these activities have eroded the legitimacy of the state, the media, and the Party. Their legitimacy depends on public confidence. This confidence diminishes when these institutions so transparently undermine civil rights, fail to meet citizens’ needs and operate without integrity.

The war on democracy led by Democrats, the press, and the “deep state” has, in this way, ultimately helped Trump gain support. At the same time, it has left Democrats without good options to defeat him.

By favoring woke, racialist politics over a substantive political platform and by selecting nominees in an anti-democratic process for three presidential elections in a row, Democrats have been left with an extremely weak candidate.

By consistently showing bias for over eight years, the mainstream media has lost prestige and is no longer in a position to shape and manipulate public opinion in favor of Harris.

And, by weaponizing government against Trump and his supporters, federal agencies have inspired hatred and distrust among many members of the public who may view Harris as the anointed figurehead of this broken deep state bureaucracy.