Kamala Harris' Deeply Demoralizing Campaign
The Democrats' embrace of Dick Cheney and Alberto Gonzales shows whose votes they really want.
Today’s top story is that Israel bombed yet another hospital in Gaza, burning alive already injured Palestinians. Photos are circulating that show arms, with IV tubes still attached, reaching out of the inferno.
Actually, the site Israel bombed was hardly even a hospital. Most of the people there were part of a tent camp for displaced Palestinians. According to Al-Jazeera, Israel continues to carry out daily airstrikes in Gaza, even as it executes a ground offensive into southern Lebanon. In just the last 24 hours, Israeli military forces also bombed a flour distribution center.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who remains second in command of the administration that’s aiding and abetting this genocide, said in an appearance on The View last week that “not a thing that comes to mind” that she would’ve done differently than President Joe Biden—a full-throated endorsement and promise to continue this carnage. Not a thing, she said, except she would have a Republican in her Cabinet.
It fits perfectly, then, that Harris would be touting the endorsements of war criminals in her recent public appearances.
In a town-hall-style event hosted by Univision on Friday where she attempted to woo Latino voters, Harris bragged about having received the backing of Dick Cheney and George W. Bush’s Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, a key architect in crafting the legal case to justify the torture program.
In response to an undecided voter’s question about Biden being shunted aside. Her was part of her answer (emphasis mine, you can watch the full clip here):
I probably have a bigger coalition of people who couldn’t seem to be more different than each other who have come together around my candidacy.
From 200 Republicans, who worked with and for both Presidents Bush, John McCain, Mitt Romney, including Liz Cheney, the former congresswoman, and her father, the former Vice President Dick Cheney, who is supporting me. Former members, very esteemed members, of the national security community.
I have the endorsement and support of Alberto Gonzales most recently, who of course was attorney general.
“Of course,” perhaps, because Gonzales famously resigned in disgrace, marking an ignoble end to a tenure spent helping America trod over the Geneva Conventions and lie our way into a forever war of aggression in the Middle East.
We’re less than one month away from what we’re again being told is the most consequential election of our lifetimes, and this is who the Harris campaign is courting: imaginary voters for whom Alberto Gonzales’ support is what finally gets them to pull the lever for Biden’s vice president. I talked about this recently with the good boys over at Chapo Trap House: this campaign is making it clear that they’re more willing to chase phantom moderate Republican voters than give the left the tiniest crumb.
Whether this works or not—whether Harris wins or not—doesn’t change the demoralizing awfulness of the kind of politics she is offering the world. It is a campaign for no one, that stands for nothing; it’s a uniquely depressing value proposition as our country provides the weapons that are burning people alive.
Progressives have spent months absolutely begging for a shred of a reason, the smallest amount of cover, to turn out for Harris. If she simply said “I will stop arming Israel,” even if it turned out to be an election-year lie, droves of voters who otherwise plan to stay home would come to help her defeat Donald Trump. They could make the difference in this election, but the Harris camp doesn’t want them. Whose support do they want instead? Dick Cheney and his ilk.
Anyway, this happened today in my home state.
Picture this—Bernie Sanders and Dick Cheney together holding a sign that says brat fall—forever. That’s the current state of the Democratic Party.
The deeply demoralizing comment section of this post
The mood of Blue MAGA is so far up its own ass they can look at the incineration of children and be like “I don’t think Harris promising to prevent this will poll well with the median voter”
I can't stop thinking about how this would play on the other side. Like if the GOP was courting scientists for votes (be it climate scientists or abortion providers) or even the children of immigrants (which they do in Miami, but not nationwide). I'm sure their xenophobic, older male base would feel used and taken for granted. When I see Biden and now Harris court the neocon / war criminal vote, how am I supposed to feel? How can I not conclude that the Democratic party is not for me, and doesn't really value my vote no matter where I live? I'm upset! This is not OK!