Harris is awful. But left's love of identity politics means Democrats are stuck with her.
President Joe Biden has finally bowed out of his reelection campaign and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor. In doing so, Biden and his party have undermined the democratic process at every step.
Democratic delegates who are pledged to Biden must now throw their weight behind Harris or risk an open convention. They must do that even though they surely realize how bad all of this looks for the party that has spent the past four years accusing Republicans of undermining the 2020 election results.
They also surely know that Harris isn't the best person to represent the Democratic Party. Yet, delegates must support Harris not only because of Biden's endorsement but also because they're shackled by their party's radical embrace of identity politics.
Democrats have no real choice but to back Kamala Harris
For years, the Democratic Party has championed woke, identity politics. Its definition is at once obscure but obvious. Progressives have demanded that race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender preferences be paramount in nearly every walk of life, from politics to higher education, corporate industries to entertainment and media.
Harris, at the time a first-term senator representing California, the most progressive state in the country, ran for the presidency in 2020. Her campaign failed spectacularly. It was so bad that she dropped out before the first primary, and even NBC News described her bid for the White House as "a mess."
Yet, Biden still picked her to be his vice president. She has done nothing in the past four years to show she is ready to be president, and the prospect of her serving as commander in chief is downright scary.
Her policy positions are even more progressive than Biden's. That's if you can nail down what her policies are. She seems to flip-flop as much as the next slimy politician.
In 2019, she was ranked the most liberal U.S. senator in America ? beating out even Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
As California's attorney general, Harris earned a reputation for being tough on crime. That's not necessarily a bad thing. But a lot of conservatives and libertarians will look down on her penchant for being unusually tough on petty crimes like marijuana possession.
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As vice president, it's hard to say what Harris has accomplished. In 2021, Biden assigned her the job of addressing the migrant crisis at the U.S. border with Mexico. Her efforts with that task have been almost as successful as her 2020 presidential campaign.
Observers in her home state of California note that Harris has lacked consistency on key issues such as public safety.
What does she stand for? What can she do? Why has none of this been a problem for her political ascension? Because Harris, the first Black, South Asian and female vice president of the United States, is the trifecta of identity politics: Black, female and liberal.
Harris wasn't ready to be president four years ago. The fact she polled at 3% when she dropped out of the race in 2020 is an indication of that. But the Democratic Party paired her with a much stronger (at the time) politician. Now, she'll have to do much more on her own. But she won't because she's not capable.
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Democrats obsessed with Trump ignored Biden's obvious flaws
Democrats have been intensely focused on Donald Trump's shortcomings, real and imagined, since 2016. I'm a conservative, and I've blasted him many times. Yet, Democrats failed to see that their own candidate was inept and unqualified for the job until the whole world could see it on the debate stage last month.
Harris deserves a large portion of the blame for this. Biden's inner circle had to have known for some time that he was unwell and unfit to serve a second term.
As vice president, Harris had to have known it as well. But she kept quiet and helped to keep the con going ? perhaps for her own gain but at least for the sake of her party.
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Harris helped to hide the truth about Biden
If Democratic convention delegates choose Harris, voters will quickly realize she is not the best choice to lead this country. She will likely fail and fail miserably.
Voters must understand this: The Democratic Party, including Vice President Harris, lied to you repeatedly, propping up a presidential candidate who had no business running for reelection, let alone leading this country.
Democrats have trapped themselves in a corner with an incoherent candidate on the way out and an inept candidate they must begrudgingly support. These are their own rules.
And to this, Republicans must say with a chuckle and sneer: Your terms are acceptable.
Nicole Russell is an opinion columnist with USA TODAY. She lives in Texas with her four kids. Sign up for her newsletter, The Right Track, and get it delivered to your inbox.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Desperate Democrats turn to Kamala Harris. She will let them down
