Why does Kamala Harris irk me so, I sometimes wonder.
She loves the limelight, that's for sure. She wants the camera (and audience/voters) to love her, no doubt about it. Somehow things just aren't going her way. But, that's not necessarily unique to her. Almost all other politicians, male or female, have that character trait.
Biden's BBB Bill (Build Back Better) has been stalling, thanks (but no thanks) to Joe Manchin (West Virginia) primarily. Harris must have breathed a sign of relief that her name isn't associated with the rise and fall of BBB. But, the Voting Rights Bill is something that's going to be the albatross on her neck. Afterall, who should be the best ambassador to champion for voting rights, particularly to disenchanted black voters, but Harris who was installed as on the 2020 presidential ticket as VP because she's, first and foremost, a (half) black? As things turn out, Democrats simply don't have enough votes to pass the Bill, thanks to Manchin (again) and Krysten Sinema (Arizona).
Harris did a few speeches, but didn't seem to do any backroom deals to help advance the Bill. Yes, of course she met with the Black Caucus and other activists groups, but they are not the audience she needs to sell the Bill to. She never really seeks to reach out to less friendly audience to get their buy-in, or seek compromise, in order to get the votes for the Bill. And, she's conspicuously missing when Biden went alone to do the backroom negotiation with Manchin and Sinema.
Unsurprisingly, success (as the Infrastructure Bill is) has many fathers, but failure (like BBB and now the Voting Rights Bill) is always an orphan. At least Biden owns up to it. As Biden's VP, Harris is nowhere to be found.
In short, she never bothers to do the hard work of negotiation (or maybe she did, but nothing comes to fruition, hence no news comes to light). Herein lies the biggest handicap of Harris as a VP. A vice president is never meant to be glamorous job, the VP should be content to do the grunt work and let the President takes the glory, the VP needs to have sufficient clout to work the Congress on both sides of the aisles to help advance the president's agenda. That was why Biden was an effective VP for Obama because Biden was about to help negotiate and whip the votes to get the arguably only major legislation (ObamaCare) that Obama had achieved in his eight long years of tenure. That was also why other VP's, like Cheney, or LBJ, were such powerful figures, even if they were primarily just backroom dealers far from the limelight in their veep tenure because they had years of experience in the Congress. That is something that Harris that never has. I would surmise too that those men have enough self-confidence to be comfortable not being in the limelight or headline news all the time. Harris constantly wants photo op opportunity.
There is something to be said, about the "support" that one should garner. I rather doubt that the Biden team actively works to undermine Harris, even if they never defend Harris (or her team) enthusiastically. Thing is, if she (or her allies) is constantly complaining about others not coming to her rescue or defense, she's barking up the wrong tree. Instead, Harris should be asking herself, "How Can I Defend Myself Or My Position Better?" If she cannot speak for herself forcibly, what good is she? She was an Attorney General in CA, for crying out loud. If she can't even articulate to voters why they should take her seriously, what good is she in the West Wing?
By and large, I should be the kind of voters that Biden and Harris could be able to win over. I'm an Independent voter who is liberal-leaning on social issues but conservative-leaning on fiscal matters. I have more distaste toward GOP in general and I don't use social media (since I don't want to be bothered by all the junk and white noise that's just a waste of time). I've been enthusiastic supporter of the Infrastructure Bill, but the BBB and Voting Rights Bill are something else.
Far-left liberals want to thrash anyone and everyone who don't support the BBB and Voting Rights Bill as racist, xenophobic and heartless. It really irks me.
Why would far-left liberals think it's so unreasonable to have the work requirements for child tax credits (as insisted by Manchin)? Why would the rest of the society be sponsoring families to stay home and make babies when they can't afford it in the first place, adding to the child poverty rate? Voting is a privilege for citizens of a country - any country - it's not a right that is inferred to anyone who manages to set foot in a country. Why do they find it so unreasonable to show any photo ID to authenticate a voter is indeed who s/he claims s/he is? And, with the omicron becoming much milder for the vaccinated populace, and the economy has reopened and is overheating to a point where inflation reaches 7% (the highest in more than 30 years which more than enough to wipe out the wage gain of 5.4%), direct cash monthly payments to families with children no longer cuts it, adding to the inflationary pressure and the mounting deficit spending that future generations have to bear. The list goes on and on.
Heck, I don't even come to these conclusion with any GOP input. I block all right-leaning news source since they are so biased, but I've pretty much ignored a number of left-leaning news source these days (including New York Times, Boston Globes, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times) since they are so skewed in their coverage too. If a voter like me, who looks at hard numbers on most nonpartisan news source like Bloomberg News and Reuters, can come to the conclusion and my position, what does it say about Democrats at large?
Talking about whiny babies, it extends far beyond Harris of course. Democrats, like the "Squads" (the mostly young progressives), think they can legislate using social media as bully pulpit. They are wrong. They won't take No for an answer, and even want to ramp through BBB and the Voting Rights Bill by potentially getting rid of filibuster (as a procedural measure for opponents to block the passage of a bill). Granted that GOP has abused filibuster many times in the past, Dems have come to rely on them as well. What they fail to understand is that, if they cannot get the votes and buy-in, even ramping through a bill without majority support is not going to work.
Once upon a time, I've been more generous. I had not minded paying more taxes to have a functioning government that would provide reasonable, balanced services to its citizenry. Government exists for a good reason. But I've become so disenchanted these days that I'm no longer satisfied with just being mandated to pay more and more taxes, yet the distribution of the tax dollars is going to allow others to not work so that they can have the same lifestyle as I am, something that I've worked very hard to attain my entire life. Where is the grit? But ultimately, it is that sense of fairness (or the lack thereof) that pushes me away from the Democrats' position.
Progressives like the "Squads" would term everything as a "human rights" issue. Everyone should have their own home (and if they can't afford it, government would provide it)!! Everyone should have high speed broadband and cell phone!! Everyone should have college degree!! Everyone should have a good-paying job!! Everyone should have what everyone else is having!!!!
Does that sound familiar? Remember USSR? Remember Cuba? Remember China's communism?
'enuf said.
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