With Joe Biden's ignominious departure from the presidential race, it appears that Vice-President Kamala Harris will soon be crowned the new, but not necessarily improved, Democratic nominee. She was the obvious choice not because of her many virtues (we're still in search of the first virtue, actually), but because she's second-in-line, she's hard to say no to (“identity politics” are a cruel mistress, lefties), and she's under 80, which apparently adds up to political inevitability. So be it.
Republicans, conservatives, and Trumpers are inclined to scoff. Harris is scarcely more articulate than Sleepy Joe, and she can't blame old age for her stumbles. That may be, but it would be unwise to underestimate Harris and the powerful institutional forces that could, and almost certainly will, unite to support her – from rich donors to mainstream “journalists” to Hollywood celebrities to corporate leaders. Harris is where, in a sense, the establishment will make its last stand as it desperately tries to ward off the triumphant return of ORANGE MAN BAD. Fundamentally, according to the polls, Trump is not popular, and the Democratic brand has remarkable staying power (and access to virtually unlimited resources), so it is entirely possible that Vice-President Harris could be elected president. Let that sink in. Once it has, consider the possible ramifications.
Republicans, conservatives, and Trump supporters will need to make a total effort this November to defeat Kamala Harris and the Democrats. They ought to strain every sinew because Harris is a uniquely radical and dangerous politician. Whereas Joe Biden always pretended to be a centrist and an “uniter,” Harris makes no such pretensions. She's a “progressive” and a scary one at that.
Harris is probably best known as an attack dog. She won praise by viciously maligning President Trump's nominee to serve on the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, in a campaign of slander that was unprecedented in American history – but greatly admired by liberals. She then turned her acidic commentary on a fellow Democrat, Joe Biden, in 2019, implying in a debate that his views and policy stances on issues like busing were racist. Initially, her poll numbers shot up, but then Harris became curiously silent about Biden – and miraculously got the nod as his running mate months later! Harris is, therefore, merciless, cunning, and ambitious, and no one should think otherwise.
In terms of her policy positions, Harris is a dyed-in-the-wool progressive and a favorite of the left wing of her party. She rails against anyone who opposes abortion at any stage of pregnancy or for any reason. Harris is, like most Democrats, allegedly struggling to “save democracy” from Trumpian authoritarianism, but, as California Attorney General, she repeatedly sought to ignore and overturn propositions passed democratically by voters. She has also questioned and undermined the legitimacy of elections that Democrats lost. She is a gun control extremist who would make a mockery of the Second Amendment. She has advocated spending trillions on a rapid shift to “green energy” and is closely associated with the Green New Deal. She supports busing public school students to promote racial diversity in schools. She has advocated “Medicare for All,” a dramatic expansion of federal funding of and control over health care.
To illustrate Harris's approach to governing, consider a case study: rent control. As a U.S. Senator, Harris praised an effort by the state of Oregon to criminalize rent increases over a certain threshold. She also put forward her own proposal to subsidize rent payments by instituting a federal tax credit for renters who pay more than 30% of their taxable income on housing. Meanwhile, the Biden-Harris DOJ is pursuing an antitrust case against a company for the unthinkable crime of using A.I. to help landlords calculate a fair market-based rent.
Consider the implications of these three measures, primarily if implemented together. Capping rents would disincentivize the construction of new rental properties, leading ultimately to supply constraints and...higher rents. For example, it has happened before in Harris' hometown of San Francisco. Criminalizing the use of A.I. to help determine appropriate pricing would cripple many companies and quite a few government agencies, efforts to price their wares and services reasonably and efficiently, and it would mean unnecessary and hazardous government intrusion into the realm of artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, as rents escalate because of supply shortages that Harris' rent controls introduced and due to marketing logjams caused by frivolous legal persecution of landlords and software companies, Harris' enormously expensive tax credits would transfer the cost of higher rents from renters to taxpayers – in turn fostering higher taxes, or, more realistically, higher borrowing, thus risking elevated interest rates and higher inflation. And higher inflation, lest we forget, almost inevitably raises rents.
In three simple steps, therefore, Kamala Harris would have created a rental and property pricing doom loop – one from which it might take Americans decades to recover. Thus, Harris's approach to tackling the high cost of rent is, like so much of Harris' political reasoning, dangerously stupid. It looks and sounds good at first, but it masks a total ignorance of basic political and economic realities. That's not the kind of approach you want to see from an aspiring President of the United States, needless to say.
Republicans, conservatives, and Trump supporters have every reason to fight for the election of Donald Trump this November because of all the good that he can do for America, but they have an added reason now that Kamala Harris is the only viable alternative: she combines left-wing radicalism with sheer recklessness and ignorance on a scale that would make her, if elected, a far greater threat to Americans' liberties and prosperity than Joe Biden ever was – and that's saying something!
Dr. Nicholas L. Waddy is an Associate Professor of History at SUNY Alfred and blogs at: www.waddyisright.com. He appears on the Newsmaker Show on WLEA 1480/106.9.