Kamala’s new act: Tough on borders, soft on truth

A selected Kamala Harris will become the only presidential nominee of the two parties in the modern era who has never once entered, much less won, a single primary. And it is hard to think of a single statement or position that Harris has not suddenly disowned or now rejected.

It is near miraculous how for three and a half years Kamala Harris was the Biden administration’s megaphone for its hard-left craziness. She was the go-to emissary to the radical Democratic Party base. Yet now she seems to be copying Donald Trump on secure borders, legal immigration, support for law enforcement, and fracking.

Like Biden, Harris’ deer-in-the-headlights moments are not sporadic but characteristic. The only remedy is as much seclusion from the public as possible.

Still, when the Kamala hysteria subsides, Harris may well suffer the fate of Michael Dukakis, as James Pierson recently noted. After the giddiness of the July 1988 Democratic convention, the Democratic nominee, Michael Dukakis, was leading Vice President George H.W. Bush in the Gallup poll by 17 points. Yet he was crushed by Bush in November by 7.8 points. Why and how?

Bush’s politico Lee Atwater, in series of brutal but accurate ads (the tank fiasco ad, the Willie Horton ad, the polluted Boston Harbor ad, etc.) accurately redefined Dukakis — a far more capable, kind, and well-spoken official than Harris — as an unapologetic Massachusetts far-left liberal. And by the way, the 1988 election was the last time Republicans won 51 percent of the popular vote.

Apparently, the Republican Party grandees decided never again to “lower” themselves to the Atwater level. And so they have gone on to lose “nobly” seven of the last eight popular votes.

Down the memory hole

One of the most demagogic Harrisisms was her 2020 claim that the pseudo-martyr Jussie Smollett was a victim of American racism and homophobia. Here is what she gushed: “Jussie Smollett is one of the kindest, most gentle human beings I know. I’m praying for his quick recovery. This was an attempted modern-day lynching. No one should have to fear for their life because of their sexuality or color of their skin. We must confront this hate.”

The left until late June used to refer to Harris as Biden’s “border czar.” And indeed, she insisted that the nonexistent border was “secure,” even as her own administration unapologetically welcomed an influx of 10 million illegal aliens. In her role, Harris envisioned dismantling Immigration and Customs Enforcement, opposed the wall, and did not consider illegal entry into the United States a crime. Americans were talked down to by Harris and told not to say “illegal alien,” as she ritually introduced herself with her pronouns, “she/her.”

Word-cop Harris also sermonized us not to utter the phrase “radical Islamic terrorism” — as if, say, the 9/11 killers were not radical, were not Islamic, and were not terrorists. Just this week at the Olympics when the Israeli national anthem was played, radical pro-Hamas crowds waved their Palestinian flags while wildly saluting and chanting “Heil Hitler.”

In the pre-July 21 world of Kamala Harris, there should be no private health care, but certainly free government coverage for illegal aliens. If you currently legally own an “assault weapon,” the government has a right nonetheless to force (“mandate”) you to sell it to the government.

For Harris, a country $36 trillion in debt, with $1.2 trillion in interest payments per year, in its seventh decade of affirmative action, ever-increasing DEI mandates and virtual quotas, and over $20 trillion spent on Great Society poverty programs, should nevertheless go ahead with racial reparations — a policy that even Californians reject.

All abortions are to be permitted on demand to the moment of birth. We are not told by Harris the method of terminating the baby in passage through the birth canal.

Harris was an early vocal supporter of the Green New Deal that would bankrupt the middle class.

In her view, police should be defunded and thousands of imprisoned criminals released. Harris vocally supported California’s disastrous de facto legalization of shoplifting and “misdemeanor” theft of items less than $950. She sought to raise bail funds for the 2020 rioters, many of them arrested for street violence, assault, and looting.

Her most infamous demagoguery was her CBS interview with Stephen Colbert, when she boasted that the ongoing 2020 protests (quite violent despite her fact-checkers’ efforts to “contextualize” Harris’ vitriol) would not cease:

They’re not going to stop. This is a movement, I’m telling you. They’re not going to stop, and everyone beware, because they’re not going to stop. They’re not going to stop before Election Day in November, and they’re not going to stop after Election Day. They’re not going to let up, and they should not, and we should not.

Note how Harris called the Antifa and Black Lives Matter-orchestrated violence a “movement.” Note her threats that the turmoil would not stop and “should not” stop. Note her warning: “beware.” Note how she shamelessly linked the left-wing protests to the 2020 Election Day, emphasizing their assumed political utility.

Back to the basement

In 2020, the left found old Joe Biden from Scranton a useful “moderate” and “unifying” veneer for a hard-core, Obama third-term agenda — thanks to Biden’s long Senate career and his phony working-man schtick. But Harris was first a Bay Area leftist, second a California hard-core progressive, and third a failed 2020 primary candidate who tried to vie with Bernie Sanders for the Democratic socialist base — on the assumption that she had a harder-left record in the Senate than Sanders himself.

So the 2024 Harris campaign may again emulate the 2020 formula of keeping the gaffe-prone, cognitively challenged candidate in the basement. Like Biden, Harris’ deer-in-the-headlights moments are not sporadic but characteristic. The only remedy is as much seclusion from the public as possible. And her handlers may again count on the 2020 revolutionary changes in state ballot laws to ensure that nearly 70% of voters do not cast ballots on Election Day.

But in 2024 they will not be able again to veneer the hard-core left-wing Harris and repackage her as a middle-class centrist. There was never any such thing as good ol’ moderate Kamala from Berkeley.

Editor’s note:A version of this article first appeared on X (formerly Twitter).