Just my opinion, but I think Kamala Harris is our best hope. To be clear, I don’t think she’s a perfect presidential candidate, because literally no one is the perfect presidential candidate. We shouldn’t even think about it in those terms, like “well this person isn’t an amazing unicorn, therefore everyone is the same!” To all of those people who claimed that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump represented the same thing… please buy a f–king clue and take a look around the Russian Republic of Trumplandia. The reason I say Kamala is our best hope is because… Elizabeth Warren’s candidacy landed with a thud. Joe Biden is too old. Bernie Sanders is too old and too awful. Kamala’s intelligence, plus her cultural and racial identity, are huge pluses for me. Plus, she really is that progressive.
Kamala Harris launched her campaign this weekend in Oakland, where she was born and raised. The crowd was massive, and her speech was amazing:
Of course, now comes the moment when the patriarchy comes to knee-cap her. Kamala Harris is already raising money like crazy. She draws huge crowds. She speaks like an intelligent person, which might seem like a weird thing to note, but remember that Donald Trump is currently president. Even more than the money and attention and good press, so far Kamala’s campaign hasn’t had to come out of the gate with any kind of corrections or apologies. The worst thing people (Bernie Bros) can say about her is that “she’s a cop!” She’s a lawyer, actually. She served as DA in San Francisco and Attorney General for the state of California. We’ll see if Kamala’s “frontrunner status” hurts her in the months to come, but I’m still saying that she’s our best chance.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
I listened to her yesterday; I found her speech moving and accessible… her nervous giggles at the beginning were very sweet- you could tell she was overwhelmed by the welcome and support. 💕
I was there in Oakland yesterday! It was a huuuuge rally, definitely more than 20k people wrapped around five blocks of Oakland in line to get into the plaza in front of city hall. She did great! I think the mayor of Oakland was suppose to introduce her but she wasn’t there yet, so she just walked out on her own. The vibe was awesome – great music (Ariana Grande! Omg I hope she uses Thank u next as a campaign song), gospel choir, bands, and riveting intro by a local preacher, beautiful weather… it was a great campaign launch!
That’s so awesome that you were there!
Of all the candidates who have declared I like Senator Harris the best. She’s tough, she’s articulate, she’s whip smart…. like the opposite of Orange Twitler.
All of the yes. But can we just state for the record- that whoever wins the primary we will vote for and rally behind no matter what?! I would vote for a dishrag if it meant DT not being president.
Yes yes yes yes yes.
No one will be a perfect candidate, but for the love of all that is holy, we need to rally behind whoever it is and get them elected.
Leaving the rally yesterday I said the exact same thing to my friend, but it’s so early and I’m so excited about Kamala. I’m not ready for emotional compromise yet. (But yes I promise.)
Yes please!!!! Now is definitely not the time to sit on a moral high horse or “conscience” voting or boycotting or whatever BS Susan Sarandon likes to do. No third party protest votes please!
lala- Lol at “I’d vote for a dishrag.” So true. I’ve been telling folks, “my last bowel movement could do a better job than Trump” but I hate calling him a piece of sh*t since that’s an insult to sh*t, which can actually be good for things like plants and stuff.
So “I’d vote for a dishrag” it is.
Yes. I’m looking forward to this whole crop of candidates, I think the contrast with Dump will be stark. I want to let the process and the primaries take their course. I love Kamala but I’m not committing yet as I did in 2007-8 with Obama; he was my senator and I knew after his 2004 DNC speech that he could run and win.
If the Dems are smart, they will make an agreement not to tear each other down in the race for who will be Democratic candidate. They cannot give Trump any traction from within. They should agree to run on what they, the candidate, can do, and not talk about what the others can’t do or what their weaknesses are. Present a united front and let the people choose without negativity. I highly doubt it will happen this way but it would be a boss move.
Lmao at a dish rag but yes I’m voting for whoever the dems candidate ends up being. My husband is as well.
I got nothing besides I like Kamala very much & would be delighted to have her as a real, honest-to-goodness President!
Oh and this – I sat by my 82 year old FIL as he recently stated “we need a white man to be the next President.” Why? Because THIS ONE is working out so well? Or is he technically not white any longer due to the orange Cheeto/mango overtones?
He said “the people won’t stand for it. The people won’t stand for a woman President or one that isn’t white.” So, I said, “since when so we give two shits about pleasing white supremists?” I’m telling you folks. People are strange. My own mother is a ride or die Trumpster. Aye yi yi! His “presidency” has probably taken years off my life.
Was he in a coma during the Obama years?
BettyRose, yes, he was! He voted against Obama & is just now only starting to appreciate President Obama a tiny bit. Old, white, wealthy, Repugs, pfft!
Sadly he is probably right, well Michelle Obama may have a chance but there are very few women which could win the Presidency. Our country is deeply sexist, white or black, mixed whatever, as long as she is woman she had a very hard chance of winning.
Except that a woman won the popular vote in the last election. I’m no pollyanna, but I feel like we’ve moved past “can it be done” to we’re doing this. There are obstacles but the front runner today is a woman of color. We’ve come a long long looooooong way.
Exactly, Betty Rose. Hillary won.
And a larger point. We must never give up. It’s tempting; it’s depressing, but like several of you stated above, we must stick together and make it work this time.
Bettyrose, I like your framework: “we’ve moved past ‘can it be done’ to ‘we’re doing this.'” I’m going to repeat that in the months to come. WE ARE DOING THIS!!
Nope, this is the mindset that republicans want us to have. You know they’re scared of Kamala because they’re already spreading gossip and innuendo about her. During W’s presidency most people would have said we weren’t ready for a black president, but Obama came and convinced the country otherwise. She (or warren or Klobacher) can be nominated and elected especially after 4 years of an incompetent racist sexist moron. I’m all in for #Kamala2020
We can hide our head under the covers but reality is IMO but our country is deeply sexist and in no way will it be easy for a woman candidate. Our electoral system was built to reward white male land-owners. The law itself is sexist and it doesn’t matter if Hillary won 10 million more votes than Trump, our electoral system worked for HIM. Southern states, Rust belt states and the mid-west aren’t going to let that progression happen anytime soon. Yes we have progressed but we shouldn’t fool ourselves into thinking we are OK.
I fully understand your screen name now!!!
No more white men in charge. I liked Beto very much, but these Beto for President memes are a big ‘no’ for me. I am team Kamala all the way.
I just imagine her on the International stage and face to face with Putin. Who has the gravitas and weight to push back with intellect and authority? There IS no one else. Not Warren, not Sanders, not Beto, not even Biden.
Kamala.
Re Elizabeth Warren, I still love her, but idk – the wind has gone out of her sails or something. Gee, I wonder why? Dealing with the orange turd would do that to anyone. But Warren is still so important (I admit I don’t know when her term ends…) – she is like a pit bull going after thieving, lying crooks. She’s excellent on the investigation committees. Am using wrong words…my battery just died.
Warren was just re-elected to a new six year term that will end in January 2025.
Ty, Light Purple!
I think she’s great and effective as Senator, but for some reason I’m not fully behind her presidential campaign. I can’t even quite put into words what isn’t working for me.
I am very excited about Kamala Harris though!
Can you just imagine, Kamala with Corey Booker as VP????
Honest opinion? She got played by Trump with the DNA test. I used to really like her, but even I was offended by her actions. (Full disclosure: I am Puerto Rican.)
I am very fond of Elizabeth Warren, but I don’t think she is going to be president or the Dem nominee. She has too much baggage due how (astoundingly) long the hate-mongering against her has been going on PLUS being a Republican until 1996, she is too old, and she is not adept enough with social media and seeing the lines of attack coming. But I would love to see her heading a Senate committee or heading up the CFPB again.
She’s definitely the most viable option. Her former prosecutor status will actually help her against the opposition. Curious to see who she’ll select as a running mate if she gets nominated…
I love Kamala. I think she is the candidate we need right now. I love her politics, I love her personality, I love how she isn’t intimidated, I love how she gets under the skin of white Republican men just by BEING on the senate judiciary committee. Remember how ticked Sessions used to get whenever she would question him? And in general I love her on that committee. The way she can just slice someone in half with a look. She’s good at social media in a natural way – I don’t feel like she is pandering or trying to be “cool” on SM.
I love Elizabeth Warren as well. I think she is one of the smartest people in DC right now and I think she would be a good president, but I don’t think she is going to get the nomination. I would love to see her in the cabinet though, or for her to stay in the senate. I think she is an important voice there.
+100
I am not voting for Warren in the primaries (#Kamala2020) but I would love to see Warren in the cabinet, I’ve always thought she would be great in a lot of positions: Secretary of the Treasury, of Labor, of Housing, of Health and Human Services (or whatever that one is called), of Energy. Warren really needs to get in there and turn some of this Trump-era debacle around as a cabinet member working on domestic policy and infrastructure.
I think she’d be great in the Cabinet too. I pity anyone coming in after the current trainwreck, they’ll have so much damage to undo.
If Warren gets the nomination, she’s got my full support and vote. But if not, I’ll be glad to have her still around, either in the Cabinet or as a Senator.
Attended the rally yesterday. Cannot our into words how it felt. There were over 20,000 in the plaza. A palpable excitement in the air. I think everyone was so surprised by how many people showed up.
It was so great. Will vote for whoever wins the nomination. Even Sanders, if is able to eek out a win (he won’t).
We need to get the current fool plodding around the White House, cheeseburger in hand, out NOW.
I watched the rally on CNN yesterday and actually teared up when she said she was announcing her candidacy! Her speech was lovely, inspiring and hopeful…Hubby and I are rooting for her and sending her campaign good vibes from snowy, frozen Canada!
I like Kamala. I like her work on cash free bail, her goal of universal healthcare, and her stance on climate issues. She’s also charismatic as hell and a great debater, which will be very helpful.
Yes, her record has some problems, but I’m bothered by how a lot of people keep repeating half-truths about it or how the whole story isn’t often reported. It’s shades of how the press treated Hillary. Case in point, that she supposedly argued that she needed unpaid or low paid prison labor because the state needed the labor force. In reality, she had something like 500 attorneys under her, and two of them argued it without her knowledge. She immediately apologized for their argument, said she disagreed with their argument and that wasn’t her office’s standpoint, and so on. And the truth is, while I have some issues with her A.G. record, it will probably play over very well in the general to be seen as a “law and order” candidate—I think it is only the primary where it may be an issue.
I seriously think she, Sherrod Brown, and Amy Klobuchar are the best bets at winning., although Amy is also a former A.G. so the Sanders folks will come out hard on her. I like Liz Warren a lot, but I just don’t see her capturing the nation’s attention. I’ve heard good things about former Gov. Hickenlooper, but if he was going to run I think he would have tossed his hat in the ring. I just hope Biden and Bernie sit out.
It’s already shaping up to be 2016 all over again. I mean, I know that Twitter isn’t a good representation of reality, but the Sanders folks are coming for Kamala–and HARD. No, her record as a DA isn’t great–it’s not perfect–but if we are going to do the political purity test all over again then I’m gonna have to sit this one out because that shit is EXHAUSTING and self-defeating.
I’m not #NeverSanders and I’m not #NeverKamala and I refuse to believe that there aren’t more people like me out there. I’m still waiting to see more from the candidates before I decide but I’m staying open-minded. Wish I could say the same about the #BernieorBust folks.
The only thing that keeps me from being #NeverSanders is being 100% committed to being #NeverTrump. (I am #NeverTulsi, though — in a general election between her and Trump, I’m voting for Sweet Meteor o’ Death, and I am not and never have been a protest voter.)
ETA: I am 100% in agreement about being open-minded overall about all the other (many) Dem primary candidates. And I would absolutely vote for Bernie in the general if the only electable alternative was Trump, but I would be very concerned about continuing Russian influence inside the executive branch.
LOL fair enough. I cannot imagine any scenario in which Tulsi gets the nom so I think you’re safe from Sweet Meteor o’ Death 😉
YES to the Russian influence. I do wonder if Bernie will get a proper vetting by the media this time around or if people will continue to focus on Kamala’s record as a DA, which is quickly becoming the new *butter emails*.
ETA: I’m not using the comparison to say that Kamala’s work as a DA is insignificant like HRC’s emails. I am, however, drawing a parallel between the two in that both seem to consume the media on both the right and left.
The Bernie Bros have been out in full force against her and I have had it with them. Let Democrats choose a Democrat! If they want Sanders so damn much, tell him to run as an Independent. But he won’t. He wants the DNC’s money and get out the vote network, which an Independent wouldn’t have. Stop ripping apart a party you don’t belong to. The DNC shouldn’t let him on the primary ballots.
Haha you sound like me @The Other Katherine. Bernie is low on my list for the primaries but I’ll vote for him in the general election over Trump if it comes to that. But Tulsi? Ugh. It would be incredibly hard for me to *ever* vote for her. Just this morning I saw her being used in a Republican attack ad on Dems and grimaced.
In general though, I’m pretty pleased with the names who have either declared or might run: Kamala, Elizabeth, Sherrod Brown (he gets more impressive to me everytime I see him talk), Beto (he might be able to inspire some enthusiasm with younger voters, Amy, Julian Castro, etc. Fingers crossed we can keep the process from getting too ugly.
Bernie bros=Russian trolls, it will 100% shape up to be a lot like 2016. Maybe worse because now they know exactly how they can work us. It was experiment the last time. Scary thought.
I’m currently shipping a Harris / Brown 2020 ticket.
Not everyone who is going full force for Kamala is a Sanders fangirl/fanboy though, a lot of black people aren’t completely for Kamala as of yet because of her policies that have been detrimental to black people and they are very anti-Sanders as well, since he completely f***** the Democratic Party in 2016.
Instead of just ignoring the people who aren’t supporting her and writing it off as Bernie supporters etc,why not actually listen to what they’re saying? That way Kamala can have some accountability when it comes to her harmful policies.
Um, I’m not sure who you’re replying to but if you’re trying to reply to me, I never said I didn’t take the criticisms of Harris seriously–quite the opposite–and I made that clear in my comments. I also didn’t say that every single person who is going after her is a Bernie-supporter–I said quite simply that Bernie’s supporters are attacking her much like they did HRC. So every Harris attacker might not be a Bernie supporter but every Bernie supporter sure seems to be a Harris attacker.
Agreed @DIV. Don’t read the net and take half truths as facts. The GOP counts on this. Take the time to read for yourself and do not just read blog comments on the candidates’ record as the gospel truth.
I couldn’t agree more.
I feel like an outlier because I’m still not convinced Kamala is the one. I need to know more about her record in California because I’m hearing some not so great things especially when it comes to her treatment of poor people, sex workers, and minorities. And don’t even get me started on the Willie Brown mess.
Patty- stop looking for “the one” cause it’s likely not out there. And re: Kamala’s issues, is there a candidate less flawed out there? I don’t see one right now. Any flaws Kamala has are nothing compared to Trump. Don’t lose sight of that big picture.
Beto is less flawed. And we do need “the one”, that most of the Democrats can unite behind to beat Trump.
Patty – she’s the best candidate right now, but she’s done questionable things regarding police and prisons, just to name a few
IMO it’s to early to decide on who to support. I’ll make my decision next year after I see who are running and who I believe has a good chance of winning. However, whoever wins the primary I’ll support. If my little dog wins, lol I’ll support him. I’ll support any democrat. I’m exhausted with Don the Con and his lying, cheating, tweeting. I’m exhausted with entire his mafia family and friends. I don’t believe the country can take another six years of this Sh*t show.
@Patty.For the sake of the narrative—cause we know how it went on the interwebs last time around—let us support the most capabable and the most intelligent in the race until you feel better comes around. Of course you are entitled to voice your reservations but right now let us highlight the good points of Kamala and the other democratic candidates as they enter the race. At this point we do not want to give ammunition to the GOP. We have to be smart about the narrative because that orange facker and the Russian bots won on narrative and propoganda. So we need to beat them at their game this time around.
Thanks! I would like to know why some people think she is the most intelligent and most capable. Quite frankly, other than being a person of color, I don’t see anything that separates her from the other Dems who are running. But I’ll be the first to admit that my first issue with her is that she’s been a Senator for only two years. She was elected to represent California in the Senate not spend the next two years running for President (Obama did the same thing). I feel like she would benefit from completing a Senate term and establishing more of a legislative record. And I know that Trump was totally unqualified, does not mean I want the next potential President to be lacking in real governing experience (Obama had that).
I will probably vote for whoever the Dem nominee is but that person has to convince a large number of non Dems to vote for them as well; I am worried that Kamala won’t be able to do that……..
i get waning to scrutinise her record, but talking about her personal life is just plain sexist. Women stop internalising sexism.
Also the assumption that Beto is less flawed is ridiculous and largely based on the fact that he’s a white privileged male. So again sexism.
If a black woman had driven drunk and ran away from the scene 25 years ago she wouldn’t even be running for senate much less president.
Long but worth reading:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sen-kamala-harris-formally-opens-her-presidential-campaign-with-a-mix-of-unity-and-blunt-talk-about-race/2019/01/27/059be682-20f9-11e9-8e21-59a09ff1e2a1_story.html?utm_term=.07131c1c2775&wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1
Any candidate’s flaws are surpassed by Trump’s flaws. Why are we even still having this conversation?! The only question you need to ask yourself: is the Dem candidate better than Trump? If answer yes, vote for said candidate. Don’t be swayed by morons who tell you better than Trump is not a platform. It is. It’s enough. And for heaven’s sake, stop magnifying ever candidate’s flaws to equate them with Trump. There’s no comparison.
I tend to agree. The GOP Twitter page is trashing her and the Dem candidates left and right and the responses are priceless, the theme being “you put an orange imbecile in the White House, who are you to talk?”
They are scared.
This x 1000000 Rapunzel!!!
Hillary was 20,000 times better than Trump as a candidate and it didn’t help. So the Russians bought some ads on Facebook; that doesn’t explain how she couldn’t beat him. The problem is always the Dems have moved too far to the center. Kamala is a corporate Dem (with a horrible record on criminal justice), and whether she wins or not and gets into the WH in 2020, she will just be part of bigger trend – the Dems failing to appeal to the real left and setting themselves up for eventual failure – not a rainmaker. Address income inequality as a priority and the US will become a much more stable country politically, for and over the long term.
#YesWeKam
Pick Beto as your number two and watch primary challengers fade like a fart in the wind.
Then take the Republican challenger and make mince meat outta that mouse.
💥💥💥🔪🔪🔪💥💥💥
Yes! Yes!! Yes!!!
Dems have so many excellent candidates! I’m excited to watch all the debates. It will be a great civics education. And what’s not to love about Kamala?
We love Kamala in CA. She won her AG position and Senate seat easily. She was in full support of the LBGT community, same sex marriage, and highly sensitive to and in full support of Elder Abuse Legislation. She will not accept PAC monies.
Actually, her AG win was by a pretty narrow margin.
Love her.
Her record on criminal justice is poor and not all black people are lining up behind her. Plus the Mnuchin situation is tough to swallow.
The Mnuchin situation is…bad.
But black people are not a monolith. I’ve seen many on Twitter who support Kamala and many that do not because of her history as a DA.
As a WW, I’m not trying to swerve into anyone’s lane, but I really wish we could look at the candidates for what they bring to the table in terms of policy and not what they did 10, 15 years ago. I’m not saying that we should gloss over it entirely–I just don’t believe it should be a prohibitive factor. For instance, Tulsi has said some incredibly problematic, homophobic things. She issued a genuine apology and I believe that it’s sincere. Gillibrand did Franken wrong IMO, but even I have to admit that she has a lot of passion and speaks very thoughtfully about the issues.
Overall, I just hope that we look at the candidate’s career history, their personality, and their political platform in totality instead of letting their worst moments define them. We need to be practical lest we end up with another 4 years of this nightmare.
I agree. I think Trump might not even run in 2020, he misses being like and loved by people IMO. I wish Bernie wasn’t so old and polarizing. I think Beto will be the guy.
The black community is not a monolith, you are correct. Even from the west coast, east coast and south the culture and community of black Americans varies greatly.
That being said, I have heard maybe 20ish% of my own community supporting her and the vast majority are basically saying they will never vote for her because she betrayed the community with her work in the DA. I am personally a “anything but Trump” person, unfortunately she doesn’t have the community support from at least the black population where I live in the majority. That tends to carry into other minority groups also adversely affected by similar social circumstances.
She’s no Obama. He was strong because he was a community leader. He was here for us and he had a full career to prove it. Her winning the primary would make me very anxious because I’m sitting inside a black community and the Democrats have proven they need ALL OF US. We can’t afford another candidate that breeds decisiveness and apathy.
I’d personally love to see Beto with a POC or female vice on a ticket, i will vote for anything including the aforementioned dish rag if its running on the democratic ticket though. I need a damn break.
@ Wow-Thanks for the feedback and yeah, that’s a HUGE problem for her if she can only get 20% of the black vote. I’m still holding out hope that Abrams will throw her hat in the ring because I would really love to vote for a strong and capable WOC and I find Abrams so inspirational. But I’d find it harder to vote for Kamala if the data shows that most POC don’t support her.
@ Wow- So 80% of the black community feels betrayed by her being a cop? Two questions here:
1. Do you think those folks would still not vote for her as nominee? Would they support Trump instead?
2. Do you think those people would vote for a white man who was a cop? Is only a matter of “she betrayed the community” or is it “no cops, period?
Trump’s record is worse. So is his Mnuchin situation. Stop making it sounds like Harris is just as bad as Trump. This is absurd and not what is needed to fix our country.
Seriously, y’all, STOP!! Kamala Harris is qualified and a much better choice than Trump and most of the other Dem prospects. Don’t start “two bad candidate”ing this two years in advance.
But if Mnuchin was in jail, he would not be with Trump. But this isn’t about him anymore, it’s about 2020 Dem primary. At the moment, I’m not comfortable with someone that put lots of people in jail.
@ Rapunzel-I generally agree with you but I also feel like it’s not my place as a WW to admonish or lecture POC who feel like Kamala represents more of the same power structure that we are fighting to abolish. I don’t know. It’s complicated and it’s unfortunate because there are aspects of Kamala’s candidacy that really appeal to me. But for now, I’m still taking a “wait and see” approach…not ruling anybody out.
It’s just disingenuous to claim her detractors are bros and bots. The black community is not a monolith, but many people are very leery of her record as DA. Yes Democrats have to come together to beat Trump, but criticizing her record is not likening her to Trump.
Markers and Kitten-
markers, you are right enough about Mnuchin. And I get that you aren’t comfortable with someone that put lots of people in jail.
And as Kitten says, “it’s not my place as a WW to admonish or lecture POC who feel like Kamala represents more of the same power structure that we are fighting to abolish.” If you want to not vote for a cop, I get it. I personally won’t punish Harris for being a cop because that would be an asset for a white male candidate, and I refuse to turn a positive for a white man into a negative for a WOC.
I’m not trying to say vote for Kamala Harris in the primary. I’m not trying to say ignore her faults and love her to death. I’m only admonishing folks from repeating the butter emails mistake of 2016. I’m simply disappointed that Harris already has a smear campaign against her, and I can see the “two equally bad candidates” narrative shaping up already if she is the nominee.
I am saying don’t turn into a Jill Stein voter, that’s all. Personally, Harris seems the best choice of those running now, but she’s not my ideal candidate either. I’m just sickened that a WOC gets instant negative press. A white man with Harris’ background would have it all ignored. This is the root of my problem with the Harris negativity.
Swanboat- Never said the black community is a monolith or that all of Harris’ detractors are bots and bros. And no, criticizing her record is not likening her to Trump… but that’s where it’s starts. Legit criticism turned into an exaggerated “she’s just as bad” fallacy. It’s starting , and I just don’t want to see Harris turned into another HRC. But maybe I’m just paranoid.
Not paranoid, Rapunzel. There’s a LOT of disinformation about Harris out there. There have been some excellent Twitter threads that carefully dismantle the lies and rumors and fleshes out what is real. I’m just not convinced that those helpful threads are more effective than people on Twitter repeating the same vague accusations over and over again.
And again, I’m not saying I would vote for Harris but she deserves a fair shot and she shouldn’t have to worry about being targeted by another Russian misinformation campaign. In the end, the only thing we can do is educate ourselves about the candidates and be as responsible as possible with our research. Be careful what kind of BS you repeat–we already have the Evil GOP and Russia working against us–let’s not help them.
Bullish!t. Take your lying elsewhere. We see you. You are not pulling a Hillary on us. Move along back to your GOP perch. 😤
Wait are you saying this about Kamala or the og poster? Because how is Kamala anyway GOP?
She’s also a big time AIPAC supporter. Her foreign policy will be as neocon as the neocons/Trump.
I’ve been hoping she’d run for a long time and am so excited. Yes, she’s not perfect but nobody is. And I hate all these white dudes who tell me it has to be Biden or Beto because we need a white guy to run against Trump. That sort of defeatist approach ticks me off.
LOTS of people questioned Obama’s chances because he was black. LOTS. I clearly remember people saying it’d be at least 40 years until a black president won. And let’s not forget lots of people thought Al Gore had it in the bag too. For the better or the worse American politics can be extremely unpredictable.
I’m hopeful about Kamala’s chances, though of course if she is beaten by Elizabeth, Joe, a bunch of cabbages stacked on top of each other in a suit, etc, Democrats still must pull together and run an enthusiastic campaign for them. Be wary though – already I’m running into smear pieces against her in ostensibly leftist spaces. Case in point, the recent rallying cry that she’s made life harder for sex workers – by pushing through a bill that shut down sites like Backpage where there was proven human trafficking. This was apparently incredibly discriminatory against consensual sex workers, because having one less place to advertise themselves online is a far worse sin than underage victims being trafficked online while Backpage turned a blind eye and only claimed to be doing something about when law enforcement got involved. Those are the kind of smears being flung at Kamala, and I would urge people to carefully read up around any talking points the right want to pin to the Democratic candidates so we don’t have that same vague ‘they just don’t feel woke enough to me’ cloud that Hillary has after being hit with a barrage of these.
C’mon fellow Jamaican!!!!! Yayyyyy!!!!
Wouldn’t her being a DA and working with law enforcement be a bonus? It could bring in lots of union voters and people who tend to be conservative (read: Republican) voters?
She would also have first hand knowledge about the issues within the judicial system and have some ideas on how to correct them.
She has a long history of being very hardline on criminal justice matters, such as proposing to jail parents for their child’s truancy. This is actually usually a problematic thing for POTUS candidates.
Susan Sarandon better not open up her stupid mouth and start dissing Kamala. Her political jabberwocky sounds like someone who’s been wandering around lala land for much too long.
Been following her politics for a while and I agree with everything Kaiser says here.
Love that she was a DA and has a police background, in addition to everything else she brings to the table. As a former blue brass wife (and custodial stepmom to two kids from a top cop dad and 911 dispatcher mother), I know how intelligent, brave, emotionally intelligent and well trained good cops can be.
I’m Canadian, so my opinion means little, but I do work in the states as an International Sales Exec. I work closely with US based brands in 15 different states, so I feel your current presidential pain and I see it from all sides. My clients love to talk politics with me when our business is done.
With Trump soon to be gone, and candidates like Harris stepping up to the plate, your future looks bright America!
She seems like a good candidate, but I think the best bet to defeat Trump would be someone moderate who can attract votes from the right wing that is disgruntled with the current government. Someone who represents so much of what the Trumpies hate will only make them stick to their Overlord more strongly. So hopefully she’ll manage to appeal to all kind of voters (which Hillary failed to do) and kick his behind out of the office.
That never, ever works. This is what Dems always, ALWAYS do: they try to get a moderate to appeal to both sides. Or they elect someone who ran on a fairly progressive platform who ends up selling out in order to please the masses (see: Bill Clinton).
NO. MORE. MODERATES. We are NEVER getting the votes of Trump-supporters–they are a lost cause–and we NEED to stop pandering to the Right, much like they never pander to the Left. Just because someone is disgruntled with Trump doesn’t mean that they won’t vote in-line with their party affiliation, regardless of what kind of candidate the Right puts up in 2020.
We also need to stop perpetuating this idea that Independents are centrists. I’m an Independent and I am a very left-leaning progressive. There are a LOT of people out there like me–people who typically vote Dem but feel that the party isn’t progressive enough. We do NOT want a centrist/moderate candidate.
Speaking from a country that went from an extreme left government to a far right dictatorship that ended democratically and transitioned into a prosperous moderate government, I can assure you it works and it’s what helped my country succeed. Don’t you see what’s going on around the world? After one extreme comes the other. More far right brings more far left and the other way around. Until people don’t realize that it’s only through consensus that you can make a country move forward, you’ll keep going up in flames.
+1000 Kitten. No more “both sides” crap.
The biggest most significant lesson I’ve learned from 2016-2018 is this: the way for dems to get votes is to get the actual base to vote, and that base isn’t reluctant GOP’ers, it’s minority voters and the working class. If a fraction of those who stayed home in 2016 or those whose votes were gerrymandered away vote for the dem in 2020, it’s O-V-E-R for 45, full stop! Begging racists to pretty please vote for the dem only serves to turn off the actual base!
Oh lord. Please celebitchies do not listen to fake news planted by the opposition here. That storyline about 20% of black people alone would support Kamala is fake bullish!t. Divide and conquer is what the Republicans are up to. They did it with Hillary and then are doing it with Kamala. These bots know how to get to your sense of fairness and emotional attachment to doing right by the ‘black community’. They think if they say the blacks are against her that you will believe it. Spread it and before you know we do not have an intelligent, sane and capable human being going ilup against Trump. As if black people are anti – law enforcement…? We can and will support a former DA. Life choices are not black and white. Please. Do not get sucked into this lie that she is not supported by the black community. Untrue!!! It’s not true! Black people know how their bread is buttered and Kamala is way more for us than any Trump, Sanders or anyone the Democrats can throw up.
Sorry, I ‘m black and I can’t find anyone that supports her.
I said about 20% of the people I speak to, as a black woman, in a black community support her. The majority want no part of supporting someone in bed with the established justice and police system that abuses us, locks up our men, rips our children from our women for blinking sideways, assumes us guilty based on accusation, and punishes us 10 times as hard for the same crimes if we do mess up.
This isn’t about getting black people to vote against Trump, its about getting them up and out to vote since voter apathy in the black community is high because everyone else comes before us so why bother? You don’t get the black community out to vote when you have a cop on the ballot. They NEED a candidate that isn’t a threat to the black community and her record shows shes a threat NOT an advocate.
Also a black woman.Not my impression. I see a lot of it on twitter in certain echo chambers but in real life I have no problem finding black people who are excited by her. And as we saw yesterday she has no problems drawing a crowd. And it looks like a similar crowd to Obama aka a very ethnically diverse crowd and also quite diverse in age groups. I think she’s one of few candidates that has potential for a big coalition.
Damn, I’d love to see her debate Trump.
It’s way to early for me to make choice about the primary. I will vote for whatever democrat in the general. For a candidate to get my vote in the primary they need to be pro medicare for all, and have a solid plan to redistribute wealth and stop the flow of wealth upward. And they will hopefully not be on deaths door. Both Bernie and Biden are too old imo. I am a mixed race poc and a woman, but I identify as poor/working class and a socialist before anything else.
Used to if someone said “Yellow Dog Democrat,” everyone knew that meant a Democrat who would vote for a yellow dog if the party nominated him/her for President. I’m not sure anyone uses that term any more, but I’m one.
Obviously I’ll vote for whoever gets the Democratic nomination, because I’m sane, but I just read Lara Bazelon’s NYT op-ed about Harris’s DA record, and it’s pretty disturbing. Life is complicated and there are no perfect candidates, but it’s hard to come away from that op-ed hoping that Harris will get the nomination.
Thanks for your comment! It’s disturbing how people seem to be ignoring that! Her record on criminal justice will follow her around like a really bad stink if she wins the nomination and when things start buckling down.
I’ll support anyone who is going to fight for: Medicare for all, free College.
raising the marginal tax rate on the top 1% and addressing climate change.
As for Harris the folks over at the Black Agenda Report are damming in their assessment of her:
https://www.blackagendareport.com/bernie-sanders-vs-kamala-jailer-and-her-corporate-backers
Well those are all policies she’s for. And anyway don’t think sanders is that great for black people. He voted for crime bill 94 which is basically the reason for mass incarceration of black bodies. Biden wrote it. But somehow those two old white men get away with their involvement in that bill…
Only Americans could call her progressive. She is really not that great, please look at her policies instead of her well verse discourses. This country is so lost.
That could be said for most US politicians, Sanders for instance as some form of Medicare for all exists in most of Europe. It’s nothing particularly revolutionary.And anyway Harris has the second most progressive record in the senate and supports Medicare for all, free college, minimum wage etc. So by American standards she’s very progressive.
Source?
A couple of people making some inaccurate claims about AA in this thread. New poll:
“ Harris’ best ratings come from African-Americans”
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/28/politics/kamala-harris-polling-2020-campaign/
She polls best among African Americans and Hispanics but remains unknown to a lot of people ( less name recognition than Biden, Bernie, warren and even Beto which tells you a lot about how much press a youngish white male politican will get).
I think it should be and hopefully will be a Biden-Harris ticket. Biden is only four years older than Trump but he comes across as at least a decade younger. Crucially, Biden can artfully destroy Trump in the debates due to his incisive intellectual humor that is an Achilles heel for Trump as he is a humorless anti-intellectual. I love Kamala but don’t think she has that specific type of nimble charisma to go after Trump in that way which can defeat him and Kamala lacks the experience Biden has but her time will definitely come and she would be a perfect VP candidate for 2020.
I like Beto too but on a Harris-O’Rourke ticket down the line or I think a Harris-Kennedy (Joe Kennedy III) ticket would really work in a down the line future. If Biden runs in 2020 it will only be because of the extreme circumstances and he may say upfront that he will likely only serve one term. We’ll see but if he hopefully does run I really hope people will get behind him without harping on his age because it is the one personality dynamic I see as being victorious against Trump who is a steamrolling bully but remains vulnerable to the specific charisma Joe Biden has.
Biden ran in 1984, 1988 and 2008 and went nowhere. He didn’t acquit himself well during the Anita Hill hearings. I liked him as a veep but his time is past,
I wasn’t born in 1984 and was a toddler during the Anita Hill hearings. Being a VP for eight years is hardly going nowhere and backing presidential candidates that will not be successful for obvious reasons can easily be considered as living in the past while, by contrast, time passes or someone’s time has passed. Joe Biden’s time may have passed, due solely to age, were he not the only obvious candidate being mentioned who has a viable path to victory in this specific election.
Kamala would be an extremely disastrous choice!
‘The worst thing people (Bernie Bros) can say about her is that “she’s a cop!”’
Um….no. Here are some of the horrible things she did:
1. She fought to keep a PROVEN INNOCENT man in jail! His name is Daniel Larsen who was declared innocent and Kamala (who knew he was innocent) fought to keep him locked up on a paper work technicality. She was happy to ruin this man’s life over paper work despite that he was INNOCENT! What kind of monstrous person would do something like that???
2. She kept an innocent man in jail with a sentence of 70 YEARS!!! George Gage, an electrician from California with no criminal record was accused of sexually abusing his step daughter. After the conviction, the judge learned that the prosecutor broke the law and intentionally withheld evidence that would have cleared his name including medical reports that proved she lied and reports including her mother describing her as a pathological liar. When he tried to appeal his case Kamala defended the conviction and argued it was George Gage’s fault because he did not point out evidence that was being withheld. This man is still in prison today!!!
3. Kevin Cooper, the death row inmate whose trial was infected by racism and corruption. He sought advanced DNA testing to prove his innocence, but Ms. Harris opposed it. (After The New York Times’s exposé of the case went viral, she reversed her position.)
4. She was against body cameras on police officers …not so great for police brutality and the black community
5. In 2010 she withheld information about a police lab technician who had been accused of intentionally sabotaging her work and stealing from her lab. Kamala knew about the wrongdoing but FAILED to alert defense lawyers which violated the defendants constitutional rights.
6. She failed to prosecute Steve Mnuchin – head of One West Bank who illegally foreclosed on around 80,000 homeowners. Literally grandmas were kicked out of their house! Turns out she also accepted $2000 for her campaign from him…not so great for corruption in politics
7. She wanted to give parents of children who did not go to school criminal records – which would effect lower income families of color.
8. She supported Civil Asset Forfeiture – LEGALIZED ROBBERY BY COP! – a cop can take a person’s money without evidence and not give it to them back simply on a belief they are doing something they shouldn’t.
Seriously I don’t understand why you are excusing these things and supporting her. She is not a progressive. She is only saying she believes these progressive things because she wants to win. She has a terrible reputation that contradicts all the wonderful things she says and her record indicates she would be terrible for the black community.
Do not just support her because she was a prosecutor who is mixed race and a woman. It does not mean she is a good candidate. Actions speak louder than words!
Excellent summary. Naked Capitalism (not a competitor blog) does fantastic articles on Harris and her track record of shocking policy approaches not just with crim justice but also regulatory and business stuff. Read it and weep.
Amy Klobuchar all day for me, but if I need to fall in line with Kamala I will….whatever is necessary to rid ourselves of the Orange One!
Love Amy. Yalies are the best. Her time may come as well but ridding the world of the orange one really requires strategizing and looking carefully at a qualitative and quantitative path to victory or we will see six more years instead of two. Whatever it takes; Great attitude looking at the overall picture Ash.
Point, blank, period….Elizabeth Warren is smart, honest, and she will work for the people.