“Comma-LA” Harris
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Welcome to my freemium newsletter by me, King Williams. A documentary filmmaker, journalist, podcast host, and author based in Atlanta, Georgia.
This is a newsletter covering the hidden connections of Atlanta to everything else.
Illustration by Piotr Lesniak/Getty Images via for Politico
On August 11th, the 2020 Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden announced the current California State Senator and former 2020 Presidential nominee Kamala Harris would be his Vice Presidential running mate.
Since then, it has been a wild one for the Democrats, and let’s get into what everything means.
Why do we have a Vice President?
The VP position was initially being an afterthought and created as a runner-up prize for not winning the presidency.
It was until the election of 1800, where a tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr (yes, that one from the Broadway show) both received the same number of electoral college votes. With each receiving the same number of votes, it was Congress who voted for Jefferson as the Vice President position and Burr, the third Vice President. The position took on greater importance during The Great Depression, under then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), before that, the VP position was used mostly for ambitious politicians who wanted to be president eventually.
It was under FDR that the VP became more involved with presidential affairs and it would be again expanded in importance by President Dwight Eisenhower who allowed for a young Richard Nixon to preside during presidential cabinet meetings.
The VP's office was initially two offices, one on Capitol Hill and another north of the capital at the now named Russell Senate Office Building, after former Georgia Senator and big-time racist in holding back Civil Rights, Richard B Russell. Russell also has another federal building named after him in downtown Atlanta. Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) became the first VP to have an office in the White House complex, President Jimmy Carter was the first president to give his VP, Walter Mondale, an office in the famous West Wing, a location where all VP’s have remained since.
What does a VP do?
A Vice President is the first in the line of presidential succession should the president die, resign, or be removed from office. The Vice President also presides over Senate deliberations, presides over joint sessions of Congress, is a member of the national security council, presides over impeachment trials, and acts as a tie-breaker on votes if necessary.
But to be honest, just use the introduction from the US Senate’s own website on the Vice President:
Holding the least understood, most ridiculed, and most often ignored constitutional office in the federal government, American vice presidents have included some remarkable individuals.
Fourteen of the former vice presidents became president of the United States—more than half of them after a president had died.
One defeated the sitting president with whom he served. One murdered a man and became a fugitive.
One joined the Confederate army and led an invasion of Washington, D.C. One was the wealthiest banker of his era.
Three received the Nobel Peace Prize and one composed a popular melody.
In recent weeks, due to the President and now maybe also the Vice President, having contracted Covid-19, who is in line to become Commander-in-Chief has never been more important. And for Democrats Kamala Harris is their #1 draft pick going into a future that is much less sure than you’d think.
Who is Kamala Harris?
Pronounced (comma-LA), is a first-term California US Senator, former District Attorney, and State Prosecutor from Berkeley, California. She is the daughter of immigrant parents, Dr. Donald Harris, Ph.D., from Saint Ann’s Parish, Jamaica, and Dr. Shyamala Gopalan, MS/Ph.D., from New Delhi, India.
The two met through their involvement during the American civil rights movement in 1963, were married by the end of 1963, and divorced by 1971 when Harris was seven years old. Harris and Gopalan had one other child, a younger sister, and political commentator Maya Harris who is three years younger than Kamala.
Harris and her sister grew up in Berkeley, California, and Montreal, Canada, moving there after her mother got a job as a researcher at Jewish Medical Hospital and a second job as a professor at McGill University. Harris graduated from Westmount High School in Montreal before coming back to the states to attend one of the most prestigious HBCUs, Howard University, in Washington, D.C. After graduation, Harris would return to Northern California to attend school at the Hastings College of Law at the University of California.
After graduating, Harris would begin a career in criminal justice working her way up in the law enforcement system of San Francisco, California. Harris would start out as a prosecutor before becoming a District Attorney, then California Attorney General, and as of 2017, a US Senator from California.
Why did Biden pick a woman for VP?
Shortly after securing the Democratic nomination this past spring, it was Biden who announced that he would have a woman as his running mate. Since then, the rumors swirled as to who that woman would be.
While many questioned whether Biden would select current senators and former presidential nominees Elizabeth Warren or Amy Klobuchar. But it became clear in the wake of the immediate protests related to the late May killing of George Floyd, that Biden would be a Black woman as his running mate. But the question of who became a bigger point of contention. Black women have been the backbone of the Democratic party for a while now, providing their first major nominee.
Why a Black woman for VP?
Black women are the most consistent voting block of the democratic party and in many regards are the swing vote needed to push a candidate over the top. In the 2016 election, 96% voted for Obama in 2012, and 93% of Black women voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
That’s not to say that Hillary Clinton was the most beloved for Black women but Black women are the only demographic to consistently vote for the greater good of society. For Black women, this finally gives them an accomplished candidate and their first candidate after decades of loyalty.
In Harris, she speaks to three different demographics at once, 1) Asian Americans, in particular the Indian American community, 2) the Jamaican diaspora (her father is Jamaican), and 3) the African American community, to which Harris is technically not African American but was raised in African American neighborhoods when she lived in the US.
Why not these Black women?
But in doing so this also caused a new problem…Who would be the most logical pick to bring in voters who were noticeably missing in 2016 (that’s another conversation I promise), enthuse other non-Black voters, and still secure the presidency?
The Biden campaign moved towards a shortlist of women which included:
Stacey Abrams (Georgia HD89), who by all accounts was robbed of her rightful seat in 2018 and faces an uphill battle in 2022 for the Georgia Governorship always seemed more focused on the home than the VP.
Abrams has built out such a robust infrastructure to tackle voter registration and Governor Kemp it would be hard to see her leave that unless her position was guaranteed.
Val Demmings (Jacksonville/Florida 10), this would’ve been a decent pick but unlike Harris, did not have the national acclaim but like Harris would’ve had questions on her tough on crime stances.
But the upside was that maybe Demmings could help energize current Florida voters as well as the over one million who recently regained their right to vote—a vote which was shut down again this year by Republican-appointed Judge Barbara Lagoa.
Susan Rice (Washington D.C.), this would’ve been the ideal pick for centrists and those who wanted a throwback to the Obama era of governance. It’s because of her time in the Obama administration and combined lack of notoriety that also made the choice harder to justify amongst the others.
Keshia Lance Bottoms (Atlanta), this pick in my opinion would’ve happened, especially after the immediate response from KLB in late May after the George Floyd protests in Atlanta.
Bottoms represented many of the same pluses as Harris, a Black woman (check), Black national sorority in Delta Sigma Theta (check), coming from a major culturally relevant city in Atlanta (check), an ability to draw celebrities (check, it matters whether you like it or not), and unlike Harris, KLB had no national tarnishing of her brand—then the killing of Rayshard Brooks happened.
Why an Asian woman for VP?
Asian-Americans are growing in both demographics and political participation. Asian Americans are the fastest-rising demographic group in the country and one of the lowest to participate in voting.
For Biden and the Democrats, if they can play this right, the Democrats can bring in a generational new cohort of Asian Americans as first-time voters. This pick by Harris would also be used to gain inroads with a population that doesn’t vote in particular at levels to their White, Black, or Latinx peers. Asian American women are amongst the most educated, best paid, and often in states with large populations such as New York, California, as well as Texas, a state where Democrats have struggled over the last 30 years. And for the Democrats, having a better relationship with India is of increasing importance especially considering the projected rise of India over the next century.
Why Kamala Harris?
Harris reflects the reality of America’s changing demographics…
She is in many ways the right pick for this administration, establishment Dems, and those who want to take the centrist voter. Harris is the West Coast selection on the Democratic ticket in the modern era and the first woman to be selected for the Democrats since Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, who was also the first woman to make a national ticket of either party.
Harris is the first Black woman and South Asian woman to be selected for a top position. Harris represented an intersection of a lot of demographics, a product of a biracial marriage, worldview is spent by time outside of the US (Harris for a while lived in Canada), and divorce to make the national ticket. Harris is the third (and consecutive) person in the modern era to be a child of one or more immigrant parents on the national ticket, the first was Barack Obama in 2008 (father was Kenyan), the second was Donald Trump in 2016 (mother was from Scottland). Harris has also never lost an election. Yes, I know she dropped out of the Democratic Presidential race if we’re being technical.
The problems with a Biden-Harris, ticket
Her time as a prosecutor and attorney general has been scrutinized online for over a year now.
Her prosecutorial style is what traditional conservatives love, by upholding a strong law and order stance in the form of lots of policing and arrests; a record of prosecuting that centrists love, in reducing crime city-wide while increasing the rate of closing cases; with reforms that most mainstream Dems love, criminal justice reform. This doesn’t bode well with far-right/Fox News Republicans due to her prosecution of cops as well as not pursuing the death penalty, even when it comes to those individuals who have killed cops.
For those more left of the Democrats, her over-policing and incarceration in San Franciso, as well as her controversial truancy program, which had the option to arrest parents of students who chronically skipped school is too much. Both of these factions’ criticisms are valid but only they are substantially louder than what Dems-Rs-Centrist wants to move against. Those groups all love to maintain police, and they especially love tough prosecutors. The Democrats really had no other choice, especially when the media/right-wing perception is that the party is soft on crime.
The problem is that in choosing Harris alongside the architect of the 1994 crime bill, some people may not vote, vote 3rd party, or vote for Trump instead—all of which will ensure a Trump victory, even before factoring in voter suppression.
Here are a few more talking points and/or smear tactics to expect:
Within minutes of the announcement, attacks were already released by the president’s own Twitter feed.
This particular ad came out minutes after Biden announced his decision. Expect a lot more well-polished, pre-recorded videos, photos, memes, gifs, hashtags, and social media accounts ready at the push of the button.
Here are a few more talking points and/or smear tactics to expect:
There are generally good criticisms to have on Harris and then there are smear tactics, know which ones are which:
Smears:
Harris is not ‘Black’ enough, she’s bi-racial, or she’s not African American
That train is always on schedule... please don’t fall for this bullshit againWhat does it mean to call Kamala Harris "black" in an American context? People keep saying, "Well, she looks black." Always good to keep in mind that "race" has never strictly been about how someone looks. My blue eyed children would qualify for reparations and Harris would not.
Thomas Chatterton Williams 🌍 🎧 @thomaschattwill'The radical left’’ - The biggest switch right now for conservatives as a whole has been radicalizing the entire left.
Conservatives have been positioning themselves as practical and pragmatic versus the violent and out-of-control left. It worked for Nixon in 1968, the Republicans really only have this play left.
One of the more liberal senators, this is being used against her by Republicans and also against Democrats by her being only a traditional Senator who has pushed hard enough.
The current pivot is to be that she will protect criminals or undue Trump/Guliani criminal reforms, which are not really reforms if we’re keeping it a buck.
Criticisms
Harris has been too hard or not enough on tech firms, especially California-based ones.
Harris is anti-death penalty and her flip-flopping on this stance doesn’t show true conviction considering when she had the power as Attorney General of California she also appealed a decision to end the death penalty overall.
During her time in San Franciso, Harris lost the support of the police union after she failed to recommend the death penalty for a cop killer.
Harris also for 5 years didn’t adopt a policy recommended to her that would’ve disclosed police misconduct.
Jamal Truelove’s false imprisonment, despite that he himself has forgiven her, and was awarded $10million for his suffering.
Millennials and Gen Z
Younger generations are becoming more liberal and also less tolerant of atrocities big and small in the past. Policing is front and center this year and with two candidates with a murky history, this causes problems.
If this was any other year, and any other candidate mainly, not Donald Trump the Democrats would be done for, and these two people would not be on the stage. The problem is no one knows what the Millennial or Gen Z turnout will be in November. But the evidence is clear, they don’t want Trump, they want more government for the people, and are not satisfied with the status quo.
The choice of Harris is hopefully enough to galvanize a base of people who are becoming the new face of America, while also appealing to the voting face of America.
-KJW
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