Much has been made of Joe Biden stepping down as the Democratic Party presidential candidate and Kamala Harris being coronated as the new presumptive nominee. Many people welcome the fact that she is younger and far more coherent than Joe Biden, which is not saying much. Many welcome the fact that she could potentially become the first woman of color to become president of the United States, which is not an insignificant fact in a deeply racist and sexist society. These changes were welcomed by a considerable amount of the population, as seen with the record $81 billion raised for her campaign in the first 24 hours since its announcement, much of it coming from small-dollar donations.
But beyond any of this, who is Kamala Harris as a political figure and what policies has she upheld throughout her life in politics? Throughout her political career, she has been a loyal defender of the system and the people in power, first as assistant district attorney of Alameda County and San Francisco, later as District Attorney of San Francisco, then as Attorney General of California, and finally as Senator for California.
At a moment when the Republicans currently attack Democrats for being “woke” and too weak on crime, Kamala Harris’ record as a prosecutor showed the exact opposite. She embraced the image of a “top cop,” disproportionately attacking poor Black and brown people.
In San Francisco, felony conviction rates during her tenure shot up from 52% in 2003 to 67% in 2006. Harris went out of her way to reject DNA evidence that would have likely exonerated Kevin Cooper, a Black man who is currently 66 years old and has been on San Quentin’s death row for decades. She pushed anti-truancy programs that targeted parents of truant students with possible incarceration or fines of $2,500 and even prosecuted the students. When even the US Supreme Court declared that the overcrowding of California prisons amounted to “cruel and unusual punishment,” she fought to release fewer prisoners. She fought to keep prisoners like Daniel Larson, who was proven innocent by the Innocent Project, in prison.
Despite the “top cop” persona that she projected, Harris certainly was weak on certain types of crime – the crimes of the rich and powerful. Following the subprime mortgage crisis, when she was the Attorney General of California, her office chose to not prosecute Steve Mnuchin (later to become Donald Trump’s Treasury Secretary) and his OneWest bank for a reported thousands of mortgage fraud violations. She ultimately accepted campaign donations from Mnuchin, his wife as well as OneWest over the years.
On the question of the border and immigration, the Republicans have been arguing that the Democrats are advocates of “open borders” and an “invasion” of immigrants, and they have pinned much of their blame on Kamala Harris and her term as Vice President and as so-called “border-czar.” Nothing could be further from the truth.
The Biden administration continued many of Trump’s restrictive policies such as further militarizing the border, and, up until May 2023, maintained Title 42, which deported thousands of unauthorized border crossers and asylum seekers in the name of stopping the spread of COVID. This was made infamous when it was used to violently round up and deport thousands of Haitian refugees in Texas.
Harris famously traveled to Guatemala in 2021 and said, “I want to be clear to folks in this region who are thinking about making that dangerous trek to the United States-Mexico border…Do not come. Do not come.” Biden, Harris and Democrats most recently proposed an immigration bill earlier this year that essentially gave right-wing Republicans everything that they have been calling for over decades. The only reason that it didn’t pass is because the Republicans wanted something to campaign on during an election year.
On the question of the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people, how has Harris distinguished herself from Biden or any of the mainstream political establishment? Not at all! Despite periodic calls for a ceasefire, she has not distinguished herself in any way from the genocidal policies supported by Biden. In reality, these supposed calls for a ceasefire are cynical political maneuvers. Israel has demonstrated no interest in peace. Netanyahu does not want troop withdrawal from Gaza, he wants “victory,” which means the eradication of Hamas, even if it means the ethnic cleansing of every other Palestinian. Like Biden, Harris continues to repeat the perspective that “Israel has a right to defend itself,” which is another way of saying that there are no red lines and Israel can do whatever it wants to inflict terror in the Palestinian population.
As we look towards the election in November, it is understandable that many people are concerned about what another Trump presidency could mean. But when we take an honest look at who Kamala Harris is and who she represents, the question that we need to ask ourselves is whether we should put any confidence in her to stand for our basic rights.
In order to defend ourselves, we cannot look to Kamala Harris or the Democratic Party. Only we can do that.
