Not ready for the Big League...Oh, really?
We’ve been getting a fairly steady flow of the “she’s a cop” or “she doesn’t support Palestinian liberation hard enough” or “she slept her way to the top” since Kamala Harris first became the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. Now, I’m seeing an increase on social media of something we didn’t see so much of at the start of her journey toward the presidential election: Is she worthy?
A lot of it revolves around questions of “what has she done in office as vice president” or “what has she done ever to qualify her for the presidency” or “what experience does she have?”
Is it sexism? Is it racism? Is it the classic combo we call misongynoir? Or just stupidity?
In my lifetime, it seems that most vice presidential candidates (and remember, the idea is that the vice president succeeds the president in an emergency or, ideally, ascends to the top of the ticket themselves when their running mate has finished two terms) are plucked from folks who are serving (or recently served) in the U.S. Congress or as governors.
That first one is particularly important, as one of the vice presidential duties is to serve as president of the U.S. Senate, casting a tie-breaking vote if necessary. That means the vice president ideally should be familiar with legislative operations and processes, since a good chunk of the job—aside from assisting the president and staying in touch with policy and security issues in case they have to replace the president—is to oversee what’s happening in Congress from the Senate side of things.
Harris was a U.S. senator. And before that, the attorney general of the entire huge-ass state of California. I think she has the qualifications, especially after nearly a full term as vice president, to run for and serve as president.
As for “what has she done?” let me ask this: Since when have we ever seen vice presidents pushing personal policy agendas or doing big executive things? That’s the president’s job. The vice president’s main purpose is to oversee the Senate, do some other things as needed by the president, and to stay alive to be able to succeed if necessary. Harris has been doing that job. If she were doing major policy initiatives and doing anything ground-breaking that would call for her to be in the spotlight very often, that would reflect very badly on the sitting president.
So, yes, Harris is qualified and then some.
And then the frosting on the cake when I saw on Facebook some conservative responded to a post about Harris with something to the effect of “Imagine serving three years and doing nothing and expecting a promotion.”
Again, she’s been doing her job, and I don’t ever remember any vice president doing something extremely visible, not even Dick Cheney who was probably the brains of the George W. Bush presidency. Harris has been in her chair in the Senate, she’s been in executive branch briefings, she’s been working in her office in the vice presidential mansion, etc. This idea she’s been sitting on her hands for three years is ridiculous. If we’re going to complain about vice presidents “doing nothing” and thus “not deserving the presidency” just because we don’t see them doing anything, then we should be complaining about several former vice presidents who have run for the presidency in the past.
It’s also interesting, though, to see who is complaining. Most of the naysayers are, of course, Republican voters who willingly voted for Donald Trump and plan to again. And I ask, “what did your man do to deserve to be president?” He certainly wasn’t a successful businessperson (having run most of his businesses into the ground) and even if he was, that's not a skill useful in the presidency. Nor is being rich, being a liar, being a narcissist, being a sex offender, or being a convicted felon. Trump had not one iota of public service before running for president. He even dodged the draft to avoid military service. So, yeah, sorry, Harris is far more deserving.
And people on the left parroting the same “why is she qualified” nonsense, I ask: What have many of your favorites or candidates done that is more notable or pertinent? What has Jill Stein done to prepare her for a presidency? What did Ross Perot way back in the day do that prepared him for the office he attempted to run for?
I get that most Republican voters are going to vote for Trump not because they believe all his lies or think he’s great but because he hates most of the same people they hate. I get that a lot of people on the left are going to pass on Harris because they just won’t vote for anyone who doesn’t promise to cut off all funding and support of Israel or something like that.
But let’s stop with the nonsense about whether Harris is ready for the Big League or has “done enough.” She’s as qualified as most former vice presidents and smarter than a lot of them. It’s not a question of whether she can do the job. It’s whether you’ll put her in that job for the good of the country or not.