A lot has happened since my last post, as Joe Biden finally did what I hoped he’d do and dropped out of the race. I was critical of his behavior leading up to that point, but I still think it’s important to acknowledge what a courageous and patriotic act it was. This is even more obvious when you consider how utterly unthinkable it’d be for Donald Trump to do such a thing.
As expected, this has dramatically shifted the trajectory of the 2024 election in Democrats’ favor. But while I hoped this would happen, I didn’t hope for an immediate consolidation around Kamala Harris as the alternative. Sure, it was what the smart money predicted, but I was wary of her skills as a candidate and thought the Democrats would have a better chance of beating Trump if they had a mini-primary or open convention in which they vetted a number of candidates (including Harris) and selected the most popular one at the end of that few-week process. That hasn’t happened, but after seeing Harris perform, I can’t say I’m too disappointed.
My reason for wishing for a different candidate than Harris was heavily influenced by the impression she left in the 2019 Democratic primary. After a promising start, she soon became a caricature of the kind of politician who will contort themselves into any shape to earn votes. Despite a somewhat moderate background as a tough prosecutor, Harris swung hard to the left to try to be relevant in a primary dominated by progressive purity tests. But unlike Warren and Sanders who were the genuine article, Harris came across as desperate, with incoherent policies that were clearly meant to check boxes rather than actually work. Although I don’t agree with a lot of Warren and Sanders’ policies, I at least respect them as genuine. With Harris, she not only was advocating policies that I thought were misguided, but she also didn’t even seem to have thought much about them.
Then, the little I knew about her as Vice President wasn’t encouraging. She didn’t seem particularly effective or serious in her, albeit impossible, assignment to address the root causes of illegal immigration. She had a high degree of staff turnover, which didn’t speak well of her executive skills. And in interviews - even with sympathetic journalists - she came across as obnoxiously evasive and defensive. “I’m really not sure I understand the point you’re making” was a repeated refrain in one interview I remember, in response to questions that were not particularly difficult or surprising.
That said, she’s done remarkably well in her new role as presumptive Democratic nominee. Besides her deft consolidation of support in the immediate aftermath of Biden’s announcement, she has been very impressive on the stump. Confident, articulate, with arguments against Trump that hit hard without sounding overly apocalyptic. And importantly, she’s shown herself willing to abandon many of the lefty positions that I’d been concerned about.
In one sense, this confirms my previous impression of her as being driven more by political ambition than strong policy convictions. But while I used to think firm policy positions were really important in a politician, I’m much less concerned about that than I used to be. In fact, I find a willingness to compromise and adapt one’s positions to new information to be a greater quality, especially when that adaptation is in a more centrist direction, as Harris’s has been.
I’m still concerned about how she’ll handle tough interviews, which she’s conveniently managed to avoid so far. And while her experience in the White House over the last several years definitely makes her among the most qualified potential candidates, I still worry about her executive leadership skills and how effective she’ll be as President. But I no longer worry about her policies being too far out of the mainstream. She’ll have some I disagree with, just as Biden did, but I don’t think she’ll be the super-progressive many on the right are claiming. Rather, I expect she’ll show the same pragmatism and adaptability she’s shown as a candidate, adopting largely mainstream Democratic positions on most issues. In 2020 that would have made her too progressive for my taste, but Democrats have since realized how out-of-step many of those ideas were with mainstream America and have wisely pivoted.
It’s true that my opposition to Trump makes me not a very picky Democratic voter, but I must say my opinion of Harris has improved dramatically since her launch (hardly a minority view). It may well be that in 2019 she felt forced to adopt positions that downplayed her past accomplishments and as such, couldn’t be herself. And as Vice President, she had to be the loyal #2, careful to not steal the spotlight from an older President who struggled with public performances. She is now unburdened by what has been, able to be herself and take all the spotlight she can. So far, it’s been a sight to behold and I’m here for it.