Biden and Harris

In jns.org, Carolyn Glick writes about the v.p. candidacy of Kamala Harris.

While the progressive media refers to Harris as a “moderate,” since her election to the Senate in 2016 Harris has racked up one of the most radical voting records in the upper house. She supports revoking all limitations on abortions. She supports harsh limitations on the right to bear arms. She supports banning oil fracking and ending energy exploration on federal lands.

While popular with the Democrat base in California and other deep-blue states, Harris’ extreme positions render her incapable of winning votes in places like Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan. Indeed, she is likely to be more of a drain than an asset to Biden’s bid to win over these critical states.

So why did Biden choose her for his running mate?

In two words: Identity politics.

While progressives are more likely to be atheists than conservatives, they are religiously political. And one of the things they sanctify is identity politics. Recognizing this, Biden chose Harris not because of the votes she can bring, but for the support she can garner from the Democratic base. In other words, Biden chose her because she is a woman rather than a man and because as the daughter of a father who immigrated to America from Jamaica and a mother who immigrated from India, Harris is not white.

Biden himself doesn’t sanctify identity politics. On the contrary—some of Biden’s statements on the campaign trail have been arguably racist. In the past week alone, Biden committed two racial gaffes. He asked a black journalist if he was a junkie and he said that “with notable exceptions” all black people think the same way.

Biden is probably not a racist and he certainly isn’t an ideologue. The only thing that Biden is most assuredly is a weather vane. For more than 40 years Biden has consistently adapted his “convictions” to the prevailing winds in his party. When the party was opposed to abortion, Biden was an anti-abortion Catholic. Now that his party supports unlimited abortion on demand, Biden does too.

Back in the day, Biden opposed illegal immigration. Now that the Democrat Party has embraced open borders, Biden supports giving illegal immigrants free healthcare and schooling.

Read more here.