Republicans Shouldn't Focus on the Fact Kalama Harris is a DEI Pick (Even Though She Is)
/Kamala Harris, photo by Gage Skidmore
Critics on the Right have been referring to Vice President Kamala Harris as a DEI pick, and that has offended her supporters and mainstream news anchors. Many are stating that it’s racist and sexist. It’s an absolutely unnecessary attack from the Right with no political upside, but they’re probably stating it for one reason: it’s true.
Don’t blame conservative commentators for noticing. Blame President Joe Biden for announcing that he was going to select a woman to be his vice president. Blame the black female democrats who jointly demanded that Joe Biden select a black person to be the candidate after they held up the party for years. Blame the black men who penned a letter demanding Biden select a black woman if he wanted their support. Harry Reid, the former Senate majority leader, even said the decision was about her race. “I think he came to the conclusion that he should pick a black woman.” His reasons were their loyalty and that “Black women of America deserved a Black vice-presidential candidate.”
President Biden could have selected a candidate based on their merit and what they politically brought to the table. If that person happened to be a woman of color, we absolutely would have noticed. He would have received praise without desperately seeking it through virtue signaling. But it’s difficult to believe Kamala Harris was the candidate of merit. Was it beneficial to pick a candidate who essentially characterized him as a racist on the debate stage? Perhaps laughing at Biden for stating you can’t sweepingly make gun legislation via executive orders made her an ideal candidate. If not, perhaps it was her promise to end private health insurance. It certainly wasn’t her popularity during the primary because she bombed out of it. And we know Biden didn’t need her help to pull California.
Joe Biden had a history that was problematic for his voters and he continuously made offensive and racist comments on the campaign trail. Kamala Harris was his penance.
If acknowledging that Harris was a DEI pick is racist, doesn’t that mean that DEI is racist? It’s either a good thing or it isn’t, but the Democrats cannot praise and implement DEI and then get angry because Republicans notice that it happened.
That being said, Republicans should not go with this line of attack. It’s a distraction. They should focus on Harris’s treasure trove of horrific policy statements from 2020, the fact that she wants to load illegal immigrants with benefits, her support of the Defund the Police movement, and that she’ll bring California’s radical policies nationwide. She’s also connected to the Biden administration’s failures and hid his physical and mental decline from the American people.
The Democrats are proud to have Harris as their nominee because she’s a woman of color who they hope will make history. Republicans aren’t going to make them feel bad about it. The wisest thing to do is to focus on the content of her character. She doesn’t have to be the next Obama. Voters virtually knew nothing about him, and the media got to define him as the pinnacle of “hope and change.” Kamala Harris’s legacy is one of failure and pitching whatever radical policy that will gain her attention. We know her. We cannot allow the Democrats and the media to redefine her.