Toronto Star

Kamala Harris is vulnerable, but as a leftist?

- Rick Salutin is a freelance contributi­ng columnist for the Star. He is based in Toronto. Reach him on email: ricksaluti­n@ca.inter.net Rick Salutin

OK, U.S. politics is about to get truly weird. What we’ve seen till now will become normalized. I mean, are they really going to try to pin the radical tail on Kamala Harris? The Onion conveyed a sense of that challenge: “Progressiv­e Bona Fides: Provided housing to thousands of low-level offenders she convicted. Contributi­on To Ticket: Centrist counterbal­ance to Biden’s centrism.”

Trump’s initial reaction was Trumpian, showcasing his unique, and uniquely effective, chutzpah. He called Harris nasty and mean in the same speech-burst in which he referred to Elizabeth Warren as Pocahontas, without even name-checking her. Doesn’t he know that’s nasty and mean? Yes and no. See, they’ve been mean to him, making it more true than mean. He actually believes this, or it wouldn’t work as potently as it has.

They surely had the redscare wardrobe handy in case Biden chose Karen Bass, who’d taken eight youthful, exuberant trips to Castro’s Cuba, and sent her grown-up condolence­s to Cubans on the death of their “comandante en jefe.” Americans always prefer their politics personaliz­ed to smithereen­s. Hatred of Fidel will long outlast theoretica­l antileftis­m. But Harris? C’mon man.

A Republican senator called her “the most liberal leftist nominee for VP that our country has ever seen.” Hmm. FDR’s third-term VP was Henry Wallace. He was for public health care, desegregat­ion and rapprochem­ent with Stalin. FDR wanted him again in 1944 but right-wing Democrats made him dump Wallace for Harry Truman, leading to use of the A-bomb and the Cold War after FDR died. Americans aren’t awfully strong on U.S. history.

Trump’s own anti-leftism is, like all things, Don-centred. I’d guess it began by watching baseball on TV with his racist dad in the late 1940s, and the rise of Jackie Robinson on the Brooklyn Dodgers. “They’ve ruined the game!” he now moans, any chance he gets. The redemption of Colin Kaepernick and pro sports’ “capitulati­on” to Black Lives Matter probably irks him more than losing to Biden would. That’d be irrational but so is human nature. His main mentor was über-McCarthyit­e Roy Cohn, so 1950s-style anti-communism runs deep in him.

Yet it’s not his political strength. That lies in an instinct for vulnerabil­ity in his enemies, and name-calling that makes them squirm. You need to be deeply fearful yourself to cultivate that kind of guesswork on others. He swiftly coined “phoney Kamala” and were I a phoney political expert I’d advise him to run with it.

In her first debate with Biden and other candidates for president, she told a mean little tale about him that ended, “That little girl was me.” It was potted and unconvinci­ng, though the CNN panel cooed about it afterward. It became a trope on SNL and when Harris tried to prove on Seth Meyers’ show that she could take it with humour (like Hillary, come to think of it), that felt phoney, too. She dropped like a stone and eventually left the race, with no one missing her till Biden plucked her for running mate. Phoney Kamala, then.

P.S. I’d vote for her and Biden of course. There’s even some merit in their lack of past principle. It makes it easier for them to switch to more progressiv­e policies if it’ll help elect them, now that those are on the rise in the party.

Speaking of experts. I’ve grown irritated by the screed that says, Listen to the science, believe the medical experts. It’s more complicate­d than that.

Thomas Frank (“What’s the Matter with Kansas?”) gives a good, incidental­ly Canadian, counter-example. He says public health care was initially opposed by doctors in Saskatchew­an, its birthplace. They lied, vilified and went on strike. Happily, the government led by Tommy Douglas, and the largely rural populace, resisted them and the pundits. Eventually, doctors did even better than before. Being skeptical isn’t antiexpert­ise, it’s anti-expertocra­cy and pro-democracy.

When I was a 20-something in therapy, I told my doctor I might switch my goal from writing or academics to medicine. I said it was because then I’d know for sure that I was doing something worthwhile with my life. He (an MD) laughed in my face. I asked why. “Don’t you know any doctors?” he muttered.

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