Everyone knows Vice President Harris is awful. It’s why talk about whether President Biden should withdraw from the race included an aside about what to do with her. Is it possible she could be passed over somehow? Instead, she had to be completely remade, downright deified, the same way Biden was before her.
As I – and many others – have said countless times before, no one should have been remotely surprised that Joe Biden’s presidency was a disaster that ended in disgrace. Before the Democrats and the media coronated him after winning the South Carolina primary in 2020, which was preceded by a string of ignominious defeats in Iowa, Vermont, and Nevada, perhaps no one described the future President better than his former boss, Barack Obama, who infamously said “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to fuck things up.” This is undoubtedly why the early days of the primary process were dominated by attempts to solidify around another candidate, from Elizabeth Warren to Pete Buttigieg to Michael Bloomberg, anyone except Senator Bernie Sanders, who they deemed too progressive and unelectable, not nearly enough of a corporatist for the establishment. At the time, everyone remembered that 2020 wasn’t Biden’s first attempt to become the Democrat’s standard bearer, having failed miserably in 1988 in the midst of a plagiarism scandal and again in 2008, when he referred to his future boss as “clean.” Only after it became clear that no suitable candidate would emerge and Senator Sanders might well prevail in their place, did establishment Democrats and the mainstream media solidify around President Biden, essentially forcing the other candidates from the race and recreating his public image from has-been hack and also ran to moderate elder statesman and foreign policy genius. Suddenly, the endorsements piled in, completely ignoring any and all potential flaws, as well as a fifty year old record of taking whatever position was politically expedient including close relationships with actual Klansmen and referring to an integrated America as a racial jungle. “Biden is a worthy antidote to Trump’s unbounded narcissism and chronic chaos,” according to USA Today. The Washington Post claimed, “Mr. Biden is almost uniquely positioned for the moment. He would restore decency, honor and competence to America’s government.” The Los Angeles Times had it, “Trump’s record easily justifies a position of ‘Anybody but Trump.’ But Biden isn’t just preferable to Trump; in many respects he is Trump’s antithesis.” Rolling Stone put it this way, “The 2020 election, then, offers the nation a chance to reboot and rebuild from the racist, authoritarian, know-nothing wreckage wrought by the 45th president. And there are few Americans better suited to the challenge than Joe Biden.” The Boston Globe and Chicago Tribune, meanwhile, took a slightly different tack, “The fact that Biden is not an ideological firebrand, and is thought unlikely to pursue reelection in 2024 if he wins this November [little did we know], augurs well for the central challenge that will confront the next president: how to repair the damage from Trump’s four years” and “By endorsing Joe Biden, we are emphasizing that there is value in electing a president of the United States who does not engage with others with petulance. There is value in electing a president who does not insult, mock or demean. Our country can and must do better.” Perhaps The Seattle Times had it best, “Biden can fix this mess.”
Back in the real world, President Biden’s entire presidency was an outrage predicated on a cover up of his mental state that began less than a year after he took office. Despite any and all claims of his success or how he’s delivered a farewell address worthy of Washington himself, selflessly sacrificing his own power for the sake of big-D Democracy, he is the first sitting president in United States history to be defeated before the actual election after winning the primary, an almost impossible achievement to even consider. Putting this another way, no President has ever failed in such a spectacular fashion, unable to even make it to the general election, but rather than exhibiting the slightest bit of self awareness or reflection in the wake of this self inflicted disaster, Democrats and the mainstream media immediately, as in less than a few hours after President Biden withdrew from the race, began the exact same false reimagining of Vice President Kamala Harris. Forget Biden and everything we said about him, she is now the savior we’ve all been waiting for, political and otherwise, but rather incredibly if you ask me, her track record in the 2020 Democrat primary, the last time she has campaigned or had the potential to face living and breathing voters of any kind, was even worse than President Biden’s. Despite launching her effort with no shortage of fanfare, considered a top tier candidate by the supposed experts who claim to have a clue, she didn’t even make it to the Iowa caucuses, earning not a single, solitary vote from her own party. Instead, a combination of positions too radically progressive for even Democrats, mismanagement of her campaign, a lack of an ability to connect with voters, and no skill in public or media relations beyond delivering highly scripted speeches, caused her to drop out of the race on December 3, 2019. As NPR described it at the time, “Harris’ departure, two months before voting and caucusing begin in the presidential contest, marks an abrupt end to a campaign that, for much of the winter and spring, looked like that of a top-tier presidential contender…Harris kicked off her campaign in front of 20,000 supporters in Oakland, Calif., and consistently drew large crowds in Iowa, South Carolina, and other early primary states. She was among the top tier of candidates in both polling and fundraising and briefly surged toward the very top of the field shortly after the first presidential debate, when she confronted former Vice President Joe Biden about his early opposition to federal busing policies. But that exchange was a high-water mark of sorts for her campaign, and as Harris dropped in the polls over the summer and fall, she had to lay off campaign staff and all but shutter operations in New Hampshire, and she struggled to raise money from donors.” To put this collapse in perspective, Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Mayor Pete Buttitgieg, Senator Amy Klobachar, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, billionaire Michael Bloomberg, and fellow billionaire Tom Steyer all outlasted her, earning a minimum of 260,481 votes more than her, and with the exception of Mr. Steyer, an actual delegate.
After such a pathetic showing, Vice President Harris would likely have disappeared from any and all lists of viable presidential candidates, but then-candidate Joe Biden pledged to pick a running mate that was a woman of color, quite literally plucking her from the absolute bottom of the barrel and elevating her far beyond her own talent was capable. We know definitively that this is true because of how she performed once she was given the chance of a lifetime. As Vice President, she has not a single accomplishment to her credit, was regularly sidelined and hidden by President Biden himself except to speak on abortion issues, has developed a notorious reputation for managing her staff poorly, complete with massive turnover and infighting, and has “earned” an approval rating even lower than President Joe Biden himself. Her performance overall has been so terrible that even the mainstream media cannot identify a single positive thing to her credit in over three and half years in office, making excuses rather than listing accomplishments. For example, The Week recently offered this as a way to rationalize her complete failure to do anything meaningful, “It’s not uncommon for the second-in-command to struggle to prove themselves in a role largely defined by behind-the-scenes work.” The New York Times said much the same, claiming “many of her predecessors have labored to make themselves relevant, as well.” The Week, to its rather pathetic credit, continued to try and find something meaningful outside of abortion rights, where even then she produced nothing but political invective. On the border, “Biden tapped Harris in the early months of their term to spearhead efforts to address the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border. It took her months to make her first and only visit to the area, and the delay elicited backlash from lawmakers on both sides. Her trip to Guatemala and Mexico was ultimately overshadowed by an interview with Lester Holt of NBC News where she ‘awkwardly downplayed the urgency’ of the visit, The Washington Post said. Since then, Harris has borne the brunt of the criticism from Republicans as the border crisis worsens; Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) sent multiple buses of asylum seekers from the border to the VP’s home in protest.” On voting rights, where she was supposed to pass a major Democrat-friendly reform, but failed to get the votes, “Harris’ work leading up to the stalled legislation became ‘a microcosm of her stint as vice president: one defined by sharp moments, mishaps, public drama, private work and a touch of bad political luck,’ Daniels [Eugene Daniels, an writer for Politico] said..” In other words, out of three major issues, Vice President Kamala Harris succeeded in nothing except being a demagogue.
Once again, everyone knows this. It’s why most of the talk about whether President Biden should withdraw from the race included an aside about what to do with Vice President Harris if that should happen. Is it possible she could be passed over somehow? The answer was no, primarily because of name recognition and her intersectionality protected status. Therefore, she had to be completely remade, downright deified, to have any chance of defeating former President Donald Trump. This remaking has taken three forms so far. First, every one of her previously radical positions has been completely forgotten, from proudly supporting a bill to ban all private health insurance to vowing to end the use of any and all fossil fuels with forcibly taking away guns from legal owners in between, even recommending changing dietary guidelines to eliminate red meat to save the planet. No, none of that matters, she’s some kind of moderate now. Second, her failures in the Biden Administration have been erased. Although everyone and anyone referred to Vice President Harris as the “border czar” after President Biden put her in charge of stemming the influx of illegal aliens and addressing “root causes” in South America, the media is now pretending that simply didn’t happen. She wasn’t, you see, the border czar at all. Axios, for example, recently claimed that was never her title, writing “The Trump campaign and Republicans have tagged Harris repeatedly with the ‘border czar’ title — which she never actually had” – after using that very title to describe her themselves, as in “Harris has been appointed as border czar” in their own previous coverage. Likewise, Ron Filipkowski, claimed this 2021 headline from Axios was false at the time, but footage promptly emerged of him referring to the Vice President as the “border czar” himself. The border isn’t all their willing to lie about, either. CBS News Minnesota is claiming she didn’t raise money for the Minnesota Freedom Fund to bail out rioters, when her own X page still has the post and their own reporters asked her about it. Third, she’s been magically transformed into a political superstar, giving pundits “chills” in the second coming of Barack Obama. After an appearance at her new campaign headquarters on Monday, MSNBC pundit Donny Deutsch claimed, “There was a twinkle in her eye. There was a kick in her step that, you know, when you’re vice president…you’re not loose. There’s somebody above you, somebody you don’t want to overshadow them. And this was quite the coming out. I got chills when she said, ‘Donald Trump: I know your type.’ That was like, ‘Wow, she’s going to prosecute this case.’ And I was blown away. I was, like, I kind of fell in love with her. I thought she was smart, engaging. She’s funny, feisty, twinkle in your eye, punch you in the gut. I mean, everything you kind of want. And I just thought it was a great, great opening act.” “Bear with me, I’m jumping out of my seat over here watching this. People have been thirsting for this,” The Bulwark podcast host Tim Miller gushed. Another MSNBC guest, Maya Wiley agreed, “I’m with Tim – Tim, I’m jumping out of my seat higher than you, my brother. I’m just going to say that.”
Even supposedly more sensible outlets like CNN were all in on Vice President Harris, as were many on social media posting the ridiculous memes imaginable, clapping like trained seals. On Monday, Stephen Collinson claimed “Harris gets a dream start,” insisting “Kamala Harris has aced her moment. So far,” even though she hadn’t done a damn thing. Something tells me the lady doth protest too much methinks as the mainstream media repeats the very same mistakes and lies that got us into the Biden mess in the first place, but one way or another, the voters will decide in November, and if the recent polling is any indication, former President Donald Trump still seems poised for the most epic political comeback in history, whatever the pundits may claim.
Confessions of a Conservative Atheist 