Why is Kamala Harris disliked so much as VP?
Why is Kamala Harris disliked so much as VP?
Just under half, 49%, of registered voters have a negative view of the vice president.
She has some criticisms for her past as an attorney, but I’m not sure why she’s so disliked now. What has she done to engender such distaste from the public?
She's a racist, classist noeliberal and a fucking cop (or close enough).
Her political career has been chock-full of attacking public institutions like schools, protecting white-collar crime which destroyed countless lives, protecting child molesters in the church, implementing policy against the poor, and protecting prison slavery. I'm not sure where exactly the confusion lies.
[Kept an innocent man on death row] (https://news.yahoo.com/tulsi-gabbard-kamala-harris-record-as-prosecutor-on-marijuana-death-penalty-021423679.html)
[Supported civil asset forfeiture ] (https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/07/jeff-sessions-civil-asset-forfeiture-plan-government-sanctioned-stealing/)
[Arrested the mother of a disabled girl] (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kamala-harris-truancy-arrests-2020-progressive-prosecutor_n_5c995789e4b0f7bfa1b57d2e)
And more I’m sure but she was off my list of potential candidates based on any of these alone
- She's a democrat. that means 42% of the population automatically hate her.
- She's grossly inappropriate and cackles at exactly the wrong time, and that creeps people out.
- She was a "tough on weed" prosecutor who became a bleeding heart liberal overnight when she got her new job. That makes her seem disingenuous.
Just what I've picked up from other people, I have no feelings about her whatsoever.
The single biggest problem standing between the left and sustained and meaningful control of the federal government is the complete lack of ability of voters to circle around a consensus candidate. There are several valid reasons to be critical of Harris just as there are pretty much every single Democratic Presidential decade basically of my lifetime. But Republicans vote consistently for candidates they dislike or even hate just to beat Democrats. Every single candidate for the Democratic nomination in 2016, 2020, and undoubtedly in 2028 will have some vocal subset of registered Democrat voters telling you exactly why they will never in a million years vote for them. I saw it constantly on Reddit and I don't see any reason why it won't continue.
Until somebody drops the magic "consensus candidate" name that somehow pleases everyone, Democratic voters are always going to be a major hurdle to their own success. And frankly I don't think that "consensus candidate" name exists. Such is the curse of being the big tent party opposite the GOP. Republicans know they can continue winning elections for at least a little longer thanks to Democratic infighting alone.
She's not really a good public speaker for one. Not a lot of charm or charisma. She's not good at schmoozing like Bill Clinton or Obama. A good presidential candidate needs that, and I think it's a big part of why Al Gore and Hillary Clinton lost. She can speak well in public sometimes, but at others she sounds flat, boring, and artificial.
Charisma is a big deal. Think about Reagan Democrats and how people to this day love Reagan even though facts and hindsight analysis show that he was a terrible president who was arguably the start of America's modern decline into horrendous oligarchy.
I assume nearly half of the country hates her for being black and/or a woman, while some other large chunk of the country hates her for being "a cop." I think she's fine. She's done the job a hell of a lot better than a whole list of other VPs I could name. And since I'll be voting against Republicans no matter what, if a Biden-Harris ticket is the opposition I'll be checking that box. No problem.
The only thing conservatives hate more than black people having power is black women having power. So, of course conservatives hate her.
Progressives are tired of neo-liberals sucking corporate cock as hard as the republicans. She is a neo-liberal (and thus a diet conservative), so progressives don't like her (or Biden) either.
That really just leaves neo-liberals to actually like her.
For me, it's strictly because of this. I'm not suggesting truancy isn't an issue worth combating, but going at it this way showed a shocking lack of sense - to the degree where I'm not sure I could trust any grown-ass adult who would go along with such an idea for more than 2 minutes.
She's painful to listen to. Can't string a clear sentence together and laughs constantly. Not inspiring or particularly incisive. Which is a particularly disappointing combo when Biden is the same.
She's a right wing authoritarian.
She's just incompetent. Look at some interviews with her, she can't answer basic questions and has done absolutely nothing as a VP. It has nothing to do with her being a woman or black.
Partly because of discrimination, partly because she lacks charisma. There are a substantial number of people that dislike her because she's a black woman and they have biases against both, sometimes without even knowing it. There are also some people on the left that dislike her because she's a moderate liberal that used to be a prosecutor. Honestly she's about standard as vice presidents come, so though I'm farther to the left than her I don't have any strong feelings on her.
She was disliked before she was VP
as you can probably pick up from the responses so far: she gets all of the racism and bigotry you'd expect from being a visible minority public figure and all of the flack you'd expect from her fairly cringeworthy, not great track record as a politician. her core demographic is basically a slice of liberals who don't care that much about politics and enjoys the facade she puts on--and that's a small audience, politically. anyone who examines her track record more deeply will probably find a bone to pick with her, or is likely going to hate her because of her identity.
On the conservative side of the fence, she's black and Indian and most unforgivable of all, a DEMOCRAT!
On the liberal side, she's taken a hard stance on crime, including minor drug offenses that probably shouldn't be crimes.
She's got something for everybody! To hate!This is probably the best breakdown of public perceptions of her record:
A close examination of Harris’s record shows it’s filled with contradictions. She pushed for programs that helped people find jobs instead of putting them in prison, but also fought to keep people in prison even after they were proved innocent. She refused to pursue the death penalty against a man who killed a police officer, but also defended California’s death penalty system in court. She implemented training programs to address police officers’ racial biases, but also resisted calls to get her office to investigate certain police shootings.
But what seem like contradictions may reflect a balancing act. Harris’s parents worked on civil rights causes, and she came from a background well aware of the excesses of the criminal justice system — but in office, she played the role of a prosecutor and California’s lawyer. She started in an era when “tough on crime” politics were popular across party lines — but she rose to national prominence as criminal justice reform started to take off nationally. She had an eye on higher political office as support for criminal justice reform became de rigueur for Democrats — but she still had to work as California’s top law enforcement official.
Her race and gender likely made this balancing act even tougher. In the US, studies have found that more than 90 percent of elected prosecutors are white and more than 80 percent are male. As a Black and Indian American woman, Harris stood out — inviting scrutiny and skepticism, especially by people who may hold racist stereotypes about how Black people view law enforcement or sexist views about whether women are “tough” enough for the job.
Still, the result is the same: As she became more nationally visible, Harris was less known as a progressive prosecutor, as she’d been earlier in her career, and more a reform-lite or even anti-reform attorney general. Now critics have labeled her a “cop” — a sellout for a broken criminal justice system.
Sauce is Vox
I like her well enough. Would love another love affair like the obamas but that might be once in a lifetime kind of thing.
The last four Vice Presidents have been strong enough to be seen as decent contributors to their administrations; Cheney and Biden have both been at the forefront in representing the Executive Branch in sensitive negotiations.
Harris hasn't seemed to be tapped by this administration to perform the same role. Worse, it feels like this administration has intentionally pulled Harris back while putting Buttigieg in roles that would otherwise go to Harris.
Her position will get her attacked, but it feels like she isn't being defended by the Biden Administration for reasons.
I'm not American but I get the impression the left hates her because she's a fairly right wing neoliberal?
When Biden was first elected, I saw one of those "what you order from Wish vs what you get" memes about this.
Had Bernie Sanders & AOC on the "expectation" side and Biden & Harris on the "reality" side.
[Kept an innocent man on death row] (https://news.yahoo.com/tulsi-gabbard-kamala-harris-record-as-prosecutor-on-marijuana-death-penalty-021423679.html)
[Supported civil asset forfeiture ] (https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/07/jeff-sessions-civil-asset-forfeiture-plan-government-sanctioned-stealing/)
[Arrested the mother of a disabled girl] (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kamala-harris-truancy-arrests-2020-progressive-prosecutor_n_5c995789e4b0f7bfa1b57d2e)
And more I’m sure but she was off my list of potential candidates based on any of these alone
Her last name literally means "horrible" in Finnish and from what I've heard that's somewhat accurate
For me, it's this:
[Harris] fought for this law, which raised the financial penalty and made it a criminal misdemeanor for parents, up to a year in jail, when their children missed at least 10 percent of school time.
She is a strong black woman. That is reason enough for people. They will come up with other reasons, just like Hillary. You will hear a lot of “I will vote for a woman. Just not that woman.” Or, “I just don’t like her.” It’s all bullshit. They don’t want to promote a woman.
For those of you who will inevitably downvote me, just ask yourself, do you hate/distrust/dislike Kamala just like you hate/distrust/dislike Hillary? Hmmmmm
Fine with me. Her favorabity is higher then Trump or Biden. So I think your asking a loaded question.
I dont like her because she is a fucking cop.
Former cop and decisions in the past most likely. Some of it could be racial though.