Kamala Harris a Moderate? by Marc A. Thiessen

Political Crossfire Kamala Harris a Moderate?

By Marc A. Thiessen

In case you haven’t noticed, there is a not-so-subtle campaign afoot to paint Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., as a centrist – an effort that exposes the left’s strategy to fool the American people into giving them political power in November.

After presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden announced Harris as his running mate, the New York Times immediately declared her a “pragmatic moderate,” the Los Angeles Times called her a “centrist” and ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos told his viewers, “Kamala Harris comes from the middle of the road, moderate wing of the Democratic Party.”

No, she doesn’t. Harris was the “most liberal compared to all senators” in 2019 according to GovTrack, the nonpartisan government transparency watchdog – to the left of even her democratic-socialist colleague, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Harris wasn’t “pragmatic” either. GovTrack found she “joined bipartisan bills the least often compared to Senate Democrats.” According to Manhattan Institute budget expert Brian Riedl, Harris has proposed a mind-numbing $46 trillion in new spending over the next decade. She supports the economically ruinous Green New Deal, Medicare-for-all and free taxpayer funded health care for undocumented immigrants. She is also an abortion zealot who has suggested that a faithful Catholic who belongs to the Knights of Columbus is unfit to serve as a federal judge. She opposes deportation of those who illegally enter the United States and once compared Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to the Ku Klux Klan.

If Harris really were a moderate, progressives would be up in arms over her choice. But they are not. Leftists understand that, to win in November, they must be able to peel away reluctant Trump voters in key swing states who are uncomfortable with the leftward lurch of today’s Democratic Party. These voters need to believe that a Biden-Harris administration will be centrist and reasonable, so they can give themselves permission to defect and vote Democrats into power. So progressives and their allies in the mainstream media have tried to portray Biden’s choice of Harris as another example of how he has kept the left at arm’s length.

Progressives know it is a lie. Congressional Progressive Caucus cochair Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., recently said the left need not worry about Biden’s moderate veneer because “he is movable.” As she told “The Daily Show” host Trevor Noah, “As soon as we get him in the White House, and even before with these task forces that we had, we were able to significantly push Joe Biden to do things that he hadn’t signed on to before.”

The left sees Biden as their Trojan horse. They want voters to look at his inoffensive, moderate, bipartisan exterior and decide it is safe to let him inside the White House gates. But as soon as they do, an army of socialists

The left sees Biden as their Trojan horse.

will rush out – led by Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. – to impose a radical progressive agenda on America.

They have every reason to believe that will happen, because Biden has already given in to their demands. For more than 40 years, Biden supported the Hyde Amendment, which bars federal funding for abortions, even writing a constituent to say, “Those of us who are opposed to abortion should not be compelled to pay for them.” When he reiterated his support for the Hyde Amendment last year during the presidential primaries, he was chastised by none other than Harris, who declared, “No woman’s access to reproductive health care should be based on how much money she has. We must repeal the Hyde Amendment.” Biden quickly surrendered to Harris and the party’s pro-abortion radicals.

If Biden will capitulate to his party’s left wing on a fundamental moral question like abortion, what makes anyone think he won’t do the same when it comes to Medicare-for-all or the Green New Deal? Most candidates tack to the center after securing their party’s nomination, but Biden has already gone to the left, forging a “unity platform” with Sanders. The platform was a wink and a nod to democratic socialists – embracing a number of their demands and promising to “study” others once Biden is in the White House.

The left got the message: Once the election is over, Biden will move even further in their direction. Besides, progressives in Congress believe that they will be setting the agenda anyway, and Biden’s job will be to autopen whatever they pass and put on his desk. What is he going to do, stand with Republicans and veto their legislation? Progressives are more than comfortable spreading the myth of moderation, while they hide inside the belly of the Democratic ticket waiting for voters to open the White House gates.

Follow Marc A. Thiessen on Twitter @marcthiessen