We Need a Problem Solver, Not a Political Symbol
If anyone is making New Year’s resolutions, it ought to be Vice President Kamala Harris.
The time has arrived for her to show governmental competence, policy influence, and the political weight and savvy that so far has eluded most of her public assessments.
Between a pull to prove herself a leader earning respect on her own and the need to be ready if our oldest president should have to step aside, Harris, seemingly a sharp thinker and overall good person, needs to step it up.
It takes little visible leadership if one party has full electoral control of both houses of Congress and a president who commands a bipartisan following. It takes a lot more when those elements are not in place, as we have now. As every vice president has learned, doing so from a number two position that requires public loyalty from the shadows just makes the process harder.
Kamala Harris became vice president among expectations of a strong voice for her liberal views, and a chance to use her evident analytical powers on complicated issues. That frittered among several public embarrassments, including internal staff dissension and perceived ineffectiveness in crafting foreign relations on immigration and building support for legislative goals.
Indeed, at this point, we have seen Harris most successful in casting the essential Senate vote as president of that body to break ties in 26 narrow Democratic policy wins. Maybe that is more time-consuming than we know, but however important to the administration, it seems well short of a substantial role in guiding the nation.
Though she was asked to get at root causes of immigration in talks with Central American and Mexican leaders, little came of it, and there were public botches along the way. Though she grabbed onto the abortion rights restoration issue and voting rights, she has been unable to win needed legislative majorities. Indeed, it seems Joe Biden put himself in the lead immigration chair this week by going to the border, where Harris has not gone.
Her greatest contributions seem as a campaigner, and as spokeswoman for diversity and inclusion in government. Few are hanging on her opinions, and the best we can see is that she is at the side of Joe Biden in most of his public pronouncements.
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What’s Harris Been Doing?
Indeed, as Biden sorts out a campaign for reelection, there is speculation in political circles as to whether Harris will continue as his partner. Despite Biden’s protestations about running for president starting at age 82 in 2024 automatically raises the question of who will step in should Biden die or become too ill to continue effectively.
We’re then right back to an assessment of how Harris is either making herself essential or failing short. Under our rules, the third in line for the presidency in an emergency is the Speaker of the House, a seat only grudgingly and squeakily negotiated for Kevin McCarthy, who opposes for which everything Biden stands – and who stands second in line behind Harris should something happen to the president.
It’s not as if there are not enough public issues on the table for Harris to be able to take a few and run with them.
In the immigration issue she was handed, Harris seemed tentative and ineffective at dealing with regional governments and she, like Biden, has resisted calls to go to the border to help in the humanitarian and security problems that opponents point up daily. The total effect is to persuade us that Harris is dispatched as a political symbol not as problem-solver.
In the Congress and around the country, Harris has proved equally unable to raise the votes to restore abortion rights. pass voting rights, achieve a compromise on policing accountability. She is not the compromise-seeker that Biden wants us to believe he is. After the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Harris crisscrossed the country, visiting local leaders and reproductive rights activists who already agreed with her.
Harris’ polling numbers are not good, either on performance in office or on the prospects ahead.
As The Hill.com notes, as Biden announces his reelection bid, “Harris will need to support him in that effort while making her case that she’s able to step in at a moment’s notice and can follow him to the White House in 2028.” The same theme has been picked up in several media assessments.
Building a Portfolio
At the moment, it is difficult to see Harris’ straight line to success on either count, prompting endless talk about politics and candidates, as if that is the most important issue at hand.
Whatever Harris’ future, we should care more about what the uncertainty for succession means for ours. At the halfway point of her tenure, even some of her supporters acknowledge Harris still lacks a defined portfolio and the influence that comes with it.
In recent interviews, Harris has recommitted to abortion rights restoration efforts as well as work towards helping small businesses get access to capital and the U.S. relationship with Indo-Pacific nations. A recent book about the administration’s first two years includes reported complaints by second gentleman Doug Emhoff about the narrowness of Harris’s policy portfolio.
“She needs to create and demonstrate value not just to Biden but Democrats writ large and for the country,” one political strategist told The Hill. “She needs to go figure out a thorny policy issue . . . something that can be packaged and sold to voters and turned into a narrative.
The political insiders getting quoted suggest that having a one-vote majority in the Senate may free Harris from emergency votes to address wider issues.
Regardless of political realities, the realities of an aging president who wants reelection demands that she accelerate her learning.
