Rejecting the False Choice
Part Six: Kamala Harris's Radical Agenda Will Only Continue to Divide Our Country
When I set out to write this post, I wasn’t sure where I was going to end up. Honestly, I did not know a lot about Kamala Harris’s background. I knew enough about her policy positions, as explained in my previous posts, that I simply could not vote for her. With such a late switch in the primary process, she has also probably had less opportunity to tell her story and present herself than any other major party nominee in the modern era of politics. Nevertheless, since I was analyzing Trump’s character from a non-policy perspective, I felt I should take a closer look at Harris as well.
Her Personal Background is Innocuous Enough
Kamala Harris’s background as a San Francisco District Attorney and California Attorney General is not without its controversy. While there are certainly things to take issue with, including her apparent behind-the-scenes support of policy changes to allow sex change surgeries to California inmates and the typical examples of misapplied prosecutorial discretion, there really are not a lot of controversies in her professional life that expose a lack of personal character. In fact, her earlier background demonstrates a willingness to uphold her professional responsibility to advocate for her client even when doing so contradicted her personal convictions.1
Her personal background has its dubious moments. Chief among those is probably her relationship with two-term mayor of San Francisco Willie Brown in the 1990s. Even though Brown had been “estranged” from his wife for more than ten years, he was still legally married at the time. He was also about 60 years old and she was about 29 at the time. It was Willie Brown who helped Kamala Harris start her political career, appointing her to two state commissions and helping her in her first campaign to be district attorney in San Francisco.
She later married Doug Emhoff, a very high-profile entertainment lawyer for one of the world's largest companies who earned more than $1 million per year and held dozens of investments and stocks. Emhoff’s first marriage ended in divorce. Emhoff has since admitted to an affair with their nanny during that marriage. Reportedly, the nanny became pregnant and may have had an abortion.
Kamala Harris doesn’t speak much of her religious background, but in her 2019 memoir, Harris wrote about her mother’s making sure she was exposed to both Hindu and African American Christian religious traditions, adding that she and her sister, Maya, sang in the choir at 23rd Avenue Church of God in Oakland. She’s a longtime member of San Francisco’s historic Third Baptist Church and has a long-time friendship with its pastor, the Rev. Amos Brown. As vice president, she has attended services at Baptist churches in the Washington, D.C., area and in 2022 spoke at the National Baptist Convention.
In any event, Harris certainly doesn’t come across as a Biblical scholar. She received some scrutiny in September for her reference to the book of “Ecclesiastics.” She isn’t exactly eloquent when she speaks about her faith. Even more concerning, though, is her conflating faith in God with faith in her favored policies. In a pre-recorded video greeting she sent to a Christian conference back in September, she quoted a verse from Luke 1 which is part of Zechariah’s prophecy over his newborn son, John the Baptist, which proclaims that he will “give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” (Luke 1:79) Here’s how Harris used it:
"As the Gospel of Luke tells us, faith has the power to ‘shine a light on those living in darkness’ and to ‘guide our feet in the path of peace,’” she said.
"In moments such as this, faith guides us forward. Faith in the promise of America: freedom, opportunity and justice. Not for some, but for all," Harris added.
What does she put her faith in, exactly? Jesus Christ? America? Or, more specifically, her vision for America? This quote seems to indicate the latter, and it is not unique. I found a transcript of Kamala Harris’s speech at the Sunday morning service of Church of Christian Compassion on October 27. The speech does not mention Jesus’s name. The only reference to scripture is a reference to Ephesians 3:20 which refers to God as “Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.” Rather than referencing the power of God, though, Harris uses the scripture to stress the “power of the people.”
All in all, though, there really isn’t a lot to point to in her background to question her personal character. She seems to be a fairly standard modern-day politician with a rather innocuous background.
Can she be trusted to follow through on campaign promises to promote unity and compromise?
Kamala Harris said a lot of good things in her closing argument speech from the Ellipse at the White House last week:
Our democracy doesn’t require us to agree on everything. That’s not the American way. Just the opposite. We don’t shy away from robust debate. We like a good debate. And the fact that someone disagrees with us, does not make them “the enemy from within”….
It is time to stop pointing fingers and start locking arms. It is time to turn the page on the drama and conflict, the fear and division. It is time for a new generation of leadership in America. And I am ready to offer that leadership as the next President of the United States….
And look, I’ll be honest with you: I’m not perfect. I make mistakes. But here’s what I promise you: I will always listen to you, even if you don’t vote for me. I will always tell you the truth, even if it’s hard to hear. I will work every day to build consensus and reach compromise to get things done. And if you give me the chance to fight on your behalf, there is nothing in the world that will stand in my way.
I would love to believe her words.
Here’s the problem: her track record is one of ideological extremism. Vice President Kamala Harris served in the Senate between 2017 and 2021, providing a legislative record that allows her to be located along the left-right continuum that dominates legislative behavior in the Congress. Based on her roll call voting record, Harris is the second-most liberal Democratic senator to serve in the Senate in the 21st century.
And her campaign has not presented moderate or reasonable solutions to our nation’s problems. I have covered in the other parts of this post series her policy positions on abortion, the economy, foreign policy, and immigration. And, far from telling us the truth that’s hard to hear, she has repeatedly lied about Donald Trump’s position on abortion in order to make him look pro-life when he really isn’t (as I explained in an earlier post).
Sometimes actions speak even louder than words. Kamala Harris had a chance to select a VP candidate in Josh Shapiro, the Governor of Pennsylvania who has a reputation for reaching across the aisle and not alienating his Republican opposition. Instead, Kamala Harris bowed to growing anti-semitic pressure within the party to select Tim Walz, the Governor of Minnesota who had abandoned his moderate persona to become a “progressive champion,” backing numerous extremely liberal measures in his state without any Republican support. Among those measures was one of the most extreme abortion laws in the world and a “trans refuge” law that prohibits the enforcement of a court order that would apply another state’s law to prevent a child from undergoing a sex change operation.
Conclusion
Kamala Harris is a fairly standard politician. Her personal background, though it definitely has some questionable components, is not disqualifying. She seems to have a slight problem with the truth on occasion, but at a level we have, unfortunately, come to expect from politicians. She presents herself as a Christian, but doesn’t necessarily prove herself to be an adept theologian.
She promises to be a leader for the whole country, someone who will work to bring everybody together. Unfortunately, her record is one of extremism. While her personal character does not appear to be demonstrably disqualifying (as I would say is the case with Donald Trump), her policy positions ultimately speak louder.
There is a profound lack of respect for the dignity of life required to hold the extreme pro-abortion positions proudly championed by Kamala Harris. While her economic policies, on their face, appear to be rooted in a sincere attempt to help the poor and working class Americans, they have proven themselves time and again to fail precisely those they are meant to help.
Nothing Kamala Harris did during her term of office in the Senate, her time as Vice President, or during her brief campaign for the Presidency has given any reason to believe that she will actually be a President who builds coalitions and unity. Rather, I fully expect her to continue to be a “happy warrior” for radical leftist ideas that are incredibly destructive and will continue to harm all Americans, including my neighbor.
That’s why, at the end of the day, I cannot vote for Kamala Harris.
For example, Harris’s office actually wrote a memo in support of the California Department of Corrections’ existing policy against inmate sex change surgeries despite her personal opposition to the policy. She also enforced California law regarding capital punishment despite her personal opposition to the death penalty. These actions demonstrate a willingness to enforce the rule of law.