What Drives Kamala Harris: The Art of the Possible

The New York Times ^ | Aug. 22, 2024Updated 3:20 p.m. ET | Lisa Lerer, Erica L. Green and Zolan Kanno-Youngs

[E. Pluribus Unum]

In 2005, one year into her job as San Francisco district attorney, Kamala Harris was showing a new hire around the office.

Ms. Harris had recruited Lateefah Simon, a 28-year-old racial justice activist, to lead a new program aimed at keeping first-time drug offenders out of jail. As the two women walked the halls, they stopped in front of a wall lined with photographs of Ms. Harris’s predecessors — all of them white men.

“The expectation of our community is that I’m going to fix all the havoc,” Ms. Harris said, according to Ms. Simon’s recollection. “They’re going to want me to fix all the racism, all the dysfunction, in the next four years.”

But in reality, Ms. Harris said, change will happen “bit by bit.”

The comment underscored the political philosophy that has guided Ms. Harris’s style of governance for decades. It is among the more striking contradictions of Ms. Harris’s candidacy: While she would bring about historic change if elected, as the first woman, the first Asian American and the second Black person to hold the office, she is not offering sweeping change in policy. She is at heart an institutionalist, defined by a deliberate style, focused on granular impacts over broad society shifts.

It’s an approach that diverges from those of previous leaders who have captured the imaginations of the Democratic Party. President Barack Obama presented Americans with a hopeful vision that promised to heal some of the nation’s deepest racial, geographic and partisan divides. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont electrified Democrats with his populist calls for structural change and major economic reform. And President Biden promised to “restore the soul” of a nation fractured by the chaos of his predecessor’s administration.

[BigFreakinToad]

Kind of like Barney the dinosaur’s “imagination”

[goodnesswins]

Ya know.
.you do not HAVE to read the threads...sheesh.

[Bookshelf]

Very true. But there are always suckers who do.

[kawhill]

After reading this I’ve finally made up my mind about who I’m going to vote for to be POTUS: I’m going to vote for Carl Spackler, the assistant greenskeeper at Bushwood Country Club. He told me that the Dali Lama told him that on my deathbed I would receive total consciousness, which is nice, so I have that going for me. He also said he created a hybrid of kentucky bluegrass, seaside bent and northern california sensimilla. The beauty of that stuff he said is that you can play 27 holes on it in the afternoon and that night just get stoned to the bejesus belt. He did say it was a little harsh though.