Kamala Harris, in contrast to Donald Trump, is an honest, decent, normal person. She is empathetic and compassionate. She cares about others and tries to draw out the best in them. She has a sparkle in her eye and a dance in her step. She radiates joy and hope. As human beings, there is simply no comparison.
However, Kamala Harris is also part of the (Democratic Party) political establishment of this country, and that’s who she represents. However much she may care about ordinary people and their difficulties, she is beholden to wealthy donors and big corporations who fund her, advise her and frame her actual policies.
Kamala Harris is never going to veer to any significant degree from the long-standing policies of Joe Biden, Barack Obama or Bill Clinton, who have delivered some important steps forward in terms of health care, equal marriage, gun control measures and so on, but who have also given us never-ending wars, unbelievably bloated military budgets and increasing levels of inequality and racial injustice in this country.
Where does Kamala Harris stand on the two existential threats facing us today?
Climate
The Biden Administration gave us hope that things would change, but is not doing nearly enough to prevent climate catastrophe.
Kamala Harris, as Biden’s Vice President, presided over some important pieces of legislation that include huge investments in clean energy and other steps towards address the climate crisis. But these fall far short of what is needed, and include some backward steps that not even Trump was able to accomplish. These include:
- Increased drilling for oil and gas on federal lands and off-shore, including on protected wildlife refuges.
- Increased fracking and pipeline construction across the country. Kamala Harris had previously supported a ban on fracking, but has retracted that position.
- Increased subsidies for the fossil fuel industry, including efforts to revive the coal industry.
- Reduction of subsidies and incentives for solar and wind projects, electric cars, battery storage and clean energy research.
- Further lowering and elimination of emission standards for cars, power plants and industry.
- Increasing, instead of decreasing, carbon emissions from the U.S.
- Meager assistance in helping less wealthy countries to make the necessary changes to address climate change.
Kamala Harris has backtracked on her opposition to fracking and her support for a Green New Deal. She has called the Inflation Reduction Act a “once-in-a-generation” piece of legislation, implying that she would not try to go further than that during her Presidency.
As yet, Kamala Harris has not talked much about climate and there is no evidence that she would depart significantly from the approach of the current Biden Administration, which is too little, too late, and not nearly enough…
Nuclear weapons
Biden signed an extension to the NewSTART Treaty on his first day in office, but has done literally nothing else to lessen the danger of nuclear war since then. Harris has been at least as bellicose about Russia as Biden, and so far shows no signs of being interested in seriously addressing the nuclear threat.
We have survived this far without a nuclear war by luck and for no other reason. Sooner or later, our luck is going to run out. But instead of seriously addressing this existential threat to humanity, Kamala Harris has been part of an Administration that has recklessly pursued policies which risk:
- Increasing chance of war with Iran, which could end up involving the use of nuclear weapons, engulf the whole Middle East region and lead to global repercussions.
- Increasing chance of war with North Korea, which would almost certainly involve nuclear weapons, cause huge casualties and destruction not only in North Korea but also in South Korea and Japan.
- Deployment of formerly banned missiles back in Europe, which could lead to a huge back-lash in Europe and the break-up of NATO.
- Nuclear arms race with Russia, costing trillions more than the trillions already allocated for nuclear weapons development.
- Increasing risk of nuclear launch by accident or miscalculation, with the “doomsday clock” moving closer and closer to midnight.
- Increasing risk of nuclear confrontation with China.
- Risking collapse of the global non-proliferation regime, leading to more countries deciding to develop their own nuclear weapons.