I mean, I'm not in love with the ex-cop who was chosen to be VP because she was the only Democrat more conservative than Biden, but this has more to do with Trump's ideological inconsistency than Kamala Harris's.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 72 points 3 months ago (1 children)

she was the only Democrat more conservative than Biden

You can talk a lot of shit about Kamala, but she's proven time and again to be a standard-issue California liberal Democrat. She's right in line with Gruesome Newsome, Eric Adams, and Tim Kaine. If you want to see what a conservative dem looks like, check out Joe Manchin as he tries to weasel his way back into the party before the convention. Or Michael Bloomberg, the guy who was hosting the fucking RNC in New York and glad-handing Bush Jr back in 2004. Or Andrew Yang, a man who never saw a crypto-scam he wouldn't shill for.

If you've got beef with Kamala, you've got beef with the mainstream liberalism of the Democratic Party. And that's fine.

Trump’s ideological inconsistency

One of the reasons Trump was able to move so fluidly between mid-'00s New York Democrats and mid-'10s South Carolina Republicans stems from the fact that America is choke full of fascists. I don't find his ideology to be particularly inconsistent. The dude's always had a hard-on for Mussolini and a hate-on for anyone browner than milk. What's benefited him is a mass media that fixates on his wealth and treats him like a celebrity, while providing zero resistence to his endless lying and bullying.

[–] zephr_c@lemm.ee 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Sorry, I should have been more specific. I meant the only Democratic candidate in the 2020 primaries that was more conservative than Biden. I agree they're both very mainstream middle of the road liberals. That was me not being careful with my language.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 21 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

the only Democratic candidate in the 2020 primaries that was more conservative than Biden

Tim Ryan, Steve Bullock, and John Delaney were more conservative in every meaningful respect. You can blame that on their constituencies (although Delaney really has no excuse - the man's just a corporate freak) but they're all both more economically and socially to the right on the generic basket of liberal policies. And none of them are going to lose to Copmala in a cop-loving contest. It will, at best, be a photo finish.

That's before you get to the Bloomberg or Tulsi Gabbard, and they're not even cops. Just straight up fascists.

[–] zephr_c@lemm.ee 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Oh god, I had somehow blocked Bloomberg and Tulsi Gabbard out of my brain. Yeah, that was a pretty big oversight on my part. And yeah, I wasn't counting the other people who dropped out before the primaries got started, which is kind of unfair. Fine. She's just a Democrat that's slightly more conservative than Biden. Are you happy now?

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

She’s just a Democrat that’s slightly more conservative than Biden. Are you happy now?

No. Because her voting history and her time as AG simply don't reflect that. Whatever you might say about Harris, Biden quite literally wrote the laws and funneled money into the agencies that let her chase around the poor and defenseless. In a different world, where a more Kennedy/LBJ-esque figure was in Biden's seat, Harris would have been granted a completely different mandate and toolkit and would have looked comparatively progressive as a result.

That's before you get into the real awful shit Biden passed as Senator that Harris has (without much conviction) opposed. She's been a vote for de-militarization in Iraq/Afghanistan, for decriminalization of a host of drugs, and for expanded public spending in health care and education in a way Biden simply hasn't.

She still sucks for a host of reasons. But to claim she's "more conservative than Biden" ignores Biden's entire time in the Senate under Bush and Kamala's entire time in the Senate under Trump.

[–] zephr_c@lemm.ee 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Pfft. The idea that Kamala Harris wouldn't have voted the same way as Biden on Iraq and Afganistan if she had been in Congress back in 2001 is so naive that I can't even take anything else you said seriously. That is hilarious.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

The idea that Kamala Harris wouldn’t have voted the same way as Biden on Iraq and Afganistan

The AUMF of 2001 (Afghanistan) passed the Senate 98-0 with two abstentions from Senators Larry Craig, R-ID, and Jesse Helms, R-NC. Every Senate Dem supported it.

The 2002 extension passed 77-23 with the California Senate delegation splitting (Feinstein for, Boxer against). Harder to say what Kamala would have done here, but she had ample room to reject the legislation without fearing it would fail.

Regardless, it has been freely utilized and repeatedly defended by both parties with every new NDAA, excepting a failed repeal effort by the Senate in 2023 which Kamala endorsed to no ultimate effect.

I can’t even take anything else you said seriously

That's going to require some actual knowledge of history and the state of the party past and present.

If you're just running on vibes, idk what to tell you.

[–] imPastaSyndrome@lemm.ee 3 points 3 months ago

Also just fucking insane

[–] Cleverdawny@lemm.ee 9 points 3 months ago (2 children)

because she was the only Democrat more conservative than Biden

Biden is a middle of the road Democrat. I could probably come up with 200 or so living Democrats with experience as a state governor or a federal representative more conservative than him. Any member of the Blue Dog Caucus, for instance.

Harris is also middle of the road

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

Biden is a middle of the road Democrat.

Biden only wasn't in the Blue Dog caucus because he was a Senator and that caucus was for House Reps. He's been an annoying "compromise" vote since the Reagan Era, and played a big role in defanging Dem efforts to filibuster GOP SCOTUS nominees during Reagan, Bush Sr, and Bush Jr. He's also the author of a host of truly awful legislation - the '94 Crime Bill, the '96 Telecom Act, and the '02 Patriot Act just to name a few.

Harris hasn't been around nearly long enough to get her hands dirty. And where she has voted, she's been slightly to the left of the center of the pack (of consistently right-leaning Senate Democrats). That puts her conservative relative to the median voting Democrat but progressive relative to the median elected Democrat.