Scripture teaches us when we fight for justice, it is not only our justice, it is justice for our neighbor. pic.twitter.com/d7QZgOgYVv
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) August 25, 2019
I have no trouble finding interesting tweets and articles about Elizabeth Warren — partially as a result of personal bias, I’m sure, but also because she’s a local pol and getting a ton of media coverage, good and bad. But I’d honestly be just as happy to see Sen. Harris as the Democratic nominee, and in the Oval Office. Unfortunately, what my usual reading round turns up on Harris tends to be either press-release-style twitter boosting (which is fine, but not really front-page-worthy in most cases) — or else pundits shaking their heads / fingers about the latest anti-Harris crap that’s floated up from the wingnut welfare outlets, stuff I have no interest in spreading any further.
So — if you’re on Team Kamala, post a link in the comments here, or send me an email at annelaurie dot bj at gmail, okay?
(Same goes for other actual Democratic candidates, of course!)
Kamala Harris on identity politics —>
“And people bring it up in a way that is meant to marginalize sometimes in a way that I believe is meant to say, hush, in a way that sometimes it's meant to say: Shut up.” https://t.co/IRK5cD1ELt
— Deepa Shivaram (@deepa_shivaram) August 25, 2019
KAMALA HARRIS spoke on identity politics tonight at the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People Gala. She says the term is the new way of saying "race card"
She adds when talking about civil rights issues, it's brought as a way meant to marginalize, say hush or "shut up" pic.twitter.com/4aezlEQbmA
— Deepa Shivaram (@deepa_shivaram) August 25, 2019
For more context on the "debate" over identity politics, this article penned by @staceyabrams, who disagrees with Francis Fukayama on the topic, is a really important read.https://t.co/z0QxAMkgQC https://t.co/q78dR2qgF2
— Deepa Shivaram (@deepa_shivaram) August 25, 2019
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
I’ve sent some money into Harris’s campaign, and I have her bumper sticker on my car, but I don’t have any good links. I’ve been kind of out of the loop for the last few months.
Ryan
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): I think that’s because you’re doing it right.
Chetan Murthy
I wrote Fukuyama a (polite) letter about this. The thing I think he doesn’t understand, is really simple and succinct:
Maybe he’s amenable to argument. Who knows.
Peter Desmond
i applaud the cause, and will revisit to collect or leave links.
Mike J
Star Wars content
https://twitter.com/Jemsinger/status/1165993790114541571
Chetan Murthy
@Mike J: I’ll be happy if SPW is our nominee. But that doesn’t mean I won’t shed a tear for Senator Harris. Oh, snif. She’s *such* a happy warrior. Yeah yeah, and she’s also a Californian, and a half-Desi and all that. sure/sure.
Peter Desmond
found a stacey abrams article:
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2019-02-01/stacey-abrams-response-to-francis-fukuyama-identity-politics-article
Chetan Murthy
@Peter Desmond: I did think about “is he any different from Mark Lilla [spit]” but decided that yeah, he is, if only b/c Fukuyama seems to have some body of decent work as a historian. But hey, I could be wrong about that.
Omnes Omnibus
@Chetan Murthy: Lilla has a very good academic reputation. He is just willing to throw whole groups of people under the bus to maintain his white working-class-centric view of liberalism and the Democratic Party.
laura
Here’s a Vox article that mirrors an early article (can’t recall the source) that suggests a careful early primaries ground game: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vox.com/platform/amp/2019/7/15/19154243/kamala-harris-path-democratic-nomination-south-carolina-iowa-nevada-california
Smart, strategic, young, capable, what’s not to like? I’m trying hard to keep an open mind until actual primary season, but she’s my ideal candidate.
Omnes Omnibus
@laura: Young? She’s a couple of months younger than me. And whatever I tell myself, young isn’t really a term that I can honestly use anymore.
Raoul
I saw something in the endless twitter blur this afternoon (from a decently reliable source IIRC) that — if I can paraphrase from memory — that indicated to said elections nerd that Kamala isn’t getting the earned media hits she should be. It had to do with polling bumps she gets after debates. Which this person said suggests she isn’t being read about, seen on cable nooz, etc as much as she should. If people were hearing her more, they’d be sustaining her polling.
One could speculate about all sorts of reasons that might be. But, as with I think others around here and who I follow on the endless twitter blur, I’m leaning Warren but would be happy with Kamala as well (a couple others, too). Signal boosts for her would be a good thing at this point.
Another Scott
Thanks for this topic. I can’t really contribute any on-topic links, but look forward to seeing more. (I get daily+ e-mails from her campaign, but they’ve mainly been fundraisers.)
I was surprised to recently get an e-mail from Gillibrand that opens:
It’s a good letter, and naturally, I agree with her about it. ;-) I hope the other candidates are doing similar things for elections coming up before November 2020, whether or not they make the stage for the next debate.
It’s important to win every election we can.
Cheers,
Scott.
Peter Desmond
@Another Scott:
the idea that candidate Gillibrand would court the Virginia democratic party suggests planning for the convention.
lofgren
RE: Identity politics.
I have previously defined fascism as the belief that:
1. Might makes right
2. Conformity is might
I think the idea that undesirables must be removed flows from these principles. The more cohesive the citizenry are, the more powerful the nation. The more powerful the nation, the more righteous it is. Therefore it is only natural that subversives and outsiders should be removed from the citizenry for the good of the nation.
I see denouncing identity politics as coming from a similar instinct as principle 2. The belief is that if people are talking about being gay, then they must not be thinking about being Americans. As many others have pointed out, White people are the only people who are allowed to be White and ALSO be American. You can be a White, protestant, straight, Republican, male American, but if you identify as gay then that is interpreted as opposition to being an American. Anybody who identifies as Black or gay or Hispanic is by their nature undermining the country in a sense, by asserting an identity that is inherently in conflict with being an American.
What these people seem not to realize is that a person can in fact be gay, Black, AND an American, because we have a different vision of what being an American means. It doesn’t mean we have to choose between all the different identities that we all inhabit all the time. It means that we can be all of those things all the time.
This does not mean that anybody critical of identity politics is a fascist, because most of them lack principle 1. But even if we do not believe that might makes right, it’s fair to be concerned about the health of our nation. These people are often mistaking conformity – a “unified front,” one might say – for actual strength.
Mike in DC
I think Harris very much still has a shot. History suggests voters pay more attention to the primary race after Labor Day. Harris has the numbers to make the third and fourth debates, and even if you raise the standard for the 5th and 6th to 5%, she’d make those too. More strong debate performances will boost her, as will a disciplined and organized approach to the early primary states. She particularly stands to gain if Biden falters, because black voters currently supporting Biden will start to look for a fallback candidate they feel comfortable with. I still believe this will boil down to a 2 way race between Warren and Harris, ultimately.
Chetan Murthy
@lofgren:
I think they’re also mistaking “conformity” for “unity”. I’m cishet male. I cannot understand what women go thru. I cannot understand what queer folk go thru. I’ve never gone thru what my African-American fellow-citizens have gone thru. But I can support them, and I can be united with them. I don’t have to be like them, to be united with them.
microtherion
Her record as a prosecutor is problematic, and it’s not just “wingnut welfare” sources saying so: https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/1/23/18184192/kamala-harris-president-campaign-criminal-justice-record
Basically, Criminal Justice twitter seems rather unenthusiastic about her.
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
Are you younger than Joe Biden or BS or even me? I’d bet you are, just from the years of commenting. Maybe not grand kid younger but definitely younger. And KH is a over a decade and a half younger than me and has a pretty decent record as a prosecutor and attorney general of a not all that small state. You can’t be Mayor Pete young and have a record like that, and that’s not a hit on him, because he is young and if he desires he’ll have a big roll in dem politics for many years.
gwangung
@lofgren:
A FUCKING MEN.
You can be a Yankees fan. AND a Jets fan. AND a University of Michigan fan. AND a SF fan. And black. NONE OF THESE ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE.
But it does mean they really aren’t very observant. Because so-called identity politics are A REACTION to another fore. And whining about “identity politics” conveniently forgets what it’s reacting against…which allow that oppression to continue. It treats symptoms and not the problem.
Chetan Murthy
@gwangung:
I think the RWNJs’ answer to this is along the lines of “you can’t be Latinx and African-American at the same time”, etc, etc. That is, that these identities are in conflict. And for my $$, I think a better response is to acknowledge that, and make it part of our message (because it -is- part of our message). That is,
You can be Black, and support Latinx folks. You can be queer, and support women’s right. You can be Asian and support Black people. Identity politics doesn’t divide these groups. Instead, Identity politics is what unites us, and divides us from white supremacy.
At least, that’s the way I see it. Our diversity is precisely our strength — because we are diverse, not despite it.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ruckus: A couple of observations: Given that Harris’s age is public knowledge and I just said that I was a couple of months older than her, I think you can answer your questions about my age. Also, if you think that there was some kind of criticism of Harris in my comment, you need to a take a couple of steps back. I made an observation. In our society, mid-50s isn’t young. It isn’t old either, except to people like my teen aged nephew and niece (and probably Goku). You don’t need to leap to Harris’s defense because I wasn’t attacking her.
Chyron HR
@microtherion:
Bernie’s a gun-humping white nationalist who was calling himself the chosen one back when Trump was a statistical error in the polls. Your move.
lofgren
@Chetan Murthy: I think the fascist take on actual unity is kind of a fake it ’til you make it approach. If you and I conform enough to imbue us with the strength that comes from it, it doesn’t matter as much if we hate each other’s guts behind the facade. In fact I suspect that they believe that secretly hating each other is humanity’s natural state. (All the more reason to keep up the appearance of unity.)
lofgren
@Omnes Omnibus: In Congress, and more importantly in this presidential race, mid-50s makes you a baby.
zhena gogolia
Sorry this post came in the middle of the night as I was sleeping. I’ve seen numerous great tweets about Kamala Harris, but now the thread is dead.
There’s one where she calls Trump a “puffy fish.” I’ll try to find it after I’ve had breakfast.
Yarrow
You’re probably already doing this, AL, but if not, check out lamh’s Twitter feed. She’s always got great links for Kamala: https://twitter.com/psddluva4evah.