Jim Geraghty of National Review Online probes one positive aspect of the vice president’s failures.
The Daily Beast checks in with the “#KHive,” ardent supporters of Kamala Harris during the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, who are adjusting to the hard reality of watching Harris’s underwhelming performance as vice president:
One self-described former member of the #KHive, who requested to speak anonymously so as not to alienate themselves from friends made through the movement. “I was obsessed with the idea of this person who could undo the systemic, the systematic racism and sexism and heterosexism in government with one fell swoop, and now I’m thinking to myself, did I just make up a person in my head who could do those things?”
Yes. Yes, you did, and good for you for recognizing that you built up Kamala Harris into an unreal image that no flesh-and-blood human being could fulfill. I won’t even get into my usual spiel that Harris was an unaccomplished first-term senator and prosecutor whose record was primarily a wide-ranging effort to expand police powers. Just recognize that in political leadership and running the U.S. government, it is as silly to look for a woman on a white horse as it is to look for “a man on a white horse,” the perfect, all-knowing, all-wise, visionary leader who will put everything right. We’re not electing a messiah; we’re selecting a temp worker for four years with an option for four more.
Many Americans greeted the arrival of Barack Obama with the same near-religious fervor, and no doubt there are more than a few Donald Trump supporters who see him in near-messianic terms. … Almost every presidential candidate makes bold promises, shrugging off the proven difficulties of getting Congress to pass sweeping legislation. The checks and balances laid out in our Constitution are designed to prevent a new president from stepping into office and quickly enacting sweeping changes.
