Kamala Harris Deserved Better - Lincoln Square

[GigiLeigh]

The former VP became the fall guy for everyone else’s cowardice.
Kristoffer Ealy

Snip

Let’s be clear: Kamala Harris is a winner, even if the 2024 election didn’t go her way. She won when she became the first Black woman and first South Asian woman to be elected San Francisco D.A. She won when she became the first woman, Black person, and South Asian to serve as Attorney General of California. She won when she beat a crowded field to become a U.S. Senator — and then made history again as Vice President. California doesn’t hand out participation trophies. You don’t rise through the cutthroat hellscape of Golden State politics without grit, smarts, and strategy. And as CalMatters lays out, she made tangible contributions to that state — on consumer protection, criminal justice reform, cybersecurity, and more.

But folks want to pretend like she just lucked into every job she ever had. As if she didn’t battle the same system that would’ve eaten a less agile politician alive. You want to talk about courage? Try campaigning for the highest office in a country where tens of millions of people looked at Donald Trump — after the coups, the cages, and the classified documents — and said, “Yup, give me another four years of that.” That’s the reality Harris faced.

Snip

And here’s the part nobody likes to admit: If that transition had happened — if Biden had passed the baton through circumstance instead of choice — Harris would’ve been in a position to lead with clarity, not campaigning. There would’ve been no primary bloodbath, no George Clooney fan fiction, no split-the-vote speculation. Just a new president, already in office, tasked with doing the job. And from everything we know about her — her record in California, her Senate performance, her global diplomacy as VP — she could’ve done it. She would’ve risen to the occasion. Because that’s what she’s always done.

She didn’t fail the country. The country, once again, failed someone who dared to lead it while Black, while female, and while not asking for permission first.

Harris did the best she could with what the Democrats gave her — and frankly, she deserved better.

https://www.lincolnsquare.media/p/kamala-harris-deserved-better