Kamala Harris is back

Addressing a ballroom filled with Democratic supporters and donors in San Francisco last night, Kamala Harris asked a favor from her audience. “Please allow me, friends, to digress for a moment,” she asked with a slightly mischievous grin. 

Hallelujah. Here we go:

OK, it’s kinda dark in here, but I’m gonna ask for a show of hands. Who saw that video from a couple of weeks ago, the one of the elephants at the San Diego zoo during the earthquake? Google it if you haven’t seen it. So that scene [has] been on my mind. Everyone’s asking “what’ve you been thinking about these days”… here those elephants were, and as soon as they felt the earth shaking beneath their feet, they got in a circle, and stood next to each other, to protect the most vulnerable. Think about it. What a powerful metaphor.

It was perfect, really. A throwback to her greatest hits: the random story, the word salad, the platitudes void of any substance. Something about it felt so familiar, so vapidly joyous. It was, of course, what America could have chosen in last year’s November’s election: nothingness from the Democrat; fury, vengeance, and a little bit of humor from the Republican. Last night’s remarks from the former vice president brought that grim choice back into focus. It also reminded viewers why President Trump won.

Harris was quick to point out that her speech at Emerge’s gala dinner – an organization that supports Democratic women running for public office – happened to “coincide” with the finale of Trump’s first 100 days (back) in the White House. “I’ll leave it to others to give a full accounting,” she insisted, and then went on to use her full speech to account for his actions in office. Her assessment, unsurprisingly, was damning.

“Instead of an administration working to advance America’s highest ideals,” Harris said, “we are witnessing the wholesale abandonment of those ideals.” Her wrap sheet was long. She lambasted the botched tariff announcements as “the greatest man-made economic crisis in modern presidential history.” She noted the threats they pose to the cost of “everyday essentials” for Americans, and their potential to “devastate retirement accounts.” The former VP condemned the belittlement of due process, the disregard for the rule of law and America’s longstanding commitment to “academic independence” and free speech. 

It was a strange event to witness. In some ways, her denouncements of the President were a glimpse into the arguments Democrats could be making right now, if they could pull some semblance of an act together. Plenty of her points stand a chance of resonating, as Trump’s polling figures slide and even parts of the Republican party start to ask if the President is really delivering exactly what his base voted for. 

And yet these points didn’t land as Harris delivered them. That’s, in part, because she’s never managed to end on a high note. “Let us not be duped into thinking everything is chaos,” she said, in a bid to offer some hope. “I know it may feel that way. But understand what we are in fact witnessing is a high velocity event, where a vessel is being used for the swift implementation of an agenda that has been decades in the making.” Silence, with a scatter of claps, swept over the audience. Not even her biggest fans and supporters could pretend they had a clue what she meant.

But there are far more serious issues at play, too. Given the Democratic party’s recent history on these issues, it’s hard to point fingers so soon. How can Harris credibly bash the President for higher prices, having overseen close to double-digit inflation herself? Is she really in a strong position to talk about truth or honesty, when she was deputy to a President whose mental acuity was covered up for years? Harris didn’t elaborate on any of the criticisms she voiced. Just like on the campaign trail, it was as though solutions could not be discussed. The only theme was: Trump bad. It won over the Emerge crowd. It will resonate with the Democratic grassroots no doubt. But just as it wasn’t enough to win the election, it’s not enough to dramatically change the current political trajectory. The party needs to offer something more.

Republicans shouldn’t get too comfortable having watched her speech: the talking points and legitimate criticisms are there; Harris is simply not the right person to be pushing them. It’s unclear if her party knows this yet. Delivering the speech in San Francisco, Harris repeatedly said how good it was to “be home” – pouring petrol on speculation that she is considering a run for governor in California. What started as a pointed joke on the part of Republicans – that the Democrats would see Harris as the solution to one of their most problematic states – seems to be morphing closer to reality by the day. 

If the Democrats are serious about their midterm prospects, certain delusions will need to be stamped out soon: mainly, that Americans were at all pleased with their politics and governance over the past four years. “Straight talk,” Harris told the audience tonight. “Things are probably going to get worse before they get better.” That might be true for Trump, and for America. It’s almost certainly true for her own party’s prospects.