Radical Progressives Pressure Kamala Harris to Remain Firmly on the Left on Major Issues Wendell Husebø 5 Aug 2024
The left heaped pressure on Vice President Kamala Harris over the weekend to stand firm in her radical positions on major legislative issues.
The radicalized wing of the Democrat party appears to be concerned about Harris’s seeming pivot to the middle. Last week, anonymous Harris campaign sources tried to walk back at least four far-left policies that Harris supported, outlined here.
Harris, as the most far-left U.S. senator in 2019, according to GovTrack’s scorecard, must wrangle with her radical allies as she seeks to win independent voters in the so-called Blue Wall states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. The left, however, remains adamant that Harris must carry its agenda into the general election, causing further division within the party amid running mate considerations.
Politico Playbook reported the infighting on Monday:
Harris has been able to keep a low profile on many issues that cleave Democrats. But in the short period it took for her to lock down the party’s presidential nomination, she has already staked out positions on a pair of key issues — climate and abortion policy — that buck progressives who hoped she would go further than President Joe Biden.
Harris is also facing pressure from the left to maintain — or surpass — Biden’s regulatory offensive on “corporate greed” and antitrust policies while business groups and moderate Democrats want a friendlier approach across economic issues, including cryptocurrency.
It’s a friction Democrats are eager to avoid airing in public after weeks of infighting over Biden’s fate and almost certainly part of the calculus in picking a No. 2 in the next few days.
The vice president is trying to straddle both her radical left allies and a political tact to the middle, a risky strategy that might explode when she selects a running mate the left opposes, such as Gov. Josh Shapiro. “[Harris] believes real leadership means bringing all sides together to build consensus,” a Harris campaign spokesperson told Playbook in a statement.
It remains unclear if consensus can be reached on the plethora of radical issues the left insists Harris must champion. Those positions include:
Making abortion a federal issue
Banning fracking
Continuing the war on American energy
Increasing red tape through by empowering the administrative state
Sympathizing with pro-Hamas protesters against Israel
Enacting socialized medicine
Expanding taxpayer-funded housing
Making college free
Doubling down on Bidenomicsmore
https://www.breitbart.com/2024-election/2024/08/05/radical-progressives-pressure-harris-remain-firmly-left-major-issues/
