Voters Should Cut Harris Some Slack

It has been irritating to listen to voters interviewed about their reactions to Tuesday’s debate who complain about what Kamala Harris didn’t say or do. She didn’t address their favorite issue or didn’t say enough about it. Or she didn’t completely explain a policy in which they are interested. Or she failed to implement her ideas in three-and-a-half years in office. Or a Harris administration would just be a continuation of the Biden administration.

Well, she only got two minutes at a time to talk and was (unlike Donald Trump) somewhat constrained by what she was asked by the moderators. (She was also constrained by reality. But I digress.) As for her failure to implement her policies before now, one has to acknowledge that she has only been vice president. Her job has been to support the man on top. Although I suspect that she approved of President Biden’s actions more often than not, when she disagreed, her job was to keep her mouth shut. Continuing the policies of the Biden administration would not be a totally bad thing, though any administration can be improved. A vice president running for president has to walk a narrow path, however, and there is little to be gained by criticizing the job of her boss.

Harris needs to be cut some slack; she hasn’t been running for president very long. Trump, on the other hand, was been at it for quite some time and still seems like a total incompetent. He thinks he was the greatest president ever, but presidential historians rate him as one of the worst. Harris skeptics should listen to a recent New York Times opinion piece. Binyamin Appelbaum says that Harris “may make things better,” but Trump “is pretty certain to make things worse.”

Harris may not be perfect, but she is infinitely better than the alternative.