Vice President Kamala Harris sought to rebuild her failing popularity by engaging in a late-night TV softball session with Seth Meyers on his eponymous NBC show. Yet, despite the friendly questions and even more friendly audience, the nation's second-in-command seems unable to make a reconnection with the public. The media may be on Team Harris, but the political right – and increasingly the political left – appears ready to ditch America’s Most Lauded.
Softballs All Around
The main snippet being broadcast worldwide involves the VP expressing her opinion on President Biden’s recent marijuana pardon extravaganza. To rapturous applause, she declared:
"Let me just start with saying this: I strongly believe in, and the majority of Americans agree, nobody should have to go to jail for smoking weed, right?"
And just like that, the whole of TV world seemed to memory hole Harris’ career as California’s attorney general in which she oversaw almost 2,000 convictions for marijuana offenses. Gone are the early controversies of her own admitted pot use whilst incarcerating people for the same crime. And gone is the heavy stench of hypocrisy associated with being the AG and thus responsible for deciding which criminal acts are prosecuted.
It appears that not being Donald Trump or Mike Pence has washed Kamala free of her sins. Shriven through the confessional of late-night television, Harris is born anew with her contentious record in the Golden State, and her less-than-admirable performance as vice president, expunged in the name of popular policy. But is this present admiration just media-generated hype?
Watching the Kamala Numbers…
(Photo by Rick Kern/Getty Images for NARAL Pro-Choice America)
Despite the eager wave of Fourth Estate editorials that greeted the appointment of the first vice president of color, Harris’ popularity among voters has always been an area of concern for those who hoped she would eventually break another glass ceiling. Notwithstanding the gushing testimony from the nation’s media, she has failed to post a positive approval rating in any poll since late June 2021.
In fact, her approval numbers have been underwater for more than a year. This could be due to the unenviable briefs she has been handed, or it could be her own severe failures to communicate in anything more than word salad and tropes. But the reality is that with a popularity deficit of -12.4%, she has managed to outdo even Joe Biden.
While her political associates and news allies are keen to dismiss Harris' unpopularity as either misogyny or racism (or both, if the mood strikes), to be underwater to this extent means that it is not just those evil GOP voters who disapprove. This is a home team hit.
No Forgiveness for Exposing Border Hypocrisy
A curious observer might ask what Harris has done to so offend those Americans who helped her succeed to the second-highest office in the land. The answer may be far deeper than a merely unpromising performance in the role.
Hailed as the “border czar,” Harris was tasked with handling the illegal immigration issue. For the far-left in politics, a broken border appears to be one that stops an influx of migrants or that does not have provisions to deal with an unending flow of people. States and cities across the nation enjoyed four long years of proclaiming themselves “better” than other places by calling out loudly and proudly to any who listen that they were “sanctuaries” for the weary border crosser. In the present age, there is an awful lot of virtue that can be signaled by declaring this status; it means you care more, it means you empathize more and darn it, it just means you’re a better human being than those who insist on closing the border.
But with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sending illegal migrants to self-proclaimed sanctuaries, the reality rubber appears to have hit the sensibility road.
No More Sanctuary
Poor old Martha’s Vineyard managed almost 48 whole hours before shipping 50 migrants off to a nearby army base and calling in the National Guard. New York City declared a state of emergency and appeared to be falling apart at the seams shortly after it was gifted a mere fraction of the incoming that border states receive daily. And what impact has this sudden withdrawal of the welcome mat had on the rest of the “sanctuary nation”?
Places that would previously act so superior in declaring their migrant-friendly status have gone eerily quiet. No more are the claims of “no human is illegal” being chanted from the rooftops. No more are opportunist local politicians saying they embody the spirit of Lady Liberty in welcoming the poor and the hungry. The whole sanctuary city rodeo is collapsing in real time because the person charged with “fixing” the root causes of illegal migration failed to do so in a spectacular and very public manner.
Kamala Harris is not unpopular because she failed to do the job and the work required but because her failure exposed the self-serving hypocrisy of those who thought themselves superior in their isolation from real-world problems. And that is a sin that can never be forgiven by those who place stock in the signaling of virtue rather than the practicing of it.
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