Is Senator Harris Playing the Race Card?

Senator Kamala Harris has impressive credentials, from her years of experience as a state attorney general and prosecutor and her more recent tenure in the U.S. Senate, to her track record of accomplishments in civil and consumer rights and a number of other areas. In addition, Harris by all accounts looks to be a person of exceeding integrity. Until recently, @KamalaHarris was among my top choices for president.

But then she attacked former Vice President Joe Biden in the recent presidential debate about a position he took more than 30 years ago on busing, a tool used to desegregate schools that was a temporary solution to the practice of redlining. @JoeBiden is on record as being a lifelong supporter of integration. He just didn’t think busing was a good way to achieve it in the 1970s and 1980s.

As it happens, Biden’s position on busing was hardly out of step with the overwhelming majority of Americans. An article in The New York Times reported, “Polling in the 1970s found only single-digit support for the practice.”

Today we face a number of formidable challenges, not the least of which is global warming. One of our major adversaries was found by our intelligence agencies to have interfered in our last presidential election. Gun violence in the U.S. is out of control, white supremacists are making a comeback and health care costs continue to go up.

Why then, when Sen. Harris had a forum for addressing these and other pressing matters, did she spend valuable time during the debate making an issue out of something Biden espoused more than 30 years ago? Was she attempting to divert attention from her own policy positions on issues of vital importance, or a lack thereof, or was she playing the race card, despite her assertion that she doesn’t believe Biden is a racist?

Biden’s position on civil rights over the past four decades is anything but that of a racist. Our first African American president not only chose him to be his vice president, but over their years in the White House referred to him as “brother” and “friend.” Yet Harris still felt Biden’s decades old position on busing is relevant today.

She also took issue with recent comments by Biden about being able to find common ground with segregationist senators in order to work with them on important legislation. Biden’s comments have been repeatedly taken out of context, including by Harris. After the last debate, I began having doubts whether Harris is a viable candidate.

Meanwhile, divisiveness in America has metastasized since 2016. It is imperative the Democratic party nominates a candidate who eschews language that divides us, initiates public discourse on the important issues facing us today, and goes head-to-head with Donald Trump and beats him.

In the last few days Harris announced a plan to spend $100 billion to close the racial home ownership gap by providing federal grants to help families in redline communities with closing costs. I’m all for closing the wealth gap between low- and high-income Americans. But if Harris has advanced a viable way to raise $100 billion for that purpose, I must have missed her tweet.

Busing and spending $100 billion to close the racial home ownership gap aside, the Democratic candidates for president have an opportunity and an obligation to focus on major issues of the day. They have an opportunity to do it in a way that is thoughtful and civil. There is nothing to be gained from attacking each other, which only serves to render Donald Trump’s reelection more likely. There is everything to be gained from a considered discourse on policy.

Harris may or may not be playing the race card, but she has cast a shadow of doubt over the viability of her candidacy and her ability to beat the incumbent.