As the election season has been ramping up, it has become abundantly clear that Kamala Harris has decided upon her motto for this election cycle: “We are not going back.”
This adage was surely chosen to appeal to a liberal audience, particularly one that is increasingly concerned with the regressive policies outlined within Project 2025. By continuously fearmongering about Project 2025 coming to fruition at the hands of Donald Trump, the Democratic Party has been positioning themselves as more liberal than they actually are.
Kamala Harris is a great example of this phenomenon. Her catch phrase for this season leads the public to believe that she is a progressive candidate, which she is– in comparison to Trump. However, when juxtaposed with the recent history of the Democratic party, it’s clear that Harris is regressing.
Take her speech at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) for instance. Spurred on by endless applause from the crowd, Harris promoted many conservative talking points that are worrisome when considering her as an option for president.
She boasted about her part in the creation of a bipartisan border bill that was supported by the Border Patrol. This bill would increase the number of immigration law enforcement officers by 5,800 split between Border Patrol, Customs Officers, and Asylum Officers. It would also increase the number of beds in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities by 10,000.
ICE’s enforcement programs have been described by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) as violating the Fourth Amendment (protection against unreasonable seizures and searches), the guarantee of due process, and protection from discrimination based on one’s race, ethnicity, or country of origin.
As well as violating the constitutional rights of detainees, ICE has been documented by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), in collaboration with researchers at Harvard Law School and Harvard Medical School, as having systematically abused its ability to put detainees in solitary confinement.
PHR reported that from 2018 to 2023, ICE has subjected 14,000 people to solitary confinement, with an average stay of 1 month. The PHR has described these conditions as often in violation of international humanitarian law.
In the same speech, Harris went on to say that as commander-in-chief of the US military (a position awarded to the president), she will “ensure that America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world”.
The US already spends an absurd amount of money on its military. Compared to other countries, America’s military spending in 2023 was unjustifiably large. America’s $916 billion spent is more than 3 times as much as the second highest country, China, with a $296 billion expenditure. For context, a measly $37 billion dollars a year until 2030 would end world hunger, according to Oxfam. Military spending was higher in 2023 than it was at any point during the past 74 years.
In a period in time when the United States is not directly involved in any wars, making an effort to bring up its strength as a killing machine perpetuates the myth that the US is constantly being threatened by other nations and therefore needs to have far and above the greatest military.
Politicians of all sorts love to use scare tactics when talking about foreign threats in order to get the public to accept the insane amount of spending allocated to the military. We desperately need to reallocate money from the military budget to social services such as education, healthcare, and low income housing.
During her speech at the DNC, Harris made sure to bring up her past as a prosecutor. The natural contrast between Harris and Trump, that of prosecutor vs criminal, was reemphasized by the discussion of this subject matter.
In an effort to shine a light on this contrast and reassure undecided voters that the Democratic Party is one of law and order, Harris’ rhetoric during her speech veered towards something reminiscent of the tough-on-crime era of the Democratic Party in the 90s.
She cited her work in prosecuting sex offenders, cartel members, and human traffickers. She implies that her career in law enforcement makes her uniquely qualified to take down Trump. Although she presents her career as being one that was, well, tough on crime, she neglects to mention the less than favorable aspects of her history as District Attorney of San Francisco and Attorney General of California.
Not mentioned in Harris’ speech is how she endorsed a bill that imprisoned parents of students with chronic truancy. She later described this imprisonment as regrettable and an unknown side effect, despite the fact that she was well aware of the possibility of imprisonment when she backed the bill.
Also conveniently glossed over is how Harris, acting as former California Gov. Brown’s defense lawyer, fought against a Supreme Court ruling that would slowly release non-violent criminals. This was proposed as a solution to the state’s issue with prison overcrowding— overcrowding which the Supreme Court ruled as in violation of the prisoner’s 8th amendment rights: in this case, protection from cruel and unusual punishment.
Even though she fails to mention some of her less tasteful actions as prosecutor, Harris’ speech at the DNC was still a definite step backwards for the party. Gone are the days of a more progressive Democratic Party that may have acknowledged the short comings of law enforcement in the US.
Harris is leading us into an era where law and order is once again one of the biggest concerns in the US, even though violent crime has fallen almost 50% from 1993 to 2022. An era where law enforcement, along with local police and Border Patrol, are painted as heroes and the only things keeping the US from falling into chaos.
Hiding behind their opposition to the Republican Party’s extreme conservatism, Harris and the Democratic Party are becoming conservative in their own right. A brand of conservatism that supports gay rights and abortion access, but conservative nonetheless.
