By Jim Dickson
Will the real Kamala Harris please stand up or, at least cackle loudly so that we can see if we are still dealing with the same Kamala Harris that we have known for the past five years or so?
I, like many of us, thought that we pretty well knew Kamala and what she believed after her run for President in 2019, and for the past three-and-one-half years as Joe Biden’s Vice President. Sometime last month an entirely new Kamala emerged on the scene that is a completely different person than she was a month ago.
To be fair I am not basing that opinion on what she has said herself, but what campaign “spokespersons” have said about her and what she now believes. The only thing that I have heard her say is what she has read from a teleprompter, which by the way she is very good at. I think that she may be a graduate of the Obama School of Teleprompter Reading, and that is the ultimate compliment.
In my working life I was called upon to speak before groups from time to time and to use a carefully written script on a teleprompter, probably for the same reason they won’t let Harris speak without one anymore. I can tell you from personal experience that it is not as easy as it looks. When you are speaking another person’s words, to get the content and cadence to sound natural is not easy and she does a great job of it.
Here are some of the reasons that I and others are confused as to the Kamala Harris with which we are dealing. In 2017, as a senator, she was one of the first to co-sponsors of Bernie Sanders Medicare for all plan, and she was for eliminating private insurance. She was for single-payer healthcare. While running for President she said that she was in favor of banning fracking and offshore drilling. She was in favor of the Green New Deal with Senator Sanders and A.O.C.
Harris was advocating a mandatory gun buyback and banning “assault weapons.” At one point she was all for doing away with ICE because it was so bad and starting all over again with something different. All of a sudden, over the past few weeks, she is not against any of those things except maybe “assault weapons.” Once again, to be fair, I have not heard her say that she has changed her mind — it has all come from campaign spokespersons, but I have likewise have not heard her deny it.
Most confusing is where she stands on the border; well let me correct myself, she has never stood on the border personally, but then on the other hand she has never been to Europe either. Last month she was all for an open border and unlimited immigration by anyone and everyone who wanted to come. I say that not based on what she has said, but by what she has done in her three year role as the “Border Czar.” Just to add to the confusion, her spokespersons are now saying that she was never the “Border Czar,” and that was something that Republicans made up about her.
Somehow I remember a press conference a few years ago when President Biden proudly announced that he was putting Vice President Harris in charge of finding out the root causes for illegal immigration and getting it under control, but maybe that was something that the Republicans made up too. Who knows.
I am looking forward to the day that Harris will answer questions without being scripted, and perhaps clear up some of confusion as to who the real Kamala Harris really is. To be honest I kind of miss the old Kamala. If nothing else she was always entertaining with a scramble of “word salad,” a big smile and good hardy cackle at the end. In our world today we all need a good laugh once in a while.
Born, raised and educated in the Southwest, Jim Dickson served in the U.S. Navy Reserve in Vietnam before a 35-year business career. Retired to St. Helena Island, Dickson and his wife are fiscally conservative, socially moderate and active in Republican politics, though they may not always agree with Republicans. Having lived around the country and traveled around the world, Dickson believes that the United States truly is the land of opportunity.
