At a town hall meeting in South Carolina hosted by Lawrence O’Donnell on Tuesday night, Kamala Harris made the following statement:
“When elected, I'm going to put in place and require that states that have a history of passing legislation that is designed to prevent or limit a woman's access to reproductive health care, that those laws have to come before my Department of Justice for a review and approval, and until we determine that they are constitutional, they will not take effect."
O’Donnell then injected a brief note of reality when he commented, "That sounds like it needs 60 votes in the United States Senate.”
Momentarily flummoxed, Harris continued, "You know what, everything we need to do is going to require 60 votes in the United States Senate, which is why I say to everybody 2020 is not only about the White House, it's also about the United States Senate.”
Duhhh, tell us something we don’t know. Under the best of circumstances, does Harris seriously believe that the democratic caucus can possibly pick up 12 Senate seats in the next election to gain a 60 vote supermajority? Or was this just a ridiculously false campaign promise intended to pander about and capitalize upon recent news concerning anti-choice legislation passed by a number of states?
And why does she assume that once the Trump nightmare is gone, senators would still be unable pass any legislation minus a supermajority, even though republicans would not have the Orange Menace to defend anymore? If Trump is overwhelmingly repudiated and the republican Senate majority is scorched, that may bring the remainder back towards normality out of self-interest, being the selfish pieces of shit they are.
Oh, and good luck telling states their laws can’t go into effect. As a former prosecutor, Harris knows courts have to do that. Remember the fate of the landmark 1964 Voting Rights Act legislation, which stood for decades until it was gutted by the Roberts Supreme Court that rejected the same kind of “review and approval” requirement for states which had a prior record of racial discrimination. Does Harris also believe that her imaginary plan, even if somehow magically passed into law, would survive an even more right-wing SCOTUS now?
We’ve already had waaay more lying and deception under Trump than this country can stand, and we certainly don't need any more from democratic candidates. Tell us the truth or we won’t vote for you, and come up with competent, realistic policies that can actually work, not campaign mendacity!
There have also been a lot of comments about Harris’ potential appeal to black voters, especially black women, in motivating those who elected Obama but passed on Hillary to come back in the fold, and how the black vote, especially women, is necessary to elect a democrat. Anyone who considers Harris’ race and gender a qualification, or is willing to sit out the next election if they don't get their candidate, may help sustain another four years of this ongoing disaster.