General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Unbelievable. Kamala Harris [View all]Sapient Donkey
(1,568 posts)With Harris I believe there are at least a couple elephants in the room that need to be discussed and explored. For example, I didn't realize her office was the one who made the comment about releasing prisoners would harm fire camp participation. She came out and against that later, but I think it's a good idea to confront her on that and get the details on why that was even said in the first place. There is also a particular case in which she defended a prosecutor who did some shady stuff in a trial against a child molester.
I'm all for discussing those and getting her to explain those. However, I am also all for including all the positive things she did too, and not just focusing on the negative. I am also against making up lies or stretching the truth to turn people against her. One example of a lie is that I saw on protest signs and I saw people posting social media saying she's pro-death penalty. As far as I can tell, that doesn't seem to be the case. She has stated she's anti-death penalty and in every case I've seen she has recommended against the death penalty despite pressure to push for it. Then there is the twisting truths in which it is claimed she is evil because she locks up and warehouses drug offenders. What's left out is that while there be higher conviction rates of these offenses, these people are being sent to treatment programs instead of being warehoused. This seems a lot like the attack on Beto a couple months back in which it was claimed he was beholden to oil & gas companies because second only to cruz he received the most money from people associated with oil & gas. But what was left out is that he didn't receive corporate money, but rather it was donations from regular people who happen to work in oil & gas. Which makes sense given he's in Texas and oil & gas employ a lot of people in Texas. It's just disingenuous.
The other attacks against Harris that concern me probably more than anything because there isn't much that can be said to counter them, are the attacks against her identity. For an example of what I mean, search 'Tariq Nasheed Kamala harris' on twitter to see what sort of stuff I am talking about. There's a large contingent of folks around him who have a lot of sway, who are saying some very ignorant and divisive things. There some core people there who have some sway with a lot of folks who would usually vote democrat, who may be swayed to not vote based on these words. If I was a republican operative or maybe a foreign government who wanted to harm a candidate, then I would focus in on messages like these and amplify them to make them appear more mainstream and accepted.These tribal and divisive messages are really difficult to combat once they get out of hand. It really is a form of hacking the human mind.
Also, when someone says that Harris is a female Obama and they say it like it's a negative thing, then we probably have totally different ideas about what we want for our country.
*I'm not nessecarily pro-Harris at this point. I'm just anti-bullshit.