If we can't support Kamala Harris or democrats like

[BainsBane]

156. It has nothing to do with purity

There is nothing pure about her attackers. Harris isn't running for anything. She isn't up for reelection for 6 years. People have heard rumors some in the party may want her to run for president. That's it. She hasn't been "anointed" to anything. She hasn't asked for their votes. This is about savaging her because they fear she may run and thereby represent competition to their own candidate/s and agenda.

It's time to make clear that we see through the attempt at gaslighting. As you note, bigotry is not a Dem value. Those who advance it or draw upon it are not pure or leftists. What we are witnessing is decidedly un-leftist, akin to white nationalism, in attacks on Harris and other Democrats of color (and women), whether politicians or voters. Case in point: Harris and Rand Paul cosponsor legislation on criminal justice reform. Harris is a corporatist whore who slept her way to the top, we read on social media, while Paul is a hero.

Just because people throw around terms associated with leftism doesn't make them purists. The Club for Growth has adopted the same language about corporate power. Would anyone in their right minds believe they truly oppose it? Of course not, so why should this be different? The language is a smokescreen to advance power and wealth for white men, just as the Club for Growth's language us a smokescreen to advance capital. What matters is not the buzzwords they use but what they seek to do.

Don't mistake my post to say anyone who doesn't love Harris or really want Bernie to be the president in 2020 is a White Nationalist. That's not what I'm saying. Democrats can and do have all kinds of legitimate differences on candidates, issues, and policies. But most people with respect for democracy have done in the past is make those decisions when candidates actually seek election. They don't systematically savage every woman and person of color they think might represent competition. That reveals a very different agenda. And to the extent that this pernicious element has inserted itself into groups of Democrats, it's incumbent on members of those groups and the rest of us to call them out. Those who do not want to see a country where being white and male is a requirement to hold office, have rights or economic opportunity bear a moral responsibility to denounce these tactics and not use the people engaging in them as convenient allies because they say they support a politician you do. And if people fail to denounce it, they become complicit.