Why are Democrats leaving Kamala Harris to stand alone? [View all]

[SidDithers]

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/10/27/1895398/-Why-are-Democrats-leaving-Kamala-Harris-to-stand-alone

If you are in any way active in Democratic politics, or even just on social media, you will probably have heard the phrases “Vote like black women” and “Listen to black women.” These refer to the power that black women have as a constituency within the party, the consistency with which they vote blue, and the potential that they have to sway elections. But yet, for a party who says those things, we far too often leave black women to fight and stand alone.

When Tulsi Gabbard lied about Kamala Harris’s record in the July debate, Kamala Harris was left to stand alone. The claims were debunked by independent fact-checkers, yet not one person in the Democratic field rushed to defend Harris’s integrity. In contrast, many of them did rush to Tulsi Gabbard’s defense when Hillary Clinton suggested that somebody in the primary was being groomed for a third party run. Many of them did rush to Joe Biden’s defense when Julián Castro jabbed at him in the September debate.

When Kamala Harris called for Donald Trump’s Twitter to be suspended because of the threats that it causes to people’s safety, particularly black people and people of color, she stood alone. Not one of her Democratic colleagues in the primary backed her up. Elizabeth Warren scoffed in her face when she brought it up at the debate, as if the notion was ridiculous to begin with. Primarily white pundits on social media ridiculed her. (When you’re sent a pipe bomb in the mail by someone inspired by Trump’s tweets, tell us again about how ridiculous it is.)

On Friday, when Kamala Harris said she would boycott the Criminal Justice -forum at Benedict College in protest of a sponsoring organization who gave Trump an award and prohibited Benedict students from attending the event, she stood alone. Her colleague Cory Booker, who often calls her his “sister”, went so far as to not-so-subtly call her out on Twitter for her protest, with little regard for what she was actually protesting. In his speech at the event, Booker praised Benedict College for ditching the sponsor, with no mention of Kamala Harris, whose protest was what caused the sponsor to be ditched.

Link to tweet

Sid