Kamala Harris’ strategy in the closing days of the 2024 presidential campaign is pretty clear: avoid giving any answer about a hot-button issue, at least in person, while pandering to younger voters and the Democratic base. This past weekend we saw Harris appear on Saturday Night Live and declare via a tweet that she’d legalize recreational marijuana, while ducking questions about things like California’s Prop 36.
Why wouldn’t she endorse or officially oppose Prop 36? Isn’t a campaign supposed to inform the voters about where the candidate stands on various issues?
This is yet another profile in cowardice from Harris, who’s apparently decided its better to say nothing at all about the referendum instead of informing the American people about where she stands.
The decision by the Democratic nominee for president not to publicly stake out a position on the high-profile initiative could leave her open to criticism from Republican Donald Trump that she is being soft on crime and from some left-leaning voters who would like to see her speak out forcefully against what they perceive as draconian anticrime efforts.
The initiative, if passed, would make the crime of shoplifting a felony for repeat offenders and increase penalties for some drug charges, including those involving the synthetic opioid fentanyl. It also would give judges the authority to order people with multiple drug charges to get treatment.
Proponents said the initiative is necessary to close loopholes in existing laws that have made it challenging for law enforcement to punish shoplifters and drug dealers.
Opponents, including Democratic state leaders and social justice groups, said the proposal would disproportionately imprison poor people and those with substance use issues rather than target ringleaders who hire large groups of people to steal goods for them to resell online.
Prop 36 is expected to pass handily, much to the chagrin of many California Democrats from Gov. Gavin Newsom on down. It should be a no-brainer for Harris to announce her support for the referendum, but doing so would risk ticking off those social justice groups that the Associated Press mentioned, and that could have an impact outside of California. Harris is going to win the Golden State no matter what, but a last-minute endorsement of Prop 36 would be met with dismay by the far left, and Harris can’t afford to depress Democratic turnout an iota in swing states.
So, instead of telling us how she really feels, Harris has once again decided not to comment at all. And just like with her refusal to answer basic questions about her positions on gun control, the media won’t press Harris on the issue. Harris has managed to avoid addressing her support for handgun bans in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., her urging the Supreme Court to adopt a collective rights view of the Second Amendment in Heller, and even her 2022 take on the Bruen decision, which she said defied “common sense and the Constitution.”
Now we can add Prop 36 to the long list of issues that Harris doesn’t want to address. It’s a consistent, if cowardly, strategy by Harris and her handlers, and the sad thing is it could be successful.
