Dems: Please Stick Finger in Wind

I share Byron York's surprise:

What was a surprise was the speed with which the party apparatus ran to embrace Vice President Kamala Harris as the new Democratic nominee for president of the United States. Before Biden's decision, there was a lot of talk about possible replacements at the top of the ticket -- not just Harris but Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI), Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA), and others. But once Biden withdrew, there was a stampede to Harris. By Sunday evening, a majority of House Democrats, a majority of Senate Democrats, a majority of Democratic governors, and all of the state party chairs had committed to support Harris. No, the top names pushing Biden out, most notably Obama, did not join in. But by Monday morning, Harris was well on her way to securing the Democratic nomination. [bold added]

And as if that weren't an unpleasant-enough surprise, Joe Manchin quashed rumors that he was getting ready to toss his hat in the Democratic ring.

Are they serious about saving American "democracy?" Or even about beating Trump? you might well ask.

In case anyone needs reminding, York reviews Harris's poor performance in the 2020 Democrat primaries in near-excruciating detail.

The fact that she couldn't win within her own party should cause even its most doctrinaire members to consider an alternative.

One can hope that Manchin changes his mind, or that someone half-sane decides to challenge ahead of the convention, or even that this show of unity is just a trial balloon -- ahead of dismal polls prompting the selection of someone who could win the general by the powers-that-be.

A piece in DNyuz offers what might be the sanest possible explanation, in the context of the Democrats assuming America has an "anti-MAGA majority:"

In the end, Ms. Harris and the Democrats might win a coin-flip election by campaigning on abortion and democracy, just as Mr. Biden's advocates hoped he would. But it's far harder to be confident about that assumption today. After all, Mr. Biden had been trailing in the polls for essentially 10 straight months -- long before the first presidential debate.

That's a mighty tenuous might. With four years' worth of footage of Harris's word salads, awful cackling, and pieties like introducing herself with pronouns floating around, the Republicans won't need to paint a caricature of an out-of-touch, sanctimonious leftist: She already is one.

And for anyone not on social media, there plenty of this kind of foolishness to find in the news:

For example, at her peak, Harris, who was then a Democratic senator from California and who earlier, as state attorney general, focused on "environmental justice," announced she would file a bill expanding the progressive idea of "justice" to virtually every aspect of American life. "Environmental justice is interconnected with every aspect of our fight for justice," she said in a statement to the left-wing publication Grist. "From racial justice and economic justice, to housing justice and educational justice, we cannot disentangle the environment people live in from the lives they live." Referring to the riots taking place across the country, she added, "These crises we are experiencing have exposed injustices in our nation that many of us have known and fought our entire lives."

Memo to Democrats from an anti-MAGA, "double hater" voter: Just because we don't like Trump doesn't make us far left "progressives." If this inane apparatchik is your "alternative" to Trump (and his lunatic, anti-republican ideologue running mate), lots of us will hold our noses and vote for him -- or simply stay home.

Try again.

-- CAV