Kamala Harris has also been involved in the American elections since last week. The fact that the vice president has been little visible in recent years should not in itself be a surprise, but Harris’ lack of popularity does worry Democrats.
Maral Noshad Sharifi28 January 2024, 05:00
Kamala Harris finds a lot. For example, the American vice president believes that the White House should take a tougher stance against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. She believes that the right to abortion should be enshrined in law. She believes there should be more local anti-gun laws in the US.
She thinks – but is she ever listened to? If you read the American media, you would think not. Her name often appears together with the word ‘problem’ in a headline. As in The Atlantic magazine: ‘The Kamala Harris problem’. The Wall Street Journal: “Kamala Harris’ Communication Problem.” Or this one, from Newsweek: “Kamala Harris’ low popularity is a problem for 2024.”
According to an endless barrage of articles, the vice president is invisible, Harris gets little done, and the White House would secretly rather get rid of her than be rich. And that would – indeed – be ‘a problem’ as the election year gets underway.
Over by author
Maral Noshad Sharifi is United States correspondent for de Volkskrant. She lives in New York.
The vice president’s reputation has become Republican campaign material, partly because of Joe Biden’s old age. “A vote for Trump as a candidate means a win for Biden,” presidential candidate Nikki Haley warned on Tuesday after she lost the primaries in New Hampshire, “and ultimately a presidency for Kamala Harris.” The crowd started cheering loudly. Biden is 81 years old: the scenario that the country will one day have to fall back on Harris is not unrealistic.
“The time has come for Kamala Harris to convince her doubters,” read a USA Today headline. Are the concerns about the vice president justified?
The first woman
It’s January 20, 2021, and Kamala Harris stands on the steps in Washington with one hand in the air. “I solemnly swear,” she begins. While she is inaugurated in a purple cloak, she manages to keep herself dry. Thousands of Americans are not at home.
The election of Harris, then 56 years old, is full of significance. For a moment, the United States does not seem to be the country of Trump, after the Capitol storming that a few weeks earlier in the same place left a crack in American democracy. This is also the country that elects a female, black and Asian vice president. “A new chapter for American politics,” writes the AP news agency.
“Although I am the first woman in this position, I will not be the last,” Harris, the child of Jamaican-Indian migrants, had said in her victory speech. “For every little girl watching tonight will see that this is a land of opportunity.” A few months earlier, on Halloween, mini-Kamalas, on small heels, with pearl necklaces around their necks, were walking around many places in the country.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks in the US state of Wisconsin at the kick-off of her pro-abortion campaign. Image Tannen Maury / AFP
But then come the expectations. “I like to see her do things for black Americans,” writes a political analyst in Politico. “She must spark a national conversation about our unjust past,” said the left-wing think tank New America. Martha Nussbaum, professor of legal philosophy, wants Harris to tackle ‘human rights violations by Hindus in India’.
All the identities that the new vice president embodies create desires about what she can achieve. But the vice presidency is a notoriously vague job where you can only do so much. “The most insignificant office devised by man,” said John Adams (1735-1826), the second president of the US.
Sensitive files
“The vice president is not supposed to get too much attention,” said Kelly Ditmar, a senior researcher at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University in New Jersey. “Her job is to support the president, sell government policy and connect voters.”
In exceptional cases, vice presidents come to the fore. For example, Dick Cheney, vice president under George W. Bush, is still seen as the most influential vice president in US history. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, he became the architect of the Iraq War. But during his second term he was more often in the wings.
According to researchers, vice presidents often only make headlines when they color outside the lines. For example, as vice president under Barack Obama, Biden dominated the news when he spoke out in favor of gay marriage in 2012, even though it was not yet government policy. A mortal sin for a veep who should not get in the president’s way.
For Harris, that painful media moment came in the summer of 2021. After a visit to Mexico and Guatemala, a journalist asked whether she had also seen the chaotic situation at her own southern border. She doesn’t have that. As vice president, she has migration in her portfolio. “I’ve never been to Europe,” she says, irritated. The reactions from the Republican side have been devastating. Fox News keeps track of how many days Harris has not been at the border.
It cannot be due to a lack of political experience. Before joining the Senate in 2017, she served for many years as attorney general (the highest prosecutor, ed.) of California, the state with the most inhabitants; a position with managerial responsibilities. During the mortgage crisis she made herself popular by taking on the banks. What is striking about Harris’ vice presidency is the complexity of the files she receives in charge of the White House: migration, voting rights, abortion, border security.
“That shows she’s being taken seriously,” said Richard Yon, who researches vice presidents at the West Point Military Academy. According to him, it shows confidence that Biden has in her. But there is also a disadvantage: ‘These are sensitive themes that easily damage her popularity.’
The result: one half of society always disagrees with what she says, the other half angry that she cannot get bills passed because there is no majority for it. According to Yon, who has to emphasize in interviews that he is speaking in a personal capacity, this makes it seem as if Harris is not getting anything done. “Harris’ influence may not be felt because it is carried out in private, discreetly.”
Chained to Washington
Moreover, there is something unique about Harris’ term as vice president that significantly limits her freedom of movement, researchers say. Unlike many predecessors, the party needs Harris to pass laws and appoint judges. The vice president also fulfills the function of Senate President, who may vote if there is a tie. Given the almost equal proportions in the Senate, Harris’ vote is regularly needed to help her party gain a majority. Not all Democrats vote along party lines, which keeps Harris glued to Washington.
In December, Harris once again entered the history books as the vice president who broke the most tiebreakers with her vote. “That has really hindered her work,” says Malliga Och, a political scientist at Denison University in Ohio. “Many voters don’t know that.”
In addition, the Biden administration has little visibility at all. “That also applies to the other cabinet members,” says Anne Runyan, who researches female leaders at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio. The difference, says Runyan, is that female politicians are judged more on visibility. ‘We don’t see much of Harris, so there must be something wrong with her, is the conclusion. While it could also be the government’s style to keep a low profile.’
Harris and Biden in April 2022 at the White House in Washington.Image Getty Images
Yet it appears the White House is also concerned about Harris’ visibility ahead of the November 5 elections. This week, the vice president kicked off a new campaign for abortion rights in swing state Wisconsin. This allows the Democrats to set emotions on edge during campaign time. “How dare he!” Harris shouted at Trump on Monday, who had expressed his pride over how the judges he appointed have rolled back abortion rights. ‘Proud that women have been deprived of their fundamental rights? Proud that young women have fewer rights than their grandmothers?’
Abstract talking
Harris can do well with speeches that have been put together in advance. But when she has to give spontaneous answers in interviews, the vice president gradually starts talking more abstractly. When Harris is asked about the progress of the administration’s climate plans, she begins: “The way I see it is that I believe this is a transformative moment.” Six sentences later, she has still not conveyed anything substantive about the climate plans. A world of difference from the strong, substantive answers she gave to journalists in 2020, when she was still campaigning for president.
“Presidential candidates are very outspoken during campaign time, but as vice president they become cautious speakers,” says Yon, who has interviewed several vice presidents for his research. “They all said that a good relationship with the president is their top priority.” How the press thinks they are doing is less important. “That’s how they prefer to exert their influence.”
According to experts, it is not a given that Harris regularly has lunch with Biden and is involved in important decisions. “We have to remember that this is the first woman, and a black woman, to hold such a high position,” said Kelly Ditmar of the Center for American Women and Politics. “Harris must navigate an institution built by and for men.” It is almost impossible, she says, to go about her business without encountering resistance.
“For example, influential donors are used to having vice presidents within reach, but Harris considers other people more important and refers them to her assistant.” According to Ditmar, the negative press about Harris comes from people who find it complicated that she wants to do things differently, her way. “If she was really doing something bad, there would be a lot more named and shamed criticism.”
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2024-01-28 19:58:27
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