Kamala Harris comes into her own

Harris at the former slave port in Ghana — NY Times photo

Minus the obvious perks of working in the White House and living in a grand home on the grounds of the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., being vice president has got to be one of the worst jobs ever.  Not only are you condemned by the nature of the job to live in the shadow of whoever sits in the Oval Office, your second fiddle status plays out in the obsessive coverage of all-things-Washington in public for all to see.  If you’re not in attendance at an allegedly important meeting, it’s noticed.  If who you’re seated with at a State Dinner isn’t of sufficient importance, it’s talked about.  If you open your mouth and something other than near perfection escapes your lips, comments are made about your unease in front of whatever group you were speaking to, as well as the flaws in your speaking style.

It happens to all of them, no matter the difficulties, real or imagined, in  their relationship with the president.  It was said that Spiro Agnew was used by Nixon as a “hit man” against the liberal media, and even when that worked by getting the media all upset, he was criticized for just being an errand boy for Nixon.  Joe Biden’s vice presidency under Barack Obama was supposedly one of the closest pieces of teamwork in presidential history, but that was only after Biden had taken two years or more to find his footing and start doing stuff that was more closely in tune with his boss.

Under perhaps the most incompetent and nasty president in history, Mike Pence was satisfied to be obsequious, and even that wasn’t enough when he “turned” on Trump at the end and wouldn’t violate the Constitution to stay in his good graces.  ‘Nuff said of that odd couple of the serial adulterer and the man who calls his wife “mommy.” 

Kamala Harris is the first Black vice president in the nation’s history, but even that distinction was largely exlipsed by the fact that a Black man had already served in the highest office of the land.  So, her term as Number Two started off with a shrug from the media and a so-what from political professionals.  Even that she was also the first female vice president seemed not to be celebrated sufficiently by a press that was at once trying to figure out Biden and still obsessed with The Man Who Wouldn’t Let Go down in Mar a Lago.

So, Vice President Harris started out as other vice presidents have – in Biden’s shadow and pretty much ignored unless she made some kind of faux pas, which she did on occasion, as anyone moving into that position would be expected to do.  But the boom lowered on her by the media, political professionals, and especially Republicans hit notably hard.  Then when rumors emerged from the office of the vice president that Harris occasionally raised her voice to subordinates and was not as nice as everyone had apparently hoped, the reaction not only from Republicans but from Washington insiders was something along the lines of a quiet nod to one another and a whispered “see?”

The damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t aspect of two firsts in the vice presidency – being Black and a woman – went largely unmentioned.  If Harris hadn’t barked at someone in her office, she would have probably been described as soft or a pushover.  There was no way for her to win in the situation that was given her by her gender and her race.  She was going to take it from the media and the groaning buffet board of pundits.

And she did it with some grace, I might add.  I read a couple of insider-whisperers who talked about Harris resenting the treatment she was getting, but I didn’t have to go back through the clips to recall the same sorts of stories about previous VP’s who were neither Black nor female.  It comes with the territory, was the lesson Harris had to learn like the others did before her, and she seemed to set about getting that accomplished at a normal rate of speed.

She went out on the hustings and supported Democratic candidates in the midterms, and what do you know, but the Democrats killed it.  She probably didn’t get as much credit as she deserved, but hey, she was the vice president, not the guy in the Oval Office who would naturally be given most of the credit.  Yet another comes-with-the-territory lesson learned.

But suddenly late last month, Harris took an unexpected turn into the spotlight during her trip to Africa.  Normally such a trip is considered part of the duties of a vice president to visit the world’s less developed countries and make their administration look like it cares.  But Harris turned it around when her visit to Ghana included a stop at a former slave market.  The grim place with its grim memories stirred something within her that was visible and audible.  Her remarks about learning from the history of that place and that time had a special resonance in a country that is struggling once more with how to remember its original sin and how to account for it, especially when it comes to educating young people.  Harris didn’t have to mention the Republican efforts in red states to bury slavery and its awful aftermath which persists to this day.  It was right there on her face and in the way her voice choked as she delivered her remarks.

The reviews were stellar.  Kamala Harris had hit it just right in Ghana and the other countries she visited in Africa.  It can be difficult for Black Americans to go to Africa.  It is the place where most Black Americans can trace their lineage.  But visiting the world’s poorest continent from the world’s richest can be like entering a minefield.  Privilege attaches to any American Black person who sets foot in Africa even though their Americanness is rooted in slavery.  The skin color of many American Blacks is lighter, including that of Harris, who is of mixed heritage.  Somehow, they are not as “Black” as their homeland, and that can be difficult.

Yet Kamala Harris handled it with aplomb.  The way she spoke carried her past all the pitfalls she may have faced.  It was noticed in this country and noticed by all the people who counted – her friends in the White House and those who were not friendly in the opposing party.  Suddenly, Harris was seen as good at her job, even as that job was considered one of the most difficult there is.

To her everlasting credit, Kamala Harris kept it up when she returned to American soil.  I don’t know how she managed it, but 24 hours after Justin Pearson and Justin Jones were kicked out of the Tennessee legislature, Harris was in Nashville to stand with them.  The mere fact of her presence beside them emphasized the racist aspect of the horrific events the week when the two Black protestors lost their seats in the Tennessee House, while the white woman who protested with them didn’t.

Then Harris quickly changed focus to address the calamitous week for women’s reproductive rights that slammed into the nation’s consciousness with the Texas judge’s decision to ban the abortifacient drug Mifepristone.  Last Wednesday, she held a meeting of the White House task force on women’s reproductive rights.  On Friday, she spoke at the National Action Network’s convention in New York alongside Reverend Al Sharpton, and on Saturday, she flew to Los Angeles to attend a rally for abortion rights.

Talk in Washington about whether she belongs on the 2024 ticket with Biden has subsided somewhat, even though her personal poll numbers have been running five points behind Biden’s, which aren’t exactly in the stratosphere at 41 percent.   “Both get good marks from at least 3 in 4 of their fellow Democrats,” according to a March poll by Monmouth University.  So, there’s that.

A lot of stuff can affect polls – gas prices, egg prices (!), the mini-banking crisis that occurred recently.  But it’s a very good sign that at least within the Democratic Party, Vice President Kamala Harris is seen as handling the most unforgiving job in the world quite well, thank you very much.

Go Kamala!