Sen. Kamala Harris of California may be the subject of Democrats’ 2020 dreams, but some are more skeptical about her leading the ticket.
An article published on liberal site Mic.com Monday titled, “Democratic rising star Kamala Harris has a “Bernieland” problem,” outlines the dissatisfaction with Harris that many on the left feel.
Among Bernie Sanders supporters, there is a skepticism of Democrats that are seen as being too close to the “donor class” or the corporate wing of the party. Some see Kamala Harris as being representative of those interests, and not the interests of the economic left.
Winnie Wong, co-founder of the group People For Bernie, told Mic.com “She is the preferred candidate of extremely wealthy and out-of-touch Democratic party donors. Her recent anointing is extremely telling. These donors will line her coffers ahead of 2020 and she will have the next two years to craft a message of broad appeal to a rapidly changing electorate.”
However, Wong did offer some advice for attracting voters with more populist-left causes, saying, “If she wants to advance her political career, she will have to come out authentically and honestly in support of universal healthcare, free college, a federal $15 hour minimum wage, criminal justice reform and the expansion of social security programs.”
“Anything less than this means the party will continue to bleed voters.”
After citing this quote, the author of the article, Andrew Joyce, adds that Harris does in fact support those ideas.
Another Bernie supporter quoted in the article, Nomiki Konst, said, “The Democrats will not win until they address income inequality, no matter how they dress up their next candidate. If that candidate is in bed with Wall Street, you may as well lay a tombstone out for the Democratic Party now. Voters are smart; they can follow the money.”
However, many Democrats and prominent liberals still like Harris plenty.
Joy Reid, a commentator for MSNBC, criticized the article, calling Bernie supporters “alt left.”
This piece would have been more convincing had it quoted Millennial voters, rather than 3 alt left activists. https://t.co/tbzqZWRMMp
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) August 1, 2017
Other saw sexism in the criticism of Harris:
I’ve noticed that a certain segment of the left feels threatened when women start to outshine other leaders. https://t.co/MyHAsvxhqc
— Sarah Lerner (@SarahLerner) August 1, 2017
Hillary, Maxine, Kamala, Nancy, Elizabeth, etc. But they’d totally vote for a woman, just not *that* woman. pic.twitter.com/lxvUOR5T0q
— Sarah Lerner (@SarahLerner) August 1, 2017
These early scuffles are likely going to be emblematic of how Democrats choose a candidate for 2020. Many see a split in left-leaning voters between those who think lefty identity politics is key, and that liberal economics don’t need to tack too much further to the left, and those who think that economic policy must be taken much further to the left, while identity politics is seen as somewhat less important.
The tweets above, from Sarah Lerner and Joy Reid, are representative of this split–criticism of a female candidate for being too close to corporate interests is immediately met with charges of sexism.
Many saw Donald Trump’s election win as demonstrating the fecklessness of Hillary Clinton-esque corporate identity liberalism, and wanting Democrats to move further to the left.
