Kama, Kama, Kama, Kama, Kamala, Chameleon

Kamala Harris is the presumptive nominee for the Democrat party for 2024 and she will likely be the official nominee when the DNC convention takes place in a few weeks.  At that point, President Trump will be competing against one of the most far-left candidates to ever run for the White House.  That’s it – cut and dried.    

If an extremely liberal and deconstructionist position can be taken on any policy issue – from the economy and taxes, to health care, to global security and defense, to law and order, border security and immigration, and to our constitutional rights – Kamala Harris has embraced it and held it.  Held it, in fact, tightly, enthusiastically, and with the giddy, goofy, giggly spirit of a self-described “radical.” 

But now that the Democrat party absolutely has to win over moderate folks in the swing states, her unpalatable and frightening policy past is a problem that must be marginalized, if not completely removed.  So, she has quickly and concertedly worked to reverse course on a litany of previous remarks and stances – on everything from gun control to energy.  As part of that gambit, the media propagandists have been toiling feverishly to help erase any trace of her record – it is an effort so brazenly Orwellian, that it would make the historical revisionists in the Soviet Kremlin red with envy. 

Now, none of this is new of course.  The Democrats have always tried to tack back to the center in the general election after showing a different flag during the primaries.  And to be fair, politicians from both parties often do this dance – pandering to the base, then moderating for the broader electorate.  But the stunning 180-degree pivots that Kamala Harris is trying to execute are so dramatic, that the voters are going to have to head to the polls with neck-braces on because of the whiplash.  The examples are so numerous that one wonders whether she believes in anything at all.  

In recent years, for instance, she’s suggested that government should confiscate Americans’ firearms through mandatory gun “buy back” programs – mandatory meaning the citizens must obey the government and sell their firearms, likely at a financial loss.  But now that is being walked back because of how important the 2^nd Amendment is to people in all of the key election states – from Michigan and Wisconsin, to North Carolina and Georgia, to Nevada and Arizona.  For the record, she also supported sending law enforcement door-to-door to confiscate your firearms.   

On the eve of the 2020 campaign season, on the topic of American fossil fuel energy production, she publicly and directly stated, without a hint of hedging, “There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking.”  Fast forward to 2024, her campaign insists that’s not at all what she wants to do.  It all sounds great until stupid ideas have real consequences for Americans and their livelihoods during election years. 

And not too long ago, she championed the idea of a government-run, government-owed “single-payer” health care system – telling us taxpayers “We need to have Medicare for all!”  But now…she’s not that into the idea.  I guess with a sputtering economy, high inflation, and rising costs for basic daily items, more taxation for wasteful and unpopular government programs doesn’t sit right with regular families after all.  

Frankly, these moves wouldn’t seem that desperate if her original positions weren’t so whacky.  But because she has always been such a radical, the only way to abandon and erase her past is to execute a campaign of drastic alteration.  There is no other way she can do it.  The question is, how many people will fall for the ploy? 

 Now, I’m certainly not the first person to suggest Kamala Harris is a political chameleon – a figure who alters their political persona in order to try and convince different audiences that she’s like them and worth their vote – but these latest moves to nullify her past positions should give the voters a lot of pause and concern.  And more importantly, which Kamala will the voters see?  The one who claims to be tough on crime as a prosecutor – or the backer of rioter bail-outs?  The anti-fossil fuel greenie who wanted to eradicate fracking – or a candidate who doesn’t want to destroy American energy independence because she needs to win Pennsylvania? 

For her entire political career, Kamala Harris has never seen an extremist liberal policy idea that she didn’t roundly and enthusiastically back.  For me, two truths cannot exist together in the same universe.  Kamala Harris is either a dyed-in-the-wool card-carrying lefty with unworkable, failed ideas that Americans don’t want and don’t like – or she’s just another slippery shape-shifter who you can only trust to do two things: not be honest and not possess any convictions or principles.  Who is she now?  Who will she be tomorrow?  Will Kamala come today to eliminate your private health insurance plan (that you like and would like to keep)?  Or will she go without a demanding the government own your access to health care?

November loving in your eyes all the way

If I listen to your lies, would you say

I’m a pol, without conviction

I’m a pol, who doesn’t show

How to sell, a contradiction

You come and go, you come and go

Kama, Kama, Kama, Kama, Kamala Chameleon…you come and go…you come and go.

Martha Fain is a policy expert, strategic consultant and frequent commentator on issues of national importance.  She is Chairman of Vote America First and a Principal of Victory Coalition Strategies, LLC and has a J.D. from the Antonin Scalia School of law at George Mason University. 

Reprinted with Permission from Martha Fain

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.