Kamala's Book Makes Me Believe Her Campaign Was Sabotaged by the Corporate Democrats

I confess that I was a little reluctant to read Kamala Harris’s book. As everybody knows, we’re in the midst of an extreme authoritarian takeover in this country. It’s frustrating to think that if Harris had set aside donation money to demand hand recounts in the swing states, this all might have been avoided. It feels entirely possible that we would have found significant evidence of voter fraud, and that certain powerful people would have been held to account. But as we all know, that’s not what happened.Honestly, I don’t believe she was allowed to make that call.So, my curiosity got the better of me. I thought it would be enlightening to get an insider’s perspective on what happened during the 107 days that Kamala Harris campaigned on behalf of the American people.I wasn’t disappointed.I’ve had discussions with people who are understandably frustrated. There’s an inclination to view Harris as part of the same corporate democratic establishment that essentially laid down and let the Republicans take over. But after reading the book, I no longer see it that way.Sponsor me for $5 a month ❤️ Sponsor me for $4 a month 🧡 Sponsor me for $3 a month 💛 Sponsor me for $2 a month 💚 Thank you! 💙We all take a different approach to our activism. The most important thing the left has to learn is to not see potential allies as enemies. They must also not insist that enemies are their friends. These days, it feels like liberals are more inclined to celebrate former republicans than support the people who have spent their whole careers working for the marginalized.We have to resist that impulse.We also have to learn to appreciate people whose activism doesn’t look like our own. In these difficult times, we need every victory we can muster.I have a strong impression that Kamala Harris is a person of integrity, intelligence, compassion, and achievement. I feel she was doing her sincere best to operate within a corrupt establishment. It’s easy to disparage somebody who is willing to work within a system they know to be flawed. But I strongly believe we also have to acknowledge that we need that kind of activism if we’re ever going to succeed.Some activists erode the walls of injustice from the outside. Others do it from within. Harris’s approach allowed her to rise within our political mechanism to the second highest seat in the land. From there, she was able to accomplish great things.Even though the Biden presidency turned out to be a reprieve rather than the start of a new age, I’m extremely grateful for it. In the four years of prosperity that we got under Biden, I was able to help my wife get a master’s degree. We were able to achieve a little bit more financial stability. My kids were allowed to grow into their power.Those four years were a critical gift in the ongoing struggle against inequality that has always been part of the United States, and which has plagued humanity since the beginning of time.One of the most poignant lines in Kamala’s book is when she recognized it was her job to land a plane that was already in the air. It wasn’t her job to build her own plane, she was handed the controls to the plane Biden had built. I suspect that if she gets the opportunity to build her own plane, it will look different. As you read her book, you can see that she’s very meticulous and extremely intelligent. She discusses her choices, explains her thought process, and deliberates on what she could have done better. These are exactly the characteristics we need in a leader. What we don’t need is somebody who is so insecure and weak that they insist all their choices were perfect.We’re seeing how that goes right now.Harris understood she was up against the clock. Again and again, she made choices to put her efforts where they would return the greatest positive gain. We must acknowledge the remarkable achievement of her campaign. All the odds were against her, and she oversaw one of the closest elections in American history.What’s also clear, and it’s something that I picked up both in observing the campaign from the outside and reading this book is that Kamala Harris faced opposition both from the GOP and the establishment DNC.Since the election loss on November 5th, 2024, there have been many instances where the DNC has made head-scratching decisions that helped enable the authoritarian maneuvering of the GOP. One example is when Nancy Pelosi kept Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez off the oversight committee in favor of 75 year old Gerry Connolly who was dying of cancer. Schumer kept the government open back in March without even trying to force a negotiation. Lately, high ranking members of the DNC have refused to support Zohran Mamdani even though he won a free and fair primary.So much for “blue no matter who.” Sorry, they can’t bully us into not seeing that many of them put corporate interests above the interests of the American people. They aren’t even really trying to hide it, and if they are, they’re entirely incompetent.The Biden-Harris ticket won the primary in the lead up to 2024. So, it made sense for Harris to become the nominee when Biden withdrew. Even so, there were people within the party, such as Nancy Pelosi, who suggested that there should be a new primary. Pelosi called for this even knowing that the campaign was up against the clock and there was no time to spare.I recently saw an article with comments from James Carville who has repeatedly placed unfair blame on Kamala Harris for the loss in 2024. He said that nobody wants to hear from Harris. He said that she needs to go away.Excuse me?Sponsor me for $5 a month ❤️ Sponsor me for $4 a month 🧡 Sponsor me for $3 a month 💛 Sponsor me for $2 a month 💚 Thank you! 💙Where are all the articles that say it’s time for James Carville to go away? Who the hell does he think he is? He’s certainly not speaking for me. But for some reason, nobody prints any articles that are critical of him.Stop and think about that for a moment.Consider that the entire media is owned by the same people who wanted to see Harris lose in 2024. The bias is obvious.But let’s take it a step further. Where are the articles that say it’s time for Hillary Clinton to go away? I don’t recall seeing any of those articles either. Where are the articles that say that Nancy Pelosi needs to go away? I, personally, think many of her decisions in the last 10 years have harmed the American people.Why are some DNC candidates treated like they can’t do any wrong, and others are thrown to the curb?I think we all know the answer to that.Kamala Harris is a Black woman, and she was vice president during one of the most progressive administrations in American history. Biden actually surprised me in how progressive he turned out to be. He was like a kind old grandfather who didn’t want to see kids get exploited. Unfortunately, that kind of attitude has never been popular among the elite.Yes, at times the news did fairly report how the US economy was the envy of the world. That result was the consequence of progressive policies. Economists know this, it’s just that the corporate media is beholden to corporate politicians, and they like to bury the truth.But as good as the US economy was, it might have even been better. Consider what would have happened if the Democratic Party had come together to pass Build Back Better in its entirety. Instead, they allowed the moderates to gut the bill. Meanwhile, Senators are happy to write a blank check to the GOP to create a lawless secret police.Even now, we’re seeing frequent appeals from corporate Democrats to support the same kind of centrist candidates that the voting public has repeatedly rejected. Somehow Andrew Cuomo was allowed to run as an independent even at the risk of losing an important political seat through an act of pure sabotage.Here is a candidate that has faced credible accusations of sexual misconduct. He lost his primary. Yet, he’s not been universally denounced for his efforts to continue a campaign. If James Carville has time to shoot off his mouth, where are his comments that it’s time for Andrew Cuomo to “go away.”There’s a reason Carville’s not saying that, and that reason is corruption.Consider the absolutely appalling hubris that’s on full display from the corporate DNC with regard to the New York election. We’re in a critical era. We need all the seats we can win. We’re desperate for a message that will rouse the people so that we can unite and defeat authoritarianism.Faced with that, the Democrats can’t even be bothered to endorse a guy like Zohran Mamdani who has shown exactly what the blueprint to a better future looks like.In reading Harris’s book, there are examples after examples of establishment Democratic entities that resisted rather than assisted her efforts. They created a steady erosion that likely undermined a lot of her actions. It’s hard not to conclude that if the establishment had rallied behind her, the win would have been assured.They gambled and lost, and then they instantly pivoted to scapegoat her. That’s what they always do.These are rich people who have their health care needs met, they live in gated communities, they get checks from their billionaire donors. There are many false actors within the Democratic party who are truly Republicans at heart.In the words of James Carville, it’s time for them to go away. Nobody wants to hear from them.Sadly, they own all the papers.There is a wealthy elite in the United States that wants to maintain a status quo that doesn’t work for the majority of the people. We know this to be true.These are the people who repeat the lie that the DNC has to move to the “center” to win. These days, we’re seeing various media outlets and even other liberals trying to make kings out of people like Adam Kinzinger. Although his actions during the January 6th hearings were praiseworthy, we shouldn’t forget the transgressions he committed prior to that. The brilliant Arturo Dominguez sums it up perfectly here. Kinzinger is a guy who voted against the Voting Rights Act. He is not our friend.Just because he objected to the fact that an insurrectionist Republican tried to get him killed, doesn’t mean he is a good person. That’s an act of self-preservation. He’s still part of the system that tried to put an insurrectionist on a throne in the first place.Sponsor me for $5 a month ❤️ Sponsor me for $4 a month 🧡 Sponsor me for $3 a month 💛 Sponsor me for $2 a month 💚 Thank you! 💙The John Lewis Voting Rights Act would completely transform American politics and make corrupt Republicans irrelevant. It’s an act designed to preserve free and fair elections, and all the Republicans and about half the Democrats hate it.There appears to be a movement among the same rich, establishment Democrats to groom the general public into accepting Kinzinger as a potential candidate on the Democratic ticket. Again, while he’d be better than the corrupt traitor currently in office, that’s a hard NO THANKS from me.The American people deserve a clean candidate, not somebody who is bought and paid for by corporate entities. I realize that the oligarch owned media is able to create the illusion of greatness, but sooner or later the people will see the truth.There are plenty of highly accomplished people who are not from the privileged class. They’ve actually worked for a living. They have integrity. They are of the people, and they will work for us.Those are the kind of candidates we need. These are also candidates who have not been credibly accused of sexual misconduct. We have to demand candidates like that.The reason the Democrats lose is they try to present themselves as an alternative to the authoritarian Republicans, and yet they save their support for tainted candidates like Andrew Cuomo.It feels to me that Harris’s defeat in the 2024 election, wasn’t so much an endorsement of authoritarianism as it was the establishment Democrats joining forces with the GOP to knock down progressives. I think there are a lot of powerful people in the US and in the world who feared a Harris presidency. She’s a woman of integrity. She’s prosecuted child traffickers. A person like that doesn’t get good press from the legacy media.Connect those dots on your own.This prevalence of corruption and injustice is the fundamental issue that faces us today.Reading Kamala Harris’s book provided me with a lot of clarity. I also came to believe that Harris herself learned a few things, just as the rest of us did, about our country, our political system and the multitude of places where corruption has been allowed to take root.I strongly believe that if she does decide to run again, she will apply these lessons and build her own plane. That’s something to think about the next time you scroll through the news and you see the names of all these familiar politicians who have established themselves as fixtures of our republic, who have nothing but criticism for people like Harris.I’m talking about folks like Carville and Schumer and Pelosi and Clinton, who are never subjected to the same level of criticism no matter how often they lose. I’m talking about that privileged class of leader who is never made to shoulder any of the blame for the challenges we face today.Then look to people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders and Zohran Mamdani and Kamala Harris. These are the fixtures who are always called out as being “unrealistic” and who receive criticisms from both the Democrats and the Republicans.For anyone out there who is inclined to say that Democrats and Republicans are two wings on the same bird, maybe you can find some inspiration in looking between the lines that the media chooses to print. It’s time that we recognized the actors in our political system that the people in power clearly see as a threat.Those are the people who deserve our support.In recognizing that, maybe we can find greater unity. I know there are undecided voters who feel that there aren’t any people out there to represent them. But the only reason they think that is because the media unfairly represents the champions of the people.Maybe once we start to see the people who are out there working for us, we can spread this awareness. This improves our chances of seeing our vision implemented by a candidate who truly wishes to work in our best interests.You all make this newsletter happen! Thanks for your sponsorship! I have payment tiers starting at as little as twenty dollars a year.Upgrade at 30% offUpgrade at 40% offUpgrade at 50% offUpgrade at 60% offI’m so happy you’re here, and I’m looking forward to sharing more thoughts with you tomorrow.My CoSchedule referral linkHere’s my referral link to my preferred headline analyzer tool. If you sign up through this, it’s another way to support this newsletter (thank you).I'd Rather Be Writing is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to I'd Rather Be Writing at walterrhein.substack.com/subscribe