Do Democrats Regret Their DEI Hire Yet?
Editor's Note
The group quota regime—the paradigm of racial outcome-engineering on which our society increasingly operates—tends to function mostly in the shadows: behind the closed doors of university admissions offices, in the winding corridors of the administrative state, in the private proceedings of hiring committees and the half-public workings of activist courtrooms.
Vice President Kamala Harris is different: a stunning example of the prioritization of identity over merit at the very center of our government, and in full public view. Now, argues veteran politico Frank Cannon, the Democrats’ diversity hire is coming back to haunt them, with President Biden plainly asleep at the wheel, and the one person designated to take his place so manifestly unfit for the job that her very presence in the White House calls into doubt the security of our way of life.
Last week’s debate performance proved before the eyes of the country that Joe Biden is barely capable of stringing together a cogent thought, let alone leading the United States of America.
In a normal situation, the Democrats would try to replace Biden with another candidate. The obvious choice would be the vice president, whose entire job description is to serve as Biden’s replacement in the event he is no longer capable of serving.
But this is not a normal situation. Four years ago, Biden was convinced — as Nate Silver has pointed out, apparently against his better instincts — to select Kamala Harris as his running mate. He did so entirely and explicitly for purposes of “equity” rather than for her merit.
Now that Harris is being considered in light of the actual duties and responsibilities of her position, things seem less than ideal for the left. Less than half of the Democrat base thinks that Harris should replace Biden on the ticket if he drops out. Of the high-profile politicians and pundits who urged Biden to drop out of the race in the days after the debate, hardly any were quick to anoint Harris as his obvious successor. A few who did quickly walked those comments back.
The reasons are clear: Harris is so unfit for the jobthat it isn’t immediately clear whether she would have a better shot at the presidency than the Biden we saw last week.
Harris is one of the only Democrats in the country, adjusting for name recognition, who is viewed as unfavorably as Joe Biden is. The early hypothetical polling is also mixed. Some post-debate polls show a modest improvement for Democrats with Kamala rather than Joe at the top of the ticket, while others show her doing about as poorly as Biden or even slightly worse.
None of this is news, exactly. Harris was already fairly unpopular at the time she was chosen for vice president. She had just run a presidential primary campaign where — more bad news for Democrats — she did worse the more the public came to know her, ending up polling a dismal sixth and dropping out before any votes were cast. Her rhetorical skills compos mentis were, and continue to be, about on par with Biden’s showing last week.
But the activist elites of the Democratic Party didn’t care. Harris had the opportunity to become the first female vice president, the first black vice president, and the first Asian-American vice president all in one fell swoop. And surely that was something we could all feel really good about.
One must wonder whether Democrats are regretting that decision now. It would make everything — from fundraising to campaign infrastructure to delegate fights to identity-politics optics — so much easier for them if Biden could confidently hand the baton to his VP. If Harris were even remotely competent, the decision would already have been made.
Instead, reports are that the “highest levels of the party” are considering whether they could have a mini-primary free-for-all and let convention delegates pick from among the candidates. That would be insane, and the fact that the option is even on the table is a testament to exactly how little the party trusts their vice president.
Ultimately, Democrats may decide that anybody, even Harris, has a better shot than Biden does in his current state. They may be right.
But think of where they are: Joe Biden is clearly incapable. He was already trailing Donald Trump, and then he turned in the worst debate performance in modern presidential history. Biden’s own administration is telling reporters that he is only “dependably engaged”for about six out every 24 hours of the day. The president himself reportedly told Democrat governors that he’s out of commission after 8 PM and that the only thing wrong with him is his brain.
The bar is so low. And even now, Democrats aren’t quite sure whether Kamala Harris — the woman whose main constitutional duty is to be helpful in exactly this situation — can surpass it. Maybe merit is really the better standard, after all.