How others see us

Chatting with Vineyard friends the other night, we found ourselves wondering, "what ever happened to Kamala Harris?" (Well, some did; I've long questioned her political strengths.) Vice Presidents usually fade into the background; does anyone really remember what Joe Biden did during the Obama years? But, somehow, we ask more from Ms. Harris. We want her to establish herself as a figure in her own right and criticize her when she's a just another VP.

Today Heather Cox Richardson pointed to a notable speech Harris had delivered to a Los Angeles March for Reproductive Rights.

Let us center on where we are. ... A United States Supreme Court, the highest court in our land, that took a constitutional right that had been recognized from the people of America. 

We have seen attacks on voting rights; attacks on fundamental rights to love and marry the people that you love — (applause); attacks on the ability of people to be themselves and be proud of who they are.  (Applause.) 

... You know, I’ve been traveling around the world as your Vice President.  (Applause.)  And — thank you.  And here’s the thing, though.  Here’s the thing.  When we, as Americans, walk in those rooms around the world, we have traditionally walked in those rooms, shoulders back, chin up, having some authority to talk about the importance of rule of law, human rights.  

But here’s the thing we all know about what it means to be a role model: People watch what you do to see if it matches what you say.  (Applause.)

I'm sure she does find that we're being watched, usually anxiously, wherever she goes. When the people of the world pay attention to us, I imagine they feel whipsawed about by our political gyrations, our gun culture, our democratic backsliding, our wealth, our innovations, our pop culture -- as are most of us right here at home.

Via Economist Intelligence

The United States certainly doesn't command automatic leadership on questions of world war and peace -- as well we shouldn't given that we spent a couple of decades tearing up the Middle East and Central Asia for no discernible purpose.  

But Harris' pitch to a progressive audience does seem significant here. She's reaching for a jujitsu move that was vital to the civil rights struggle of the 1950s and early 60s: The Black internationalist tradition (think W.E.B. DuBois among others) equipped civil rights leaders to confront the dominant Cold Warrior anti-communists in power with the charge of hypocrisy. If their system was so superior, how come the South was allowed to exist as a neo-Confederate white supremacist autocracy? 

Harris is right to use her experience on the diplomoatic trips she's been shuffled off on to raise, once more, the contrast between what the U.S.  preaches and who the world can see that we are. 

There's a deep tradition there, and if we're to claw our way to an equitable democracy, we can draw on it.