It’s not about Harris “moving to the center”

Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign has kicked off with a resounding success. The Democratic Party’s base has been reenergized; young people are engaged. Loud crowds are cheering her candidacy in swing states. Money and volunteers are pouring in. Harris’s relative youth and energy contrast sharply with Trump’s festering venom. Her choice of Minnesota governor “Coach” Tim Walz, a white Midwestern kid from central casting, has given her a boost. Everyone from Joe Manchin to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is cheering. Democrats, as AOC wrote, are demonstrating “shocking levels of engagement.”

Despite having served as a senator and vice president, Harris is just beginning to introduce herself to the American people. Her opening will culminate in her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next week, leading into the final two-month sprint to the election.

Despite initial unity, Harris is already coming under pressure from conservative Democrats, big business interests and conventional wisdom to “move to the center.” Walz’s choice is being presented as a “cession” to progressives, a “missed opportunity,” the The New York Times Political analyst Nate Cohn says she describes herself as more of a centrist. Early polls suggest many see her as very liberal. Trump and the Republicans paint her as an extreme radical, a female Trotsky.

Conventional commentary echoes the refrain. The Washington Post wrote in an editorial that the addition of Walz “gives her opponents a clearly defined target: a slate that leans toward out-of-touch liberalism…. With Mr. Walz on the slate, she should feel freer to reach toward the center, rather than keeping a wary eye on her left.”

New York The magazine’s Jonathan Chait, the relentless Javert chasing any progressive impulse, argues that to match Walz, Harris must adopt positions “that shock progressive activists” and “understand that the likelihood that a given action or statement will elicit complaints on the left is a reason to do something, rather than a reason not to do it.”

Chait doesn’t bother to reveal how Harris is supposed to rile up her base. Instead, he invokes Trump as a role model, arguing that the Donald’s “softening” of the abortion issue at the Republican convention “was a smart move to reduce the party’s exposure to unpopular positions” and hasn’t fractured the party despite complaints from anti-abortion zealots.

Really? It takes a vivid imagination to believe that Trump’s cynical repositioning on abortion will make any difference to voters worried about the reversal. Roe vs. WadeThe only thing Trump has earned is the admiration of experts like Chait, who consider this political posturing sophisticated.

When commentators urge Harris to “move to the center,” they rarely spell out how she should do so without sacrificing integrity. She’s a mixed-race, pro-choice, feminist, socially liberal presidential candidate from California. She can’t try to disguise that without looking completely dishonest.

Furthermore, this is a deeply polarized country. In the last span of time, we’ve endured a catastrophic presidential debate, an assassination attempt, a president who dropped out of the race, the debut of Harris and her new running mate, and the polls have barely budged at all. In this environment, grassroots mobilization and energy are the first priority, not something to be trifled with. If there’s one lesson to be learned from Trump’s campaigns, it’s his discipline in feeding his MAGA base red meat to keep them excited.

Ironically, Harris has never been a progressive leader in the vein of Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren. She has already abandoned the signature progressive policies she donned in her brief and ill-defined 2020 presidential race. Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, opposition to fracking are all being cut. While major donors are urging her to back down from Biden’s antitrust offensive, her ally, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, suggests she’s not opposed to it. She’s already reached out to gimmietarians in the cryptocurrency crowd.