Without doubt, Vice President Kamala Harris has made it as difficult as possible to pin down exactly where she stands on major policy issues. Besides studiously avoiding challenging interviews, she has also made a series of notable reversals of previous policy stances, for example abandoning previous support for banning private health insurance, for banning “fracking” for oil and gas, and for banning internal combustion cars. These are all huge issues. If she has walked away from all of these positions, then how can you tell where she stands on anything?
Actually, I would submit that it is easy to figure out how Harris will govern on almost any issue. That is because she really doesn’t have any fixed principles, other than the one big thing, that one thing being the continuation without interference of government by the unelected administrative state. The unelected bureaucrats favor Harris with almost complete unanimity. They know that she will support, and certainly not disrupt, their policies and their vision for how to perfect America. In any given area, you can know what the bureaucracy wants from what they are currently doing and proposing. It’s easy.
Consider a few areas:
Foreign policy.
The overriding vision of the foreign policy bureaucracy is that they hate America and all it stands for, and they think that America is to blame for anything that is not perfect in the world. Or, make that America plus Israel.
Are some countries of the world hostile and belligerent? (Examples: Iran, China, Venezuela.) Then, in this vision, it is because America has treated them poorly. The answer is that America should be nicer to them, and do as they ask. If we are nice to them, clearly they will be nice in return.
Many countries of the world are poor? It’s not because they have corrupt governments that fail to protect private property and are hostile to investment; rather, it’s because America treats them badly and “exploits” them. The answer is for America to provide more and ever more funding to the corrupt governments for “development” projects that never develop anything.
War and tension between Israel and the Palestinians? That’s because America supports the Israeli “settler colonialist” occupation of the region. The answer is for America to provide gobs of “humanitarian” aid to Israel’s enemies in Gaza, while pressuring Israel to foreswear victory in a war it did not start, and instead to quickly accede to demands of Hamas and Hezbollah for a cease-fire that those groups themselves will then not honor.
Energy policy.
The overriding vision is that there is a climate crisis caused by use of fossil fuels, but fortunately the government can easily transform the energy economy to one primarily based on electricity from wind and solar generation sources, which are actually cheaper than fossil fuel-based generation.
There may be no nationwide explicit ban on fracking, or an immediate ban on internal combustion cars, but the all-of-government war on fossil fuels continues at this moment and will continue. This includes continuation of recently-finalized rules forcing incremental closure of fossil fuel power plants through the 2030s and into the 2040s; continuation of recently-finalized rules forcing increasing percentages of new car sales to be all-electric; continuation of restrictions on new oil and gas pipelines; continuation of restrictions and limits of new leasing and drilling on federal lands and offshore; continuation and enhancement of regulations making fossil fuel development more difficult and expensive, like limitations on emissions of methane or of mercury during the extraction process; continued and enhanced restrictions on energy use by appliances and building systems, which could include restrictions on building heat by oil or gas, restrictions on gas stoves, or restrictions on gas hookups for newly-constructed buildings; continuation of costly corporate disclosure regulations by the SEC and other agencies intended forcefully discourage use of fossil fuels; and on and on and on.
Simultaneously, the multi-trillions of dollars of subsidies for so-called “green” energy passed through Congress during the Biden administration will all get spent without any noticeable energy transition occurring. A Harris administration will seek to double down and get additional trillions to spend.
Government handouts.
The vision is that all wealth comes from the government, and government can insure perfect justice and fairness among the people by passing the funds out to the right constituencies.
This means constant enhancing, sweetening, and expanding of government handout and redistribution programs. Various waivers and subterfuges will continue to undermine the welfare reforms of the 1990s until we are back to the same level of dependency as before those reforms. Expect new entire categories of people to get added to the Medicaid and food stamp rolls, with or without Congressional action. Efforts to defy the Supreme Court and find ways to forgive hundreds of billions of dollars of student loans will continue.
Other.
The same principles can be applied to any other area of policy to figure out where a Harris administration will head. What the bureaucracy wants and is currently pursuing, it will get. Education policy? Whatever the teachers’ unions (and other Democrat-supporting unions) want. Immigration policy? The permanent bureaucracy at the Department of Homeland Security favors the current open-borders regime. DEI? The bureaucracy wants it, and it will become ever more pervasive and insane. Trans ideology? Ditto.
The Supreme Court? Many in the bureaucracy are furious about seeing their powers constrained by the Constitution as interpreted by the current Supreme Court. The court-packing plans of Chuck Schumer and the House Democrats are deadly serious, and there can be little doubt that Harris would support them if a bill were to reach her desk. At the moment it looks likely that the Republicans will control the Senate after the upcoming election; but that could well change after the 2026 election.
Trump
They may call him Nazi, Hitler, garbage, or whatever else, but the real threat of Trump is to disrupt the ability of the Deep State to govern without interference from the elected boss. Despite his pledge last time around to “drain the swamp,” Trump made remarkably little progress during is first term at reining in the permanent bureaucracy. But he was hamstrung by the Russia hoax and other steps of the security apparatus to undermine him. This time around he would have a much better chance of making some real changes. To me, that is the most important issue in this election.
UPDATE, November 4:
Is it really fair to say that Kamala Harris hates America?
Andy Kessler in his Wall Street Journal column today has this quote from Harris’s 2021 Columbus Day speech to an organization called the Congress of American Indians: “Those explorers ushered in a wave of devastation for tribal nations — perpetrating violence, stealing land and spreading disease.” Judge for yourself.
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