Harris committed the Humphrey error

BY ED FELIEN

In 1968 Hubert Humphrey thought he had it in the bag. LBJ had signed the Civil Rights Bill, started the Great Society and began a War on Poverty. It looked like Happy Days were going to be here all over again. LBJ decided to not run for re-election after Gene McCarthy beat him in the Democratic Primary in New Hampshire, and Bobby Kennedy got assassinated in California. Those were some of the bumps along the way, but everything seemed to work in Humphrey’s favor. It should have been a sweet coronation in Chicago, but hippies ruined the Democratic Convention by protesting and Humphrey couldn’t bring himself to condemn the war in Vietnam.
Kamala Harris had a shorter sprint than Humphrey, and she believed she had the wind behind her sails, a pocket full of cash and solid legislative accomplishments. She thought by campaigning with Liz Cheney she could appeal to the highbrow liberal Republicans offended by the lowest common denominator appeal of Donald Trump. But she sadly underestimated the appeal of racism and misogyny. She was a Black woman. And, to top it off, she seemed aloof and patronizing. She

V.P. Kamala Harris, 2021

graduated from Howard University, the Black Harvard, so she seemed (like Obama and the

V.P. Hubert Humphrey, 1965

Clintons) part of the gang of elitist intellectuals who were out of touch with ordinary Americans. Although she called for a cease fire and a Two-State Solution. She couldn’t bring herself to condemn Netanyahu’s genocide in Gaza. She campaigned in Michigan with Liz Cheney and not Palestinian Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib. Tlaib won her district with 69.7% of the vote, almost 150,000 votes more than her other three opponents. Harris lost Michigan by 80,000 votes. Campaigning with Tlaib would’ve helped. Bernie campaigned for Harris, though

she didn’t acknowledge it. Finally, in the last weeks of the campaign she campaigned with AOC in Philadelphia. But it was not enough to win back left progressives.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Nixon said that Republicans move to the right for the primaries and to the center for the general, and Democrats move to the left for the primaries and to the center for the general. Harris never moved to the left to secure that essential part of her base, and she couldn’t condemn Netanyahu’s genocide.
After the 1968 defeat, Democrats finally realized they had to move to the left. They had to renounce support for the war in Vietnam. To appease the left, they nominated George McGovern.
It is very possible that the Democratic Party will try to win back their progressive base in 2028 by nominating AOC. She and Bernie have already been out campaigning against the menacing fascism of the Trump administration. They have been drawing astonishing crowds. She has an unblemished progressive record in Congress, and she has an uncontaminated record of support for Palestine. From 1990 to 2024, Joe Biden got $4,229,598 from pro-Israel lobbyists, and that undoubtedly compromised his ability to see clearly the horror of the genocide being committed.
It’s still quite a way to 2028, but a Puerto Rican bartender from the Bronx seems like our best hope for sunshine to sustain us through our long winter of discontent.