What in the Hell Is Kamala Harris Doing?

I could never have imagined that I would come to long in earnest for the return of the insipid, aimless, and irrelevant version of Kamala Harris — the one who believes that she is being profound when she suggests that “it is time for us to do what we have been doing, and that time is every day.” Yet here we are. Yesterday, the vice president of the United States put out a statement in Farsi that read, “The truth is: There is segregation in America. Xenophobia exists in America. Antisemitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, all exist. Wherever injustice is dealt with, there is activity ahead.” As a reward for her efforts, the Biden administration has decided to send Harris to represent the United States at a summit in Munich, during which she will take part in “a series of high-stakes, high-level diplomatic talks” designed to prevent Russia from invading Ukraine. Thankfully, we have no alarming historical examples of the regrettable consequences that flow from our sending the wrong peace negotiators to Munich.

We are told that Harris hopes to gain some foreign-policy experience ahead of a potential run for — or takeover of — the presidency. If so, the first step will be to understand that speaking for one’s country on the global stage differs profoundly from making the keynote address at this year’s Netroots Nation. Alas, it is unclear whether the Biden administration writ large understands this. At his disastrous January press conference, President Biden was asked bluntly whether he thought that Russia would go into Ukraine, and — twice — he reacted as if he were on a late-afternoon panel at a D.C. think-tank symposium. “I think,” Biden said, “what you’re going to see is that Russia will be held accountable if it invades. And it depends on what it does. It’s one thing if it’s a minor incursion and then we end up having a fight about what to do and not do. . . .” Accurate or not, this was the wrong answer for an American president to proffer. The right answer was, “Russia must not invade Ukraine, and if it does there will be consequences.” If they wish, American citizens may be neutral on the virtues of their country. The executive branch doesn’t have that luxury.

Astonishingly, this does not seem to be obvious to the U.S. State Department, which has adopted a policy designed to “disarm critics and skeptics” by coupling demands for international change with a recitation of what the Democratic Party believes is wrong with the United States. This is extraordinarily foolish. Because they read the news, America’s adversaries recognize that American progressives neither admire the U.S. nor believe it to be exceptional, and they understand that they can exploit that under-confidence for their own geopolitical ends. President Ronald Reagan really did believe that the United States was a “shining city on a hill.” But he also grasped that, alongside military strength, civilizational self-assurance represented an enormous diplomatic asset. “Y’know, when you think about it, we’re not that great either”? Not so much.

Which is all another way of asking: What in the ever-loving hell does Kamala Harris think she is doing? Leave aside for a moment her grotesque false equivalence. How, I would like to know, did this ever happen? Why did Harris decide to engage in such self-flagellation in the first instance? Who translated the attempt for her? Who decided to put it out on an official account whose bio reads, “The US Department of State’s Persian Twitter posts the views of the US government”? Why did the U.S. Embassy in Iran choose to share it? Did the president know? The Biden-Harris ticket ran in 2020 promising a return to honor. Instead, it has set about continuing the tendency toward relativism and self-critique that began under Barack Obama and continued under Donald Trump.

After Bill O’Reilly suggested to him in 2017 that Vladimir Putin was a “killer,” Trump responded, disgracefully, “There are a lot of killers. You think our country’s so innocent?” Well, actually, I do, yes. I think that it’s open and free and fair and stable and kind and hopeful, and that, when compared with every other country that has ever existed, it looks extraordinarily good. I think that there is no comparison to be drawn between the United States and tyrannies such as Russia, China, Iran, or North Korea. America is a beacon, an exemplar, and a refuge; those other nations belong in what Churchill called the “dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime.” If Kamala Harris does not agree, that is her right. But she might have the decency to step down from the executive branch before saying so aloud from the front of the international stage.