Kamala Harris Thinks That Busing in 2019 Would Be a Good Idea

Busing? We’re really going to talk about busing? In 2019? What else does Kamala Harris have in mind? Mood-ring subsidies? A federal bureau of pet rocks? Is she going to create a strategic reserve of polyester bell-bottoms?

It was reasonable, even amusing, for Senator Harris to bring up busing during the Democratic-party debate last Thursday. She needed a blunt instrument with which to wallop Joe Biden upside the head, preferably while inserting herself into the narrative as the woebegone victim of his benighted policies. Harris knows Biden has been winning big among black voters and has a huge lead over her in South Carolina. The best way to bring him down is to paint him as a racist. She started with a class piece of apophasis: “I do not believe you are racist,” she told Biden, before explaining why everyone else should believe that he was. Biden’s recently expressed fond feelings about the racist (Democratic) senators he used to have lunch with? Deeply troubling. Segue to the suffering she had personally endured at the hands of Mean Joe B. when, by opposing busing in the 1970s, he ruthlessly sought to block her from the education she needed as an adorable six-year-old in pigtails. As one Twitter wag noted, by the time this beautifully performed little monologue had ended, Senator Harris looked like she might have to prosecute herself for murdering Biden.

About the Author

Kyle Smith

Kyle Smith is the film critic for the Wall Street Journal.

Busing? We’re really going to talk about busing? In 2019? What else does Kamala Harris have in mind? Mood-ring subsidies? A federal bureau of pet rocks? Is she going to create a strategic reserve of polyester bell-bottoms?

It was reasonable, even amusing, for Senator Harris to bring up busing during the Democratic-party debate last Thursday. She needed a blunt instrument with which to wallop Joe Biden upside the head, preferably while inserting herself into the narrative as the woebegone victim of his benighted policies. Harris knows Biden has been winning big among black voters and has a huge lead over her in South Carolina. The best way to bring him down is to paint him as a racist. She started with a class piece of apophasis: “I do not believe you are racist,” she told Biden, before explaining why everyone else should believe that he was. Biden’s recently expressed fond feelings about the racist (Democratic) senators he used to have lunch with? Deeply troubling. Segue to the suffering she had personally endured at the hands of Mean Joe B. when, by opposing busing in the 1970s, he ruthlessly sought to block her from the education she needed as an adorable six-year-old in pigtails. As one Twitter wag noted, by the time this beautifully performed little monologue had ended, Senator Harris looked like she might have to prosecute herself for murdering Biden.