Vice President Kamala Harris is running from her more radical past in order to alleviate the worries of swing voters, especially those who are put off by Donald Trump’s vices.
Just as Joe Biden won in 2020 by convincing voters he would provide a more normal four years, Harris is trying to establish that hers would be a low-stakes presidency — a return to the normal boundaries of American politics.
Kamala has moderated on crime, climate, and gun control. The next question: Can she moderate on culture wars?
Obviously, Harris will not moderate on abortion itself — the Democratic Party does not brook even criticism of abortion, for any reason at any stage in pregnancy. But perhaps she could moderate on the persecution and prosecution of pro-lifers.
Likewise, she could try to call off the culture warriors who try to crush Christian bakers, and she could tell Democratic attorneys general to not crush conservative institutions and persecute conservatives.
Many conservatives see Trump as fundamentally unfit for the presidency. His narcissism undermines him. His fondness for dictators and strongmen indicts him. And his refusal to accept his 2020 loss makes him a scary prospect for normal voters.
Nevertheless, many of these conservatives feel they have to vote for Trump because the alternative is four years of persecution. The alternative is a power structure that uses government power to punish and harass religious people.
If Harris wanted to alleviate the fears of conservative voters and really tack to the center, she would give a speech calling off the culture war.
Harris could begin by calling off the Justice Department’s crusade against pro-lifers. The Biden-Harris administration created a special task force at the Justice Department with the intention of prosecuting pro-lifers. They called it the “Reproductive Rights Taskforce,” and by all appearances, its purpose was hunting for violations of the FACE Act, a law that creates special protections for abortion clinics.
The DOJ’s first such prosecution was a frivolous one that looked more like harassment than legitimate law enforcement. FBI agents showed up in the early morning to arrest Pennsylvania father Mark Houck and charge him with a felony for shoving an abortion activist. The activist was harassing Houck and his young son when the scuffle broke out. The City of Philadelphia dismissed the case based on the facts. The jury acquitted Houck, and it wasn’t a tough call.
Imagine if Harris apologized to Houck, and said, “While we have polar opposite views about abortion, you never should have been prosecuted for this.” She could alleviate the fears that she would weaponize federal law enforcement against ideological rivals.
Likewise, she could address the ACLU and other groups dead set on compelling conservative Christians to violate their consciences by endorsing gay marriage and transgender ideology. She doesn’t have to say anything nice about people who follow Catholic teaching, but she could say, “Live and let live.”
There’s also huge ground in the middle on schools. On the whole “book ban” charge Democrats like to throw at Republicans, there’s a clear moderate position that critiques the dumbest actions by the Right while rejecting the most extreme views on the Left.
Killers of the Flower Moon, a tale of the oppression and mistreatment of American Indians, shouldn’t be banned. Nevertheless, some Republican state laws against Critical Race Theory might make the book verboten in public schools. If Harris wants to score points for academic freedom and against Republican book banners, she can mention that. In the next breath, she could say that parents and principals should have the right to control what books the children read, especially to keep out young adult books that amount to pornography.
If Harris said give parents and principals control over curricula and libraries, she would shoot across the bow of both over-reaching Red State politicians and porn-peddling left-wing librarians. She would also alleviate concerns of parents who worry that a liberal school-and-government establishment are dead-set on indoctrinating children away from their parents.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Harris could tack to the middle without doing anything actually conservative. She doesn’t need to defend baker Jack Phillips, accept abortion restrictions, or say something nice about religious schools.
Instead, she could make it clear that while she’s on the cultural Left, she doesn’t want to sic the government on the cultural Right.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
