Can the new politics of “joy” championed by Kamala Harris and running mate Tim Walz stand up to libertarian scrutiny? From Reason:
Kamala Harris’ most consistent political trait may be a lack of consistency. Over the course of her long career, first in California and then in Washington, D.C., the Democrats’ 2024 presidential nominee has been plagued by plausible allegations that she’s hard to pin down and lacks a stable ideological core. She’s a flip-flopper—or, if you want to be charitable, she evolves quickly.
Over the summer, Harris’ evolutions kept on coming, with her campaign issuing rapid-fire disavowals of many of her previous positions. Because she ran her failed 2020 presidential primary bid on an ultraprogressive, big-government platform, many of her new positions are noticeably more oriented toward the mainstream—and freedom…
Yet in recent years, and especially since picking up the nomination for president, Harris has been flip-flopping toward freedom—at least on some issues. Since 2018, she has embraced marijuana legalization. More recently, Harris has changed her tune on fracking, single-payer health care, Supreme Court expansion, a mandatory gun buyback, and a federal jobs guarantee.
With each new flip-flop, Harris has been embracing more moderate and mainstream positions—and in most cases, this has led her in a less authoritarian direction. In 2019, Harris called it “a good idea” to force owners of semiautomatic rifles to sell them to the government. In August, a Harris spokesperson said she would not push a mandatory buyback program as president.
While running for president last time, Harris said there was “no question” that she was in “in favor of banning fracking,” an oil and gas extraction method that has helped lower natural gas prices and reduced reliance on coal but troubled environmentalists over concerns about potential ill effects. In July, Harris’ campaign told The Hill that a President Harris would not seek a ban on fracking… Read More