Kamala Harris Is the Boy Band of Politicians

After nearly two months of faux popularity, the Kamala Harris team appears to have realised that a candidate without clearly defined policies stands the risk of being defined by the opponent.¹ After much criticism, the Harris campaign has finally put up an “Issues” page; it went up yesterday, September 8.

I’m in agreement with critics that a lot of it is anodyne, and offers very little of great substance. And her vision on matters like Palestine is, predictably, one that sides with genocide. But there is at least, now, something to look at, in one place, and voters can turn to it and contrast it with Donald Trump’s agenda.

Still, I’m struck by how carelessly thrown together the “Issues” page is. Consider this section on Palestine:

Vice President Harris will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to protect U.S. forces and interests from Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups. Vice President Harris will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself and she will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself. She and President Biden are working to end the war in Gaza, such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom, and self-determination. She and President Biden are working around the clock to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done.

Let us, for now, ignore the fact that this statement says nothing about the ongoing genocide, and that it portrays Palestinians not as people fighting an oppressor but as those who need their rights legitimised by the pity of an occupying force and its biggest enabler. Even putting all that aside, it’s hard to not read this and marvel at the carelessness with which it has been put together. Consider the last couple of sentences above, and that they both begin with the same words, “She and President Biden…” The whole thing appears to have been thrown together with a bored yawn. On Twitter, Corrine Green pointed out that much of the Issues page was badly imported from the old Biden campaign.

My point here is less that Harris needs better writers (though, yes, she does), but that this carelessness is indicative of how the campaign functions. Harris has operated less like a serious political candidate and more like a boy band, a conglomeration of loosely knit ideas that make up a catchy tune at first, but whose popularity ebbs over time.

There’s nothing wrong with boy bands, and we all need fluff, but politics is a different arena. Harris has shown a searing contempt for the average voter, and relied on emotional blackmail: vote for me, or you get Trump. That’s not a winning strategy, and it evokes the kind of binary thinking that might animate Twitter or Facebook or TikTok. But in real life voters do actually think about issues and want to see candidates who demonstrate that they stand by their policies. Of course, as even Harris’s supporters point out, her lack of any firm political views are a reason to avoid taking policy positions altogether.

Tomorrow, September 9, Harris faces her first debate against Donald Trump. Debates, historically, have been more significant as media events than as defining political moments: voters generally forget what was said or argued by the time they arrive at the first Tuesday of November. But the last one was decisive in that it compelled Biden to step down, this election season is (mercifully) much shorter that the usual, and it will be the first time that Harris is questioned on politics by a rival. Can Harris do what she has avoided so far: prove that she has more staying power as an actual candidate with her own views? Or will she continue to hope that being the boy band of politicians—and an embodiment of a summer song—will somehow see her to victory?