Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) has moved up dramatically in my rating of her ability to use the power of the word to win the nomination and the White House but nothing has budged by estimation that she will govern based on a world that works for Kamala Harris rather than a world that works for everyone.
Going into last week’s first nationally televised debate amongst the Democratic candidates for president, Harris scored lowest in my ranking of emerging top candidates for president because I didn’t think she used the word well enough to win the nomination or the presidency. Coming out of the debates, she moves up. As it stands now, she is bested only by Sanders, Warren (and yes, Williamson) overall in the Democratic field in combination of use of power of the word to win with likelihood to work for a world that works for everyone as this chart below details. Read on to see why:
Harris performed masterfully in last Thursday’s debate. That exchange between Harris and Biden was one of the most powerful moments of political theater I can remember. It is the only moment in either debate that is absolutely mandatory for your viewing, so I embed it below.
In this exchange, Kamala Harris pulls off something that is practically impossible to accomplish. By breaking into a raucous skirmish over just policing tactics (occasioned by the tragedy in Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s city) speaking as the “only African-American on this stage,” Harris turns the heat on Vice President Joe Biden. Cocking her head to the side, she lures all of us fragile ego white voters in, sounding very respectful and loving, by saying “I do not believe you are a racist.” She continues, “[but what happened recently] was hurtful…” (again, very vulnerable and great television, as if the two of them are meeting alone over a drink and not on a debate stage–I cannot emphasize how hard this is to do.)
And then she proceeds to quietly, powerfully, and effectively make sure we all know about Joe Biden’s recent crowing over his close work with segregationist senators to end Department of Education ordered busing decades ago. And she brings it to the personal by telling us that there was a little girl who was in the second class of children bused into integrate a public school in Berkeley, CA, “and that little girl was me.”
There is no doubt, by the way, that this entire moment was planned by the Harris campaign, because within seconds of her saying “and that little girl was me” her campaign tweeted an adorable picture of that little girl out. Shortly thereafter, these t-shirts below appeared.
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| That little girl was me T-shirt |
So, has Kamala Harris got game? Yes. The current resident in chief of the White House proves that many voters cast their ballot more on who they want to see on their screens than on who they think will make the best leader of our country. In the reality tv show that is the 2020 presidential race, you would definitely have to vote to keep Harris on the island.
But is that the same as effective use as the power of the word? Maybe. Remember I consider the incumbent president to be a master user of the word. So on the basis of last week’s debate, I am going to move Harris’s rating on potential use of the word to win the nomination and the presidency from a 3 to a 9. But on over all effective use of Power of the Word, I’ll move her only from a 6 to 8.
And I still rate Harris on the low end of the Democratic field in word grounded a world that works for everyone or likelihood to govern based on shared values of diversity and inclusion, accountability love, compassion and caring. This is due to her record as a prosecutor and an Attorney General where she could have used her position to create prison reform and so much more, but didn’t. Throughout her career, Kamala Harris has proven herself more interested in a world that works for Kamala Harris than a world that works for everyone.
Sanders remains the only Democratic candidate in my estimation who combines effective use of Power of the Word with likelihood to win and govern based on shared values. So he is head and shoulders above the rest. Warren has top marks for her values and likelihood to govern from them but lower marks on use of the power of her word.
Contrast that with the incumbent president who has top ranks on use of the power of the word to win and zeros for grounding his word in a World that Works for Everyone or shared values. In the total chart,
Scale of 1 – 10 10 being the best
- Harris effective Use of Power of the Word — 9
- Harris potential use of the word to win the nomination and presidency — 8
- Harris grounding her word in a vision of a World that Works for Everyone upon assuming presidency — 7
- Harris in likelihood of governing based on shared values of love, integrity, diversity and inclusion, accountability, caring–5
This is Part 6 of a multi-part series examining how we use the Power of the Word in politics, particularly in the 2020 presidential race. Rev. Sara S. Nichols is senior minister at the Center for Spiritual Living, Davis and the Spiritual Director of All is Well Institute which supports and teaches people how to heal themselves using spiritual tools. Trained as an attorney, before coming to spiritual science, she was a legislative and communications advocate for Medicare for All and other consumer issues in Congress and the California legislature.
In this series, we confine ourselves primarily to the question of how effectively does the candidate work with the power of their word. In other words, given how they marshall universal law to their favor through the power of the word, how much do they appear to be grounded in a vision of a world that works for everyone, how likely are they to win, and when they assume the White House, what are they likely to accomplish?
My assumption is that every Democratic challenger for president shares most of the same policy positions (affordable universal health care and education, pro civil rights, combat climate change, raise the minimum wage, pro gun control). There are plenty of other writers out there that will spend their time evaluating the nuances of where Democratic candidates for president are on these issues. And most news forums will spend their time looking at the experience, the demographics and the charisma of the candidates, all of which play a role in whether they will win.