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Hawkish Kamala Harris

H. E. Panqui

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Is Kamala Harris a Hawk? - Antiwar.com Original

"Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin hasn’t forgotten a 2017 meeting with members of Senator Kamala Harris’s staff to discuss the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The Israeli land and sea blockade was causing massive unemployment as well as shortages of food and electricity. Benjamin and other progressive activists wanted the Senator to criticize Israel’s policies and end the siege.

"You could just see the blank stares from her aides as we spoke," Benjamin recalls in a phone interview from Washington, D.C. "They argued that Israel has the right to defend itself. There was no sympathy for the Palestinians..."

...Harris closely adheres to Democratic Party mainstream policies, which under President Barack Obama brought us wars in Syria, Libya, and Yemen, as well as escalated wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"She has views close to the Obama Administration, nothing that would be an exciting departure from US militarism," says Benjamin...

...Harris often attacks Trump from the right, criticizing him for cozying up to leaders in North Korea, Russia, and China. For example, she supports sanctions against Russia for meddling in Ukraine and annexing Crimea...
 
Like most Americans, the Israeli/Palesinian issue isn't very high on their radar.

If she becomes president, that will change.
 
I'm more than happy to go back to the faults from Obama's foreign policy and take it from there. The bad things were relatively manageable compared to how they are now.

It's like asking, "Do you prefer having the bedroom closet on fire in 2016, or the whole house on fire now?"
 
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These are the rare legitimate discussion topics from some Harris opponents.

Democrats aren't perfect, and they can be very flawed and more than a thousand times better than Republicans; that's context, not a reason not to discuss Democrats' flaws.

Obama greatly escalated the killing of innocent people drones, and was less than honest about it. Hillary was a disgustingly "neoliberal" type actor at times, behind a misguided Libya policy, supporting a corrupt coup in Honduras, laughing like a psychopath about the horrific tortuous killing of Qadafi, and so on. Democrats have our own issues and concerns.

The take on Harris seems to be that while she has been on the 'neoliberal' team largely, she is less hawkish than the talented but apparently more hawkish Susan Rice, who was quite on board with Hillary's errors - that Harris is a less hawkish choice.

It's not clear what to do about this. The primaries are over, so we can't pick Bernie anymore. The Republicans are not an option. So all we can do is try to pressure Biden/Harris, and discussing any flaws and history they have is fair.
 
So all we can do is try to pressure Biden/Harris, and discussing any flaws and history they have is fair.

I'm curious. You label yourself a Progressive, and yet you want to pressure Biden/Harris 78 days before the election. To what end?
 
I'm curious. You label yourself a Progressive, and yet you want to pressure Biden/Harris 78 days before the election. To what end?

Because policies matter. If trump renamed himself a Democrat tomorrow, I wouldn't support him because of his new party label; I'd oppose him the same. You need to be able to strongly support a candidate as the right choice, AND to be able to push them on issues where they're wrong. Blindly praising them for good and bad is wrong. As I said, Biden/Harris are more than a thousand times better choice than trump/Pence despite this.
 
I'm curious. You label yourself a Progressive, and yet you want to pressure Biden/Harris 78 days before the election. To what end?

Supporting and voting for Biden/Harris is one thing. Having to say any bad policies they have are fine is wrong. JFK said, "Sometimes party loyalty asks too much."
 
...i am experienced with ripping apart republicans and democrats.... it's easy and fun...

...many of the responses i get from republicans amounts to, 'but but biden/hillary' etc....from democrats it's 'but but trump/mitch mcconnell'.... ugh... :cuckoo:
 
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