Kamala Harris of Califorina for president in 2020

Ideas for the U.S., yes

We yearn for a president who doesn't binge-watch Fox News. Assuming we can even survive the remainder of the Trump presidency, we'll need a breath of fresh air. Some have trotted out the name of our own Amy Klobuchar. With all due respect to Klobuchar, I'm looking forward to Kamala Harris being our next president. She is the proverbial fresh face and part of a new generation that will inevitably have to lead.
Harris is from California which embraces the kind of progressive tendencies our whole nation needs. Am I excited about the "glass ceiling" being shattered? Not so much. I'm somewhat inclined to think that women embrace more humanistic, less conflict-centered values. Heavens, after the Trump presidency we'll need the more gentle model in spades. This is assuming our whole nation doesn't collapse before the next presidential term. We must hold our collective breath for the rest of the "Access Hollywood" presidency.
Harris is a U.S. Senator representing California. She's a native of the San Francisco Bay area. Like Klobuchar she has a background as prosecutor. She was elected twice as San Francisco's district attorney. Then she won the California attorney general race in 2010. What a responsibility: to be at the top of this populous state's enormous law enforcement system. She has gone after those notorious for-profit colleges. She has had the courage to stand in unabashed fashion with the maligned Black Lives Matter movement.
Is it so drastic to push for states to compile data on officer-involved shootings? Harris has advocated this way. She reflects Barack Obama in wanting to keep low-level offenders out of jail. She dismisses much of the old and (very) tired "war on drugs" theme. She embraces early childhood education. Sure, the likes of Fox News or Breitbart would present the likes of Harris as a flaming liberal. But she has been viewed by many as a moderate or cautious, almost to a fault at times. She has been criticized for too much restraint on prosecutorial misconduct.
But look at how she reacted to California's Proposition 8. That was the voter-passed measure in 2008 that banned same-sex marriage. Harris refused to enforce it. She argued that Proposition 8 violated the Constitution.
Harris herself is a person of color, not that I feel we all ought to be pigeon-holed this way. Hey, we're a melting pot here in America!
 
A better image than H. Clinton
Hillary Clinton failed to break the glass ceiling although she won the popular vote. I had problems with Hillary Clinton all along. I guess No. 1, perhaps operating at a subconscious level, was my disdain based on Hillary's support for her husband when it was determined that Bill was accepting oral sex from an intern in the White House. Ish. Perhaps if she had divorced Bill - would that be so radical? - my viewpoint would be more charitable. I also didn't like the way she campaigned against Bernie Sanders.
Perhaps the biggest media failing was the short shrift that the early Sanders rallies got. The groundswell said something about popular sentiment, for example how the American people will simply need radical help with health care - "single payer." Even Charles Krauthammer seems to indicate that single payer is inevitable. He says we're maybe seven years away but I think it will happen sooner.
Significantly, Kamala Harris came out for single payer just last week. She's headed in the right direction.
 
Affinity with Barack Obama
Obama is a long-time ally of Harris. I must insert here as quite the side note that I consider Harris a quite attractive-looking woman, though I realize this consideration is superfluous and, I guess, sexist. But hey, there is precedent for offering such a thought. Precedent from who? Why, from none other than Obama, who once praised Kamala as the nation's "best-looking attorney general." Oh my, he had to apologize for that statement. I'll just share a little wink with our former president.
Immediately upon Trump's election, Harris made a firm argument against the racist and xenophobic values embraced by the new president. The biggest problem is that we will have to wade along in the Trump presidency which is still so young, it's scary - incredibly scary. Trump has appointed cabinet heads who are scary with what they are doing. Maybe the Russia investigation will totally take him down. It's even possible that Vice President Pence will be drawn into the wreckage.
All we need is a sane and competent centrist to be president. David Brooks has suggested we need a "Gerald Ford solution" to the mess, but how do we get there? I hope the ship of state survives well enough that we can see Kamala Harris rise to the helm.
- Brian Williams - bwilly73@yahoo.com - bwilly73@yahoo.com