Is Kamala Harris More Progressive Than Bernie Sanders?

Ben Burgis breaks down Newsweek's recent article that implied Kamala Harris is the most progressive member of the US Senate, beating out democratic socialist Bernard Sanders.

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[LinkRocks]

Harris is a careerist whereas Bernie has fought for the working class for decades.

[Johnsavage]

Centrists hitting Bernie from the 'left' is such a weird attack misses the point of why the center hates him.

[zzRider]

I came here for the humorous title and I left impressed with Ben’s insight.

[franglish]

Only if she was closer to her dad's economics. Which she isn't, she is highly partisan, and a ZeRo-ToLeRaNcE prosecutor, who cynically supports identity politics, instead of making actual material changes for marginalized people.

[notawinemom]

The entire scale is nonsensical because it assumes a Socialist is somehow in between a conservative & a liberal.

[severdislike]

And a reminder that Harris has financially benefited from both failing to persecute individuals that worsened the housing crash of 2008 (Mnuchinin particular) and the private prison industry. She has also continuously folded on progressive issues the second any of her donors apply pressure on her to drop an issue.

[mere_cat]

Dude this narrative drives me crazy! Thanks for breaking this down!

[DYKWINNING]

Short Answer: No
Long Answer: HAHAHA Absolutely Not!

[kekwayblaze]

In what alternate universe is this that Kamala Harris would seriously be considered not only progressive but to the left of Bernie Sanders?

[nicholaspeterkostopulos]

Nice job Ben. Enjoyed the straight talk. Clear thinking. Especially, the "no shit" at the end. :)

[Will-zyru]

Good analytical expose of Newsweek’s sophistry. Thanks Ben.

[pkobain]

thanks for this. great to see Jacobin creating this kind of 5-10 min content

[helengarrett]

Kamala Harris touted as more left than Bernie makes me laugh. I'm probably left of Bernie and Harris is waaay right of me. That makes her right of Bernie too. Would Harris demand Medicare for All and never back down? Well she wavered.

But I'm still demanding Medicare for All because then I would have the dental care I desperately need but cannot afford. Would Harris demand that OSHA (the agency that oversees workplace safety and fairness) be entirely revamped to be a real watchdog for the way workers are treated on the job? No. She wouldn't do that because corporations and corporate Democrats would vilify her. They don't want government meddling in the business of making a lot of money for the elites that really run our country. Nope, she's not left of Bernie. She's a corporate Democrat like the rest of the Democratic Party leadership and she easily changes her stance on issues that affect working people in order to achieve her personal goals.

Kamala harris is not as bad as some Democrats who really are moderate Republicans. There are no moderate Republicans any more so they drifted toward the right wing of the Democratic party. That is where Manchin, and Doug Jones live. The right wing of the zdemocratic Party is hillary and Bill's home.

This year's convention emphasized Republicans and held them up as role models while at the same time ignoring the real grass roots Democrats and the Progressives who worked for Bernie and who have convinced most of the United States that we need decent wages, decent chances in life and decent housing. We all want decent affordable health care but what we have, and this is all we are likely to have under a Biden/Harris ticket, is a runaway health insurance industry that lobbies for ever increasing medical bills and profits. We can all hear the sucking sound that is money escaping out of our pockets for medical payments as the pandemic worsens. If you survive a Covid infection you could die from the hospital bills if you get admitted for the virus. And as we get poorer and more people become unhoused, the wealthy are driving the stock market ever upward. We lose our jobs but businesses have cash on hand to invest and reinvest. They have been bailed out three times but working people have been teased but not helped much. We ordinary people never have recovered from the last disaster completely before we must face the next one.

No, Harris is not left of Bernie but we could use a whole lot of people left of him in the House and Senate. Eventually in the Presidency too. But not Trump, not Biden and, so help me, not Harris in 2024 either.

[CarlyonProduction]

That was a great little video. Ben should do more this length taking on pieces in the media. Informative and snappy.

[MintyFarts]

She's not the worst liberal.. but yeah.. definitely not progressive and I keep hearing ppl conflate liberal and progressive when citing this number.

[williamcozart]

No, dumb question. But wouldn't it be so awesome if she were?

[danilthorstensson]

We need more of these videos! We need a Left PragerU (but obviously more hinged)

[feelingveryattackedrn]

Also a great demonstration of the ways in which success in positions of power writ-large are often measured with inherent bias. Any reductive measure, such as number of bills passed, number of cross-aisle partnerships (as above), number of cosigns, etc are all going to paint a singular picture of what that politician is doing in office. For example, is a politician succeeding when they work across aisle to support banning BDS? The moral of this story and many others is that politics requires you to understand the context of the world and these articles and news channels try to remove that context for their own benefit.

[nigelgeiger]

I hate this sort of stuff. I think leftist politics could be wildly popular if people understood what that meant. I think a lot of current working class liberals would switch to the left if they understood how liberalism works against their own interests. But class reductionist blah blah blah.

[mjdaniel]

This makes me laugh, Bernie Sanders isn't even to the Left of FDR, there is n such thing as "Radical-Left" in the Federal government