Democrat Senator turns on Harris

A Democratic member of the U.S. Senate had some harsh criticism recently for Vice President Kamala Harris, according to Fox News.

The Senator is Brian Schatz of Hawaii, and he voiced his criticism of Harris in a recent interview that he did with Politico.

Although you may not be familiar with Schatz, he has already been in the Senate for 12 years, and he is about to get a promotion.

According to Politico, "with a new Congress, he’ll be chief deputy whip, a post that, with one more likely retirement, could vault him to become the second-ranking Senate Democrat in just two years."

Schatz's criticism of Harris:

What Schatz has taken issue with is the language the Harris has been using, which, according to him, is out of touch with voters.

Schatz told  Politico:

I think Kamala did a really good job on focusing on middle-class concerns. But I remember her saying, ‘I’m going to center the needs of the working class.’ And I thought to myself, I don’t know anyone in the world who says center. I know people in politics who say center. I know people in academia. I know people in advocacy who say center. But centering the needs, or making space for, or all of that, is a clear indication that you are not normal.

Schatz did not stop there. He went on to call attention to other examples that he believes has alienated voters.

He said:

[T]his idea that there are magic words that we must be forced to say defines progressivism and political courage by essentially saying whatever a bunch of activists want us to say, as opposed to doing the thing. And I think that there are a bunch of people who see what we’re doing as performative, for that exact reason. But it’s also just alienating. This magic words thing has to go away.

He probably has a point here.

Harris's future

Chances are that Democrats like Schatz are not really going to have to worry about Harris too much more in the future.

While Harris herself has suggested that her political career is far from over, Democrats strategists have indicated otherwise.

Recently, for example, a Democratic National Committee fundraiser called Harris's political aspirations - such as becoming the next governor of California or the next U.S. president - "delusional."

It does seem unlikely, based on what we have seen from Harris in the past two presidential elections, that she has much of a future in national politics.

It is probably not out of the realm of possibility, however, that she could be elected in such a deep blue state as California. Time will tell.