Vice President Kamala Harris won't release her official campaign policies. So we have to judge her on the basis of her past policies.
It is true that she adopted the most left-wing, radical ideas of any presidential candidate -- more radical than socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). It is also true that, as a local and state prosecutor, she occasionally adopted absurdly hard-line policies on particular issues, like school truancy, that exceeded anything a conservative prosecutor would have done.
The reality is that she has no particular moral core. She does what she thinks will get attention and advance her career. Her instincts are left -- far, far left -- but she is essentially just a power-hungry political climber.
Regardless, here are the craziest policies Harris has embraced, mostly on the far left and some on the far right.
1. Medicare for All. Harris adopted a fully socialist health care policy when she ran for president in 2019, thanking Sanders for pushing the idea. She flip-flopped on the idea of whether her policy would require ending the private health insurance industry, which cost her significant credibility with the public. She later claimed that there would be some role for private companies -- although if California's treatment of insurance companies is any indication, in practice what that would mean is setting price caps and regulations that force private insurance companies to close.
2. Green New Deal. Harris was a co-sponsor of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's (D-NY) sweeping legislation, which not only sought to ban fossil fuels but also to socialize the entire U.S. economy, issuing payments for those who were "unwilling" to work. Harris also said she would ban fracking -- a pledge her campaign is now working feverishly to deny as she courts voters in swing-state Pennsylvania -- and that she would ban plastic straws and consider limiting meat. There was no environmental policy too crazy for Harris, whose state suffers high energy costs and power shortages.
3. Open borders. Harris championed "sanctuary" policies in San Francisco and California. The so-called "border czar" -- a title she now claims she never had -- was in favor of letting anyone into the country, shutting down detention centers, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and giving free healthcare to illegal aliens. As Vice President, Harris was supposed to deal with the so-called "root causes" of migration, which were deemed to originate in Central America. She barely visited the border, and soon migrants were coming to America from all over the world.
4. Targeting truancy. As San Francisco District Attorney, and later as California Attorney General, Harris went after the parents of children who were missing school. She threatened parents, and some were even arrested (which, later, she falsely denied). The policy did little to stop truancy, but it had a massive, and negative, impact on black and Latino parents. This issue came up during Harris's presidential campaign in 2019, but has been memory-holed by Democrats.
5. Keeping non-violent offenders in prison. Then-Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) derailed Harris's campaign in 2019 by pointing out that she had locked up thousands of people for marijuana possession. But Harris's record is far worse. For many years, she resisted a Supreme Court order to release thousands of non-violent convicts from California prisons. One of her arguments was that the state needed the labor they provided. Meanwhile, Harris cut soft plea deals with violent criminals and refused to seek the death penalty for a cop killer. Later, she backed ending cash bail in California.
In sum: Harris is not a leader capable of governing. Her trademark is adopting radical ideas past the point of absurdity.
This is the portion that all journalists should love: the Torah tells the story of the 12 spies, only two of whom tell the truth when the other ten shade it in a negative away (perhaps to suit a political agenda that is opposed to Moses).
It's not that the ten "lying" spies misconstrue the facts about the Land of Israel; rather, they interject their opinions that the land is impossible to conquer, which strikes unnecessary terror into the hearts of the people.
We have many examples of such fake news today -- from the Iranian propaganda outlets spreading false claims that they are winning the war, to California politicians spreading false horror stories about ICE raids in L.A.
The people realize, too late, that they have been fooled, and once they are condemned to die in the desert, they try to rush into Israel -- only to be defeated by the inhabitants, as the spies predicted that they would be.
But as consolation, God gives the people new commandments -- focused on things they must ...
This week's portion discusses the procedure for lighting the menorah, the holy seven-branched lamp, in the Tabernacle (and later the Temple). It also describes an episode where the people crave meat, and God punishes them by giving it to them in excess. We also read the story of Miriam, Moses's sister, who is punished with the spiritual skin blemish of tzara'at for speaking about her brother, thus violating the prohibition against lashon hara (evil tongue).
I heard a fantastic sermon this week about the lighting of the menorah: that while only the priests were qualified to clean and purify the menorah, anyone could light it. A reminder that each of us can inspire others along the way.
This week we study the vow of the Nazirite; a reminder that sometimes trying to be too holy is excessive, and the best we can do is to be the best that we are.
https://www.chabad.org/parshah/torahreading_cdo/aid/2495720/p/complete/jewish/Naso-Torah-Reading.htm