I Alone Can Fix It

One of the criticisms that I have seen about Vice President Harris' campaign is that she is promising to "fix" things. Her critics ask what it is she's planning on fixing, since her party has been in control of the White House for 12 out of the last 16 years. It's a fair question to ask - is she saying that her own team has made a mess that she, turning her back on that team, now has to "fix"? It's a fair question, but a bit disingenuous, coming from people who have already decided that they'll be supporting her opponent. 

Let's start with the assertion that Harris is pledging to fix things. There may be video of her out there using those words, but I haven't seen it. And it's not Harris who infamously declared "I alone can fix it". Harris and her supporters are also not claiming that the country is in a mess of Trump's doing, even though he left office almost 4 years ago. The Trumpublicans are framing things to make it seem as if that's what she and the Democrats are running on. They are also intentionally ignoring and misrepresenting how the government works. 

Despite the perception that a serving president is an all-powerful figure, our government was very consciously set up with three co-equal branches, each with its own ways of asserting authority and frustrating the well-laid plans of the other branches. The last time the Democrats held the White House and Congress, including a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate (counting 2 Democratic caucusing Independents), was during the first two years of President Obama's first term from 2009 - 2011. This was when the Affordable Care Act was passed. By the midterm elections of 2010 the Democrats lost 64 House seats and handed over the majority to the Republicans; the Senate majority shrunk to 53. By the midterms of Obama's second term the Republicans gained the Senate majority as well. Republicans held the presidency and both houses of Congress for the first two years of Trump's term, but it's been split ever since. Divided government limits what any president can do, despite optimistic campaign promises. 

Let's not underestimate the influence of the federal judiciary, especially the Supreme Court. Appointments to the various levels of federal judgeships is one of the main ways that a president can extend their influence beyond their term. Senator McConnell was a main force behind putting a conservative stamp, not only on the Supreme Court, but on lower court appointments. The precedent breaking refusal to consider a Supreme Court nominee by President Obama during his final year in office and the reversal of the new "rule" during Trump's final year in office effectively changed the balance of the court from 5-4 favoring the liberal justices to 6-3 in favor of the conservatives. The new conservative majority is systematically reversing long standing precedent, ostensibly deferring to an originalist  judicial philosophy, but arguably simply using originalism to mask instituting a right wing agenda. 

So, despite 12-4, D's vs. R's in the last 16 years, there's potentially a lot of Republican damage still to be undone. So, despite Republican misrepresentation of her message, she's not suggesting that President Biden is leaving her a mess to fix, or that the "mess" is the result of Democratic mismanagement, but that the job isn't done. 

Harris' campaign philosophy is also partly focusing on the danger that a second Trump term means, separate from any damage that still remains undone during the last three and a half years. I've written regularly on why a second Trump term would be a disaster for the country, so I won't recount it all now, but Harris is prioritizing reminding the electorate of the cons of a Trump presidency, especially since there seems to be some amnesia about some of what went on during his term. 

As with any politician, there are legitimate areas of Harris' record and her proposed agenda, that are subject to criticism. This isn't one of them.