Kamala Harris is back on the road, and apparently the 2024 election taught her one lesson above all others: the system must be the problem.
During a Friday swing through New Orleans, the former vice president told students she plans to spend the next several months rallying voters across the South. Harris tied the tour to the Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which she claimed, “basically undid the Voting Rights Act.” She also accused Republicans of trying to cheat ahead of the November midterms.
“I’m spending my time to remind people that even though they’re trying to put obstacles in front of us, even though they’re trying to cheat — because they are trying to cheat,” Harris said, “that that’s not a reason that we just stay in bed and keep the covers over our heads and say, ‘well, wake me up when it’s over.’”
Stirring stuff. A sober defense of democracy from the woman currently crisscrossing the country to tell Democrats that the other side cheats, the Electoral College is rigged, and what her party really needs is more “ruthlessness.” At the same rally, Harris was welcomed as “Madame President.” The Electoral College apparently missed that memo.
Harris spent Friday barnstorming New Orleans. She addressed hundreds of students at an InspireNOLA back-to-school rally in the morning, then headlined the Louisiana Democrat Party’s “Masquerade Sneaker Ball” that evening. New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno also presented her with a ceremonial key to the city at a private event before the gala. Apparently losing the presidency comes with perks.
Prepared excerpts supplied ahead of Harris’s evening address said Democrats needed to develop a “ruthlessness that must be the attitude of the Democratic Party.” She was careful to explain that she meant the nice kind of ruthlessness.
“This fight requires that we start to get comfortable with some things — including having a certain kind of ruthlessness. Now, I don’t mean ruthlessness like the cruelty they show. I mean the kind that is uncompromising in its impatience with injustice, that shows no mercy for corruption, that fights back hard when they threaten the power of the people.”