Harris’ penchant for identity politics is both dated and political poison. Recall her performance in the first Democratic presidential debate, back in 2020, when she all but called Biden a racist for allegedly being against busing children to desegregate schools. Declaring herself “the only Black person on this stage” was her claim to authority on such matters.

As it turned out, the federally mandated busing in the ’70s was roundly disliked by white and Black people alike. She also misrepresented Biden’s position. He was opposed to forced busing, not the voluntary kind. Harris later said that this was, actually, her position as well.

Harris’ obvious mission was to unfairly smear a primary opponent, and the hell with Democratic solidarity. Although she self-dramatized as a member of a disadvantaged racial minority, her mother was, in fact, a medical researcher from India, and her Jamaican father was a professor of economics at Stanford University. (That Biden made her his running mate surprises me to this day.)