Ever since the Democrats threw Joe Biden under the bus and unceremoniously anointed Vice President Kamala Harris as their new nominee, the Veep has had very little if anything to say about the policies she plans on putting in place if she is sworn in as the next president. But a few comments and campaign pledges have slipped out in the past six weeks or so, with most of them sharing one trait in common. Kamala has been flip-flopping on so many of her previously held positions that Simone Biles is beginning to get jealous. The latest example came to us on Thursday when a Harris spokesperson deigned to answer a few questions from Axios. For reasons that aren't entirely clear, Axios asked them about a statement made during Harris' original presidential bid in 2020 when she said she supported a ban on plastic straws. Is that still her position? Apparently not. Axios was told that supporting a ban on single-use plastic straws is "no longer her position."
When Vice President Kamala Harris ran for president in 2020, she said plastic straws should be banned. On Thursday, her campaign says that's no longer her position.Banning plastic straws to protect the environment and marine life is the latest progressive issue on which Harris and her campaign have either declined to comment or changed her position.Many parts of the country have banned plastic straws as concerns have grown about plastic pollution in oceans and waterways.Seattle became the first major U.S. city to ban plastic straws in the summer of 2018.Other countries also have signaled or committed to banning single-use plastic products.
Here's a quote from a CNN town hall Kamala took part in back in 2019. When asked if we should ban the straws, she said, "I think we should. We do need to ban the plastic" straws. She also said that paper straws needed to be improved. Now fast forward to September of 2024. "She doesn't support banning plastic straws," a campaign official told Axios.
Harris' team has been leaking out all manner of "new" policy positions demonstrating other, more significant reversals, though such releases are done almost entirely on background. Nobody wants their names associated with anything. Harris has allegedly reversed her stance on Medicare for All and mandatory gun "buyback" programs, which is just another way of saying gun confiscation. She also reportedly no longer wants to ban fracking and has supposedly promised to sign a bill intended to restart construction on Trump's border wall.
Returning to the original topic, why would Axios bother to ask about the plastic straw ban and why would Harris' team bother to answer? Is this somehow a relevant hot topic once again? Obviously it's not. The entire plastic straw ban was yet another bit of madness that was briefly in vogue during the last decade as another way to "save the planet," but even its most ardent supporters eventually seemed to become embarrassed about it and let it fall by the wayside The idea was widely mocked, including by conservative rapper Tom MacDonald in his song "People So Stupid." In it, he wrote, "Hallelujah, everyone, activism saved the planet. No more plastic straws in paper, just paper straws wrapped in plastic, congratulations."
So why the change in policy now? The answer seems obvious, at least to me. Kamala Harris has never been serious about any of the policies she endorsed. She simply said what seemed to be popular on the far left at the moment. None of it mattered because, as the Veep, she didn't have the power to sign any bills into law or implement policy. None of those positions carried any consequences so she was free to say what she liked. Now the Democrats are facing the stark possibility that this wholly unserious person could conceivably wind up being the Commander-in-Chief. (God help us all.) So her handlers are trying to hammer together a policy platform that at least sounds somewhat serious in record time and have it not be completely at odds with what nearly every major poll tells us about how the voters feel on these issues. I do not envy them their job.
