Vice President Harris began her nationwide Fight for Reproductive Freedoms tour on Monday in Wisconsin with an impassioned defense of women’s right to choose an abortion…
The power of that speech was driven home to me by this line…
“The idea that someone who survived a crime that is violence to their body, a violation to their body and then would not have the authority to decide what happens to their body next,that’s immoral!”
Harris has firmly grasped that abortion rights are indeed about morality. And that the right and moral issue at stake here is not letting the government take away people’s rights to govern their own bodies. To use an antiquated name from the last century, those who insist on exercising their freedom to do what they want with their bodies are the real Moral Majority in America.
By June 24, 2022, the mainstream media and many political pundits had rendered their verdict on Vice President Harris: she had failed, undone by Lester Holt’s infamous gotcha interview with her in 2021 and dismissed with jokes about “word salad.” Or accusing her of failing to singlehandedly solve in 18 months America’s immigration and border dilemma that in actuality Congress has been failing to pass legislation on for over a century.
But on that date, the Supreme Court also rendered its verdict in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. And in my humble view, the court’s verdict on Dobbs unintentionally handed the baton for women’s reproductive freedom to Vice President Harris. Which led to the past 18 months after that where Harris took that baton and ran with it!
Witness her speech that she gave prior to welcoming President Biden onto the stage in Virginia yesterday (her remarks begin at the 14:30 mark)…
”And let us all agree that one does not have to abandon their faith or their deeply held beliefs to agree the government should not be telling her what to do with her body! If she chooses she will consult her pastor, her priest, her rabbi, her imam—but not the government telling her what to do!”
The irony here is the Republicans with their disingenuously named “Freedom” Caucus have forced voters to rethink the very notion of freedom in this country.
Simultaneously, leaving American voters to wonder what freedoms they might have left after the GOP has spent the past 9 years trying to implement an authoritarian agenda where they tell everyone, both male and female, what they can do with their bodies!
- Passing laws to outlaw transgendered youth trying to transition with hormones and surgery.
- Prosecuting women for miscarriages or aborting non-viable fetuses that cannot survive outside the womb or pregnancies due to being victims of rape or incest.
- Or simply because they weren’t ready or able to be parents.
- Even raising the issue of restricting or even banning contraception for both men and women.
”And note while these extremists say they are motivated by the health and the well-being of the women and children of America, in reality, they ignore the crisis of maternal mortality! The top 10 states in our country with the highest rates of maternal mortality all have abortion bans. The hypocrisy abounds! So this is, in fact, a healthcare crisis.”
The Vice President has taken the language of the far right agenda forced on the country by the GOP and imposed by the Supreme Court and flipped it on its head. How? By pointing out the real morality central to this debate—and who is truly guilty of hypocrisy and the threats they pose to freedom in the matters of bodily autonomy, the right to choose and even access to birth control.
While our historic first MVP continues her Fight for Reproductive Freedoms tour, I strongly encourage those on DailyKos quickest to criticize her to look at how perceptions of Harris have changed over the past 18 months since the Supreme Court handed both her and the Democratic Party a golden opportunity to fight for freedom and fight back against the extreme MAGA Republican legislative strategy.
In a mere year-and-a-half, Harris has gone from being put down as speaking in word salad to moments of fiery eloquence like this…
Please watch that speech in its entirety if you have not done so already. The passion, the sincerity, the power and strength and empathy in the Vice President’s voice. It is frankly my favorite speech she has given in the past year. This is the intelligent, heartfelt and eloquent fighter for freedom and liberty that Joe Biden saw and wanted to be his Vice President.
The fight to save abortion rights and reproductive freedom in this nation that the Supreme Court stirred anew in 2022 also gave Kamala Harris another chance to show her talents, her gifts and her political leadership to America and the world. And in light of that, do not forget another silver lining to that controversial New York Times poll last November also showed Harris’ approval ratings with young voters and people of color were higher than President Biden’s.
9 minute readUpdated 6:04 AM EST, Wed January 24, 2024>SNIP<The vice president is expected to visit several states to reveal the impact of the Dobbs decision, including states where abortion is banned and where it remains on the ballot.
Harris on the trail
Harris has spent much of January on the road, hitting crucial states that Biden needs to clinch a second term in office and where Democrats need to mobilize voters of color, including Nevada, South Carolina and Georgia.
“You can’t do a college tour and not be authentic because it will – you know, they’ll sniff it out,” Black Voters Matter co-founder Cliff Albright told CNN. “I think the more that she can tap into that, the better.”
“I think when people can see that she’s mad just as much as we’re mad. And she’s willing to fight just as much as we want to fight,” Albright said. “I think that resonates with people. I think it resonates for young folks.”
The voice, presence and political acumen of Vice President Harris has risen anew like a phoenix since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision. Pundits and many in the media now give her credit for her newfound voice on reproductive rights and her approval ratings with young voters and people of color. Don’t ever underestimate her undeniable skills as a passionate politician with the power to move voters, connect with them and get them to the polls.
UPDATE:
A big THANK YOU to Daily Kos’s own lpeacock, Linda, for sharing the next stop on Vice President Harris’Fight For Reproductive Freedoms tour — next Monday 1/29 in San Jose, CA!
Clik here to view.
