REPORT ON THE KAMALA HARRIS “TOWN HALL IN LONG BEACH 4/6/2018

My wife and I went to her town hall today to cover this event for our readers. The event was not that well attended. She didn’t fill the room with supporters as she hoped.

She started the Town Hall off about 20 minutes late, to a crowd that filled about 70% of the available seats. Her opening monologue was one that I can only describe as moving center left, but that did not last long after the first few minutes.

She stated that in her mind the Federal Government had 3 basic functions:
1. Public Safety
2. Public Health
3. Public Education

She identified public safety as a catch all phrase that gives the federal government control over police and eliminates racial bias to policing. She made a few quips about Attorney General Sessions and how he is not going along with this time honored plan.  She made fun of the “border wall” to the delight of the audience and stated that we don’t need a wall, we need immigration reform, and those immigrants in limbo only help make America great again!  She got a lot of applause for that!  I found it interesting that border security and national defense was never mentioned.

She discussed Public Health with Obama Care and eventually forming a single payer health system.  Kamala stated that health care is a human right, not a right for citizens, and that all in our country should be allowed to participate, regardless of immigration status.  The crowd clapped continuously for this, and after the applause, she explained; Women are the creators of life, and should never have to pay more than their fair share for reproductive health.  More applause.  She indicated that health care is a right, not a product, and a right that all should be able to access “free of charge”.  More applause came, the crowd was ecstatic!  What she did not address was who would pay for this new free service.

Her explanation of how public education was part of this all important triad was interesting.  She said that there is nothing more important than education, and that education was the way to fight crime and inequality, not prisons.  More cheering for that statement!  She said that public education was the only way to go, and that it should always be free.  Kamala said again, that education should be available, free, and given to all in the country regardless of immigration status.  She indicated that private education was a “for profit” business and should never be allowed if we are to progress to a higher societal level.  She also said that College should be free to all.  The applause for this was deafening!  At that, she made the inference that student loans are a big problem, and should be forgiven.  More applause, the crowd was in her trance!

She then embraced historical revisionism to cement her points in the minds of her followers.  She had talking points that countered actual history to show that free medical care, free education and federal control of policing was the only way that we could continue in the 21st century.  Without spending too much time identifying all the revisionist points, she indicated that our educational system has not progressed beyond where it was 150 years ago, and that has to change, and only can with federal control.  That medical care was broken by the Republicans after Obama had it fixed, and the only way out now is single payer.  That making policing equitable for all, federal control was the only way to go there.  Although she did not explicitly say so, it sounded an awful like she supports a federal police force to replace the localized system we have now.

Then she moved on to the tax reform.  She indicated that it was destructive, did not give the Federal Government the assets needed to do its work, and that it needs to be rescinded.  She put in a few jokes about our current President and how he has no background or sense to run the country, let alone re-write the tax code.  She also put in a plug for all to turn out and vote in the mid-terms, because it is the only way for them to “take the country back”.  Lot’s of applause for this!

She mentioned immigration reform, and how the current President was not interested in it, and how he actually threw the DACA people “under the bus”.  She elevated the DACA recipients to a very high level, indicating that they are well-educated, highly productive, in the military and serving in the highest positions in corporate America.  She said that they were vetted and only those that met those highest of standards were allowed to participate.  Then she indicated how she wondered how they came up with the money to pay the $450 filing fee for DACA, and how these DACA hero’s can actually afford to walk the halls of the congressional offices daily to express their plight, based on a $7.50 per hour federal minimum wage.  That was a total disconnect with her original argument, but it did elicit cheers and applause from this audience.

She moves on to Dodd-Frank, and how she voted against weakening it for smaller business.  She tied it into the housing crisis of 2009, and how Dodd-Frank would have eliminated that.  She talked about all the people who lost their homes, and how she did not want that to ever happen again, and felt that this regulation was part and partial to eliminating that problem in the future.  She skirted around the massive amount of paperwork it generates for smaller lenders, and how it gives the biggest banks a “leg up” competing for future mortgages.  She also did not address the prohibitively large down payments first time buyers have to acquire to buy a house.  No one seemed to notice that.  Nothing was said about the Democrats pushing for liberalizing lending practices prior to the crash, putting unfit people into the purchasing mix, but that did not fit her narrative.

Kamala then hit hard on how the 11 million “undocumented citizens” in our country should be given an immediate path to citizenship (that figure has been used for at least 10 years, and an estimated 500,000 to 750,000 illegal aliens come in every year?).  She said that was unconscionable that we have not made these people whole, and that chain migration has to continue because the families of these people made them the productive citizens that they are.  Much applause here!

Then she made an appeal to all in the room that pay inequities due to race and sex should be eliminated.  She said that women only being paid 75% of men in similar jobs, and minorities paid 55% of whites in similar jobs has to end, and she said she is prepared to end it by legislation.  Sans that, she indicated that the federal court system can also do this in the form of rulings if the legislation cannot currently pass due to adverse political circumstances.  She stated that she believes in equal outcomes for all, and that this is long overdue in our society.  Lots of cheering there, especially by the union members that were there in mass.

That then bounced us to her proposal that farm workers and hospitality workers be granted minimum wage and overtime.  There were unions there for these people and that elicited a lot of cheering from the crowd.  She said it is only fair for these forgotten people to be given a break, and the only reason on the federal level that they were not, was because of Southern Democrats, inferring that it would included their personal servants, descendants of former slaves, and that got her a standing ovation.

The Q&A session was a set up.  Lot’s of people raised hands to be picked, but few were.  Most picked were officials of the democrat party, union officials, and college and university leaders.  One that was picked at random was an elderly black man, that simply stated that his group has been largely forgotten, and that the focus of the Democrat Party now seems to be supporting the plight of illegal immigrants to the detriment of the Black community.  Kamala indicated that she was black, and would never let that happen on her watch.  It already has happened, so this seemed to me as a disingenuous statement on her part.

There were no counter-protesters there, unlike when conservative politicians give their town halls.  There were no dissenting voices in the crowd, simply accolades for the Liberal Progressive Socialist cause.  For all out there that love America and what our country stands for, don’t boycott the mid-term elections, or you will be having the likes of Kamala Harris running our country!  Imagine that!