The truths we hold - 2019 - Kamala Harris

 

Like the Vance book, this one was not what I expected and it was better than I expected. 

The pronunciation of her name is comma - la in case you did not know. I did not know. And on snl they called her mommala because that is what her step kids call her lol. 

Both of her parents were phds. Her dad’s was in economics, her mom’s was in something medical I think. She lived in Canada for a little bit but mostly lived in the San Francisco area. She failed the bar the first time. She went to Howard University and then to a school in California for law school. She apparently went to Jamaica a few times to visit her father’s family and also to Zambia to visit her mother’s family. 

I guess she is African American but I would say she is Jamaican and Indian. Her parents divorced when she was young. She has a younger sister. She hardly mentions her dad in the book. I was way wrong about Vance and Kamala. Both of them had far harder childhoods than me (especially Vance). Kamala had a good childhood but I guess just visited her dad sometimes. Sadly her mom died of cancer (but much later on). The point is that these politicians are not always rich and upper class. They are human and have the same struggles or worse struggles than the rest of us. 

To be fair, this book is a lot more about policy than it is about her life. The Vance book is purely about his life. Surprisingly I found myself agreeing with a lot of her policy (i am a registered independent, full disclosure). When she was a lawyer in California she prosecuted a lot of bad people. When she campaigned she went door to door. I respect that. When there was a problem she often went to the scene: for example pollution in a small town in California. I respect that. She helped stop elementary school truancy. She helped ex convicts get back on track. She did not get bought out by the banks. (Ok to be fair this is all her side of the story but I tend to believe it).

Probably the only thing I disagree with her on is the underlying premise that the government is supposed to help people in all aspects of their lives such as healthcare, right to work, etc. I do not believe in that. For example, I have my master’s degree but I make 0 dollars at UPS working with a lot of ex cons and high school graduates. We all have great health insurance. You do not even have to interview for this job. At IMF (a building full of phds) I also had great health insurance. My experience says that if you can work you can have health insurance. Why do you need the feds for that? Maybe I am wrong. 

Otherwise I wish everyone would have read her book before the election. I feel the press misrepresented her or perhaps she is a smart person that comes across as a so so public speaker. I do not like trump that much either. 

Another interesting point is that she said Kavanaugh’s accuser passed a lie detector test. I did not know this (republicans tell me what I am missing here). I kind of thought Kavanaugh should have been confirmed but she makes a strong case opposing him apparently based on evidence. 

If you like public policy, want to get into politics, international relations, political science, I say read this for sure. I would say read it anyway too because you get to see the humanity of a public figure. Page it! BB