Harris is Not Throwing Left-Wing Priorities "Under the Bus"

They were already under the bus

There’s a lot of talk right now about how Kamala Harris’ pivot to the center — which now includes her waxing poetic about her Glock like she’s Dirty Harry — is a betrayal of left-wing priorities. People often say that Harris is throwing these policies “under the bus”, which caused Matt Yglesias to do a bit of trolling by producing this image:

The trolling worked, as it always does. People were displeased to see their priorities — some of which are my priorities, BTW — being flattened like a 1920s socialite crossing paths with Daisy Buchanan. But I think it might help to clarify what’s actually happening. Harris is not forswearing left-wing policy wins just as they come into reach; she’s distancing herself from unpopular things that are not going to happen any time soon. And by doing so, she’s making popular left-wing policies more likely to become law. The metaphor shouldn’t be that Harris is throwing certain policies under the bus; it should be that the American people threw those policies under the bus, and Harris decided to get on the bus instead of lying down under the tires.