We Do This. We Do That.

This video kills me.  California Attorney General Kamala Harris, and her sister Maya, VP for Democracy, Rights and Justice at the Ford Foundation - being first off adorable, and then being fierce.  Taken at Newsweek/The Daily Beast’s recent Women In The World Power Summit.

Despite posting about this race a few times, I forgot to circle back and mention:  Kamala Harris did in fact win the race to be the next Attorney General of California!

.

In case you haven’t been nerding out of the daily CA ballot counts since the election, here’s a summary:  The race was damn close up til the end; on election night her opponent had an early lead in returns, called it a victory, and went to bed; Kamala and crew stayed up all night, as hour by hour the returns showed her closer, and then eventually gave her a lead; the last few weeks have been spent counting provisional and absentee ballots, during which I went out to buy a bottle of champagne to keep at the ready, until, finally, last week, it was mathematically impossible for her opponent to win, he conceded, I popped my champagne open while screaming inappropriately while on a conference call about the war, and then yesterday she officially declared victory.

.

I’ve likely mentioned on here, somewhere, that Kamala has been a dear friend and mentor of mine since I was a teenage homeless feisty political chick, and played a key role in all the transitions in my life between then and now.  But, even that personal bias aside, this is huge news!  

.

It is huge news because she’s brilliant and approaches law enforcement from a social justice perspective.  Meaning, she thinks that a key part of enforcing the law is prevention, and also giving education and skills training to those leaving jails, so that they have a chance to become productive citizens and not circle back into the jails.  Also, there’s all the pro-environment stuff, which in part caused big oil and Karl Rove to throw millions of dollars against her campaign.  And also the general fact that she’s young, fierce, smart, talented, and considered to be someone who is only going to continue to quickly rise in political power, which might be one more reason Rove tried so hard to take her down early.

.

But in addition to all of that, in this election cycle Kamala has served, for me, as a key visual of this parallel political reality few are talking about.  In the progressive sphere, most people felt awful the day after the last election.  In the progressive sphere, also, most people couldn’t care less about putting their resources in this race.  That “progressive sphere”  sees no progress and can’t figure out why they can’t organize people to take to the streets.  When I point out that the gays and pro immigration rights folks take to the street regularly, it’s usually ignored.  But when you look at what two key pieces of progressive legislation had the organizing power to get Dem leadership to move on them during this lame duck session, it is no coincidence that those pieces are the Dream Act and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

.

Despite all the “enthusiasm gap” electoral talk this season, in the south west, Latin@ organizing got out a strong vote.  You don’t need to tell Sen. Reid how important that was to his keeping his seat.  Same thing in CA.  And on Kamala’s campaign - where you had a candidate unafraid to fight for her beliefs - those beliefs being strongly pro working people, consumer protection, anti death penalty, pro lgbt equality, etc, etc - people were excited and all those demographics of folks who didn’t vote elsewhere in the country were organizing around her campaign like it was the ‘08 Hope Era all over again.

.

Essentially, what I’m saying is that there are two progressive political worlds churning in our country right now.  One runs the progressive infrastructure of DC and all the reverberations out from there, and they don’t notice all the wins happening outside of their focus.  Or, they refuse to acknowledge that that’s where progressive wins are happening.  And then there is this other movement.  Younger.  Queerer.  Browner.  Organizing, overlapping, and getting stuff done amongst their own spheres, despite what the talking heads on TV are saying.

.

If you want to see where the wins are, look to this progressive movement the progressive infrastructure is ignoring. 

.

There are several key things to point to in highlighting this phenomenon, but the rise of Kamala Harris is one of them.  And now, post victory, you see media outlets all around the country highlighting how much of a rising star she is.  But, previously, while the progressive orgs felt that this was a race to sit out, Karl Rove was quick enough to figure out what was really at stake.

.

So, yeah, game on.  And also:  California is in for some awesome legal times over the next few years!  And, just generally, this news has had me smiling and yelping for weeks.  Enough so that I finally remembered to come back here and update on this sitch.  So pop your champagne or Diet Cokes everyone, because, in fact, a few good things are still moving forward in this country.