The Democratic Nominees Are Still Debating Busing — and the Soul of the Party
The conflict between Kamala Harris and Joe Biden revolves around whether or not it’s OK to compromise with political adversaries about racial justice
Two weeks after the first presidential debate, the debate around busing shows no signs of slowing down.
Kamala Harris drew first blood during the first Democratic debate when she aggressively challenged Biden’s opposition to federally mandated busing in the 1970s. Biden is now backing down on his position and offering apologies for working with racial segregationists. The dust-up reveals the candidates’ fundamentally different beliefs about today’s median Democratic voters. Each candidate believes they know where the typical Democrat stands on racial injustice; the primaries will help suss out who is wrong — and who becomes the nominee. What’s more, it shines a light on the key issue driving a wedge between Democrats: figuring out how best to tackle racial injustice.
While Democrats have for decades been the more progressive party on race, they’re still far from being united on how best to make progress on issues of racial justice. To oversimplify the intra-party conflict a bit, some Democrats, like Harris, feel that…
