Kamala’s Based Old-Left Dad
The New Center: A Wednesday Newsletter From Sohrab Ahmari
Yeah, yeah, no one north of age 30 (at most) should unironically use “based” to describe anything. Sue me for the headline on this piece—but “Based Old-Left Dad” is an unbeatable and accurate way to describe Donald J. Harris, the brilliant Jamaican-born Marxian economist, critic of identity politics, and crotchety cultural conservative who in 1964 became father to one Kamala Harris.
By all accounts, father and daughter are alienated from each other—not least, it seems, over political differences that are only vaguely understood (though the little we know is striking enough). These strained filial ties are a tragedy not just for the Harris family, but because if Kamala gets elected president come November, her father would be a far more interesting and intelligent influence on her than her current advisory circle of Big Tech lobbyists.