Presumptive 2020 Democratic Party Presidential nominee Joe Biden announced yesterday that his choice to run alongside him as Vice President is California Senator Kamala Harris. At 55, Harris brings comparative youth and vigor to the Biden campaign; one elephant in the room for the Democratic Party in 2020 is what seems to be a deteriorating focus level in 77 year old Joe. While Biden's charm comes from his familiarity and moderate stance within his party, Harris is a figure who draws attention and mixed glances. In 2013, President Barack Obama remarked that Harris is "brilliant and she is dedicated, and she is tough, and she is exactly what you'd want in anybody who is administering the law, and making sure that everybody is getting a fair shake. She also happens to be by far the best-looking attorney general in the country."
The Democrats' VP pick in the 1920 election cycle certainly received his fair share of comments regarding his looks as well. With a famous name, a successful career in politics, and a handsome face, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the easy choice to round out the Democratic ticket. Historian David Pietrusza describes the FDR of the late 1920s as "rich, progressive but not too progressive, and, above all, self-confident and ambitious... handsome too, the type of hale fellow who commands attention by merely striding into a room ... he was, as his boss at the Navy Department, Josephus Daniels, said admiringly, "a twentieth-century Apollo."
One needn't look hard to see the similarities in character between FDR and Harris. Their impressive resumes speak clearly for themselves as to the ambition and capability of both. Roosevelt graduated from Harvard University in 1903, worked as a lawyer starting in 1908 until becoming a New York state senator in 1911. An early supporter of Woodrow Wilson, he gained a place in the president's administration as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, the same position once held by his role model and relative Theodore Roosevelt. Harris was heavily involved in campus organizations at college, and she went on to be a District Attorney of San Francisco from 2004 to 2011, Attorney General of California from 2011 to 2017, and a U.S. Senator since 2017. Of course, FDR did not become Vice President of the United States following the 1920 election, and it is unclear if Kamala Harris will follow a similar or divergent path. FDR did eventually become a governor, further padding his list of credentials; as is widely known, he would become the 32nd President of the United States after beating incumbent Herbert Hoover (another former Wilson administration member).
Like FDR, Kamala Harris is widely seen as "progressive but not too progressive." As the first major party VP nominee to be a woman of color (as well as of Indian descent), Harris could perhaps be viewed as a female Obama in the coming days - a figure of hope and pride for historically disadvantaged communities. However, her days as a prosecutor have been attacked from the left, particularly by Rep. Tulsi Gabbard during the Democratic Party debates; the criticisms included being harsh on marijuana violators and supporting the cash bail system. On the other hand, Harris has been praised by Joe Biden for standing up to the Trump Justice Department and for being "a leader on criminal justice and marriage equality." Franklin Roosevelt was considered "anti-Tammany" by 1920 Democratic Party presidential nominee James Cox, which was a major reason for his desirability as VP material. Being against the Tammany Hall bosses in that day was a sign that one was at least somewhat progressive. As we know now with hindsight, FDR would be one of the most progressive presidents economically - New Deal and all. Nevertheless, his less-than-progressive opinions on race and his decision to place Japanese-Americans into internment camps during World War II were also foreshadowed by the time of the 1920 election. The Wilson administration is known for its "Make the World Safe for Interventionism Democracy" stance, and when the nation of Haiti was having major unrest in 1915 Wilson sent the Marines to pacify and occupy the area (without a declaration of war). FDR was one of the men in charge of overseeing the operation once the nation was taken over, and the way the Americans treated the local population was anything but "progressive" in nature.
One final area of comparison to be made between Harris and Roosevelt is the poorly-hidden involvement that both have had with adultery. Roosevelt's extra-marital affairs are well-documented by presidential historians, and they began long before he reached the Oval Office. Prior to the 1920 campaign, Roosevelt was involved with a young woman named Lucy Mercer. Lucy was hired to be Eleanor Roosevelt's social secretary, but for Franklin she would end up providing far different services. She would later work in the Naval Department (yes, where FDR was Assistant Secretary). Kamala's early-1990s affair with Speaker of the State Assembly Willie Brown was not extramarital on her end, but it was a path to fast patronage positions within a corrupt California political system, and the ageing Brown had been married since 1958. While much of Harris' career has certainly been due to her own efforts, the early job help - and a free BMW - continues to cause a stir among political rivals out for blood.
The 2020 and 1920 Democratic Party VP picks are comparable both in fame and in failure, in success and in scandal. Will Kamala Harris rise to the same levels of notoriety as Franklin Roosevelt eventually did, and if she makes it into the executive branch, will it be as Vice President now, as President later, or as both? I will continue to cover the 1920 election roughly a century after it happens, and - should it be relevant - I will bring what news I can from 2020 into the discussion!
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