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The vice president of the United States is yet again under public scrutiny, and the numbers show the attention isn't positive. The latest NBC News poll finds that 49 percent of registered American voters hold a negative view of our historic madame Vice President Kamala Harris, while only 32 percent have a positive view.
From all the attention these poll numbers are getting, you would think that Harris is uniquely unpopular. That's an assumption that deserves another look. If we're going to put the woman in the room's numbers under the microscope, why don't we look at the guys, too?
In October 2019, 34 percent those polled had a positive view of then-Vice President Mike Pence, while 38 percent had a negative view, for a rating of -4, per NBC News, while in December 2010, then-Vice President Joe Biden's rating was only a narrow +1, with 34 percent of respondents having a positive view of the man who would be president, and 33 percent having a negative view.
So why all the fuss over Harris's current place in voters' hearts? It seems like there must be more to it than merely math. Could we be setting up the Veep as a scapegoat for future failure? Instead of finding a fall guy, are we setting up Harris as the "fall woman," a convenient focus for blame should President Biden's 2024 bid fail?
"[It] shouldn't surprise anyone that there is going to be a different filter and a different focus put on the first woman to ever be vice president of the United States, particularly a woman of color," Democratic strategist Cornell Belcher told Axios. Belcher added that attitudes toward vice presidents are usually on par with the approval of presidents.
As a woman of color, let me tell you, we've been here and seen this scene before. While it's no secret that voters are concerned about Biden's age and unsure about his accomplishments, it's so easy to shift our attention, anger, and fear toward the woman who is a heartbeat away from the presidency. But the truth is that Harris isn't doing much worse than her boss—who has even higher negatives. Only 41.9 percent of Americans approve of the job Biden is doing, while 53.6 percent disapprove, according to FiveThirtyEight.
But what I find truly infuriating is not our misplaced anger and "disapproval" toward the first woman of color to reach so high an office. What is truly maddening is the fact that the GOP front runner, former President Donald J. Trump's own numbers are coated in Teflon. Despite all his legal troubles and evil deeds—provoking the Jan 6th insurrection; hoarding national security documents after leaving office; a civil sexual assault trial that he lost; criminal cases at the city and federal levels—Trump remains the clear front-runner for the Republican nomination.
Why are so many of Trump's followers unfazed? Why aren't they angrier over Trump's criminal activity? Why do people loathe Harris simply for existing? According to CNN, the norm for most of polling history is that Americans like at least one of the candidates running for president.
But a recent CNN/SSRS poll found that more Americans viewed neither Biden nor Trump favorably than those who held favorable views of either man(!).
Thirty-six percent viewed neither candidate favorably, while 33 percent had a favorable view of Trump and 32 percent for Biden. With only registered voters counted, 31 percent viewed neither Biden nor Trump favorably.
But beyond the numbers, I feel as though Harris has been positioned to fail and be unpopular with voters because of the complex issues in her portfolio, such as tackling the "root cause of migration" and voting rights.
If Harris manages to pivot and focus on issues that she shines on, such as abortion and America's maternal health crisis, she could shore up the women voters of the Democratic block and end up being Biden's greatest asset.
Perhaps it's time to consider that maybe the problem isn't Kamala Harris' polling numbers or ability to manage hard topics, but our inability to hold men, and especially white men, accountable for their job performance.
Anushay Hossain is a writer and a feminist policy analyst focusing on women's health legislation. She is a regular on-air guest at CNN, MSNBC, and PBS, and her writing on politics, gender, and race has been published in Forbes, CNN, USA TODAY, The Daily Beast, and more. Hossain is also the host of the Spilling Chai podcast and author of "The Pain Gap: How Sexism and Racism in Healthcare Kill Women."
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
