Reasons for California senators Dianne Feinstein’s and Kamala Harris’ votes with the small minority to oppose ending the government shutdown were overshadowed by politics about their political futures.
Joining only 16 other United States Senators in a one-sided 81 to 18 vote, both Feinstein and Harris declared that the deal accepted by Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was not satisfactory. Schumer accepted Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s promise to bring up debate on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program by February 8 if the government shutdown ended.
Feinstein and Harris represent what has become the most liberal state in the nation with the largest number of immigrants and DACA individuals so their vote was not surprising.
But avert your eyes if you don’t want to see politics in action.
Feinstein had wavered days before the vote, unsure what she planned to do, and expressing concerns that lives could be at risk with a government shutdown. But she is being challenged from the left by the most visible defender of immigrants rights in the state, senate president Kevin de Leon, father of the sanctuary state bill. Muting a major political attack opportunity for de Leon is part and parcel of Feinstein’s no vote.
Harris is included in the casting call list for the next Democratic presidential nominee. To satisfy the liberal activists in her party who are storming the establishment and attempting a take-over, while keeping up with others who are endearing themselves to that wing of the party such as Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, Harris’s no vote was inevitable.
The gamble for Harris is that the rest of the country will embrace the liberal agenda as California seemingly has. Chuck Schumer and many senate Democrats obviously don’t buy that concept, so they accepted McConnell’s offer.