Not even a week after Vice President Kamala Harris hit the headlines for making a hash of a speech about culture during an appearance at the Essence Festival of Culture on Friday, the vice president is once again in the news for spouting “nonsense” during a roundtable discussion with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Harris, whose “word salad” speeches have become a popular focus point for conservatives who believe she’s incapable of doing her job, this week faced criticism for stating the obvious and dumbing down serious issues during her time with Buttigieg.
“This issue of transportation is fundamentally about just making sure that people have the ability to get where they need to go!” Harris said. “It’s that basic.”
Kamala Harris: Is She Wrong?
While it’s no secret that Harris has trouble getting through a speech without making at least one strange, repetitive, and awkward statement, her comments during the roundtable discussion may not be that crazy. In fact, she probably has a point.
Harris may have stated the obvious, but the United States’ public transport systems have been the focus of much criticism from both Republicans and Democrats for decades, with many of the issues relatind directly to the country’s unique urban planning styles and challenges. Spending on public transportation also pales in comparison to spending on highways and road infrastructure, with $2.5 trillion spent on public transportation since 1956, and $10 trillion on roads.
Outside of a major city like New York City, where the subway system ensures that virtually every resident can live their daily lives without a car, people who don’t drive are subject to long walks – often along the side of a road with no pavement – and woefully insufficient bus networks.
Over the last 50 years, the number of Americans who work has roughly doubled, reaching 150 million. In that time, however, the number of commuters who use public transport has risen by only 1 million, with the percentage of workers commuting via public transport roughly halving in that time.
Compared to most European countries, these numbers are shocking – but the sheer size of the United States, and a desire to own homes with large patches of property, pose a challenge to urban planners that doesn’t exist in many places across Europe. With American homes averaging out at 50 to 75% larger than the average European dwelling, the government has a massive job on its hands.
The U.S. government has a choice: encourage Americans to live in smaller homes in more tightly-knit communities or spend substantially more on bus and train networks that will span larger distances and require more construction and development across communities that are already developed.
For Harris, the matter is “basic.” For those living in reality, the issue is much more complex.
Jack Buckby is 19FortyFive’s Breaking News Editor. He is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society.
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