Harris' willingness to certify the election result is not praiseworthy.

Pence's willingness to do so in 2020 is.

In this post, I observed that “organs like the Washington Post make it their business to praise failed Democratic presidents.” Now, I’ll add that this propensity extends to failed Democratic presidential candidates and even to failed national security advisers.

This entry will focus on the Post’s homage to Kamala Harris. Later, I’ll discuss its tribute to Jake Sullivan.

The Post gushes over the fact that Harris will certify Donald Trump’s victory, at her expense, in the November election. By doing so, says the Post, she will restore a norm that Donald Trump shattered.

Actually, the norm was upheld in 2020. Mike Pence certified his own defeat, and Trump’s, by certifying that Joe Biden won the race. Pence did so in the face of great pressure from Trump and his followers to resist.

Instead, Pence resisted Trump. It cost him his political future. According to the Post, it also led to threats against his life.

Moreover, when Pence certified the 2020 election results, it was arguable that some ambiguity existed about the vice president’s role in the process. In 2022, Congress responded by overhauling the Electoral Count Act. It affirmed that the vice president’s role at the session where electoral college votes are counted is purely ministerial.

Harris lacks even an arguable basis for assuming a larger role. Having no choice but to certify her defeat, she hopes to make the most of it by garnering praise from organs like the Post for doing what every vice president has done — including some who had just lost the race and, unlike Harris, thought they had won it.

It’s true that Harris is taking her defeat with vastly more grace and statesmanship than Trump did. But that’s not a low bar; it’s no bar at all.

Furthermore, the Post’s characterization of Harris as upholder of norms cannot withstand scrutiny. In fact, Harris shattered at least one important norm.

As the Post acknowledges, during the campaign Harris called Trump a fascist. To my knowledge, no major party candidate in American history has leveled such an accusation at an opponent.

Nor does Harris’ claim have a sound basis in fact. Trump is a number of bad things, and has done his share of outrageous name-calling. But he’s no fascist.

The Post quotes Democratic operative Donna Brazile, who says of her ally, “Harris is not holding grudges; she’s not finger-pointing.” Maybe not. But by calling Trump a fascist during the campaign, she shattered a norm and opened the door to the further degradation of American presidential campaigns.

Speaking of norm-breaking, the Post fails to mention its efforts, and those of congressional Democrats, to undermine Donald Trump’s first administration by claiming without good evidence that he colluded with Russia during the election. To me, this unprecedented move was a major affront to democracy. Though less dramatic than the riot of January 6, 2021, its adverse impact on our politics was deeper and more long lasting.

In this regard, I should also note that some congressional Democrats tried to prevent the certification of Trump’s victory in 2016. More than half a dozen members of the House rose at different points in the proceedings to object to the results of the election. They cited Russian hacking, the legitimacy of the election and electors, voting machines, voter suppression, and whatever else they could think of.

Then-vice president Joe Biden put an end to the nonsense, gaveling down the objectors and then saying, “it’s over.” That’s to Biden’s credit, though he was not on the losing end of that election.

Some Democrats had pulled basically the same stunt in 2004, forcing a challenge to the count of electoral votes for just the second time since 1877. Talk about norm breaking.

I bring these embarrassments up in the interest of a complete accounting. I’m not trying to gloss over the obvious difference between a small number of House members attempting to obstruct the electoral count and a defeated presidential candidate trying to do so.

As a violator of norms, Donald Trump is in a class by himself. As an exemplar of norm-upholding, Kamala Harris is miscast.