The Biden campaign is taking some heat after vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris unabashedly promoted the communist principle of equality of outcome in a campaign ad, rather than the American ideal of equality of opportunity.
The animated video, shared by Sen. Harris (D-Calif.) on Twitter Sunday, begins with two men — one white and one black — staring up at a mountain they both want to climb.
Both men are given the same length rope, but the white man is easily able to reach his rope while the black man is stuck at the bottom of a cliff, unable to reach his rope.
Harris begins by saying, “So there’s a big difference between equality and equity. Equality suggests, ‘oh, everyone should get the same amount.’”
“The problem with that [is] not everybody’s starting out from the same place. So if we’re all getting the same amount but you started out back there and I started out over here, we could get the same amount, but you’re still going to be that far back behind me,” she said, as the white man scrambles up the mountain while the black man watches sadly from below.
As Harris continues, flowers blossom beneath the black man’s feet and the ground begins to rise up, allowing him to reach the rope and climb up to the mountain’s summit where he joins the white man.
“It’s about giving people the resources and support they need so that everyone can be on equal footing, and then compete on equal footing. Equitable treatment means we all end up at the same place,” she said as the video ended.
There’s a big difference between equality and equity. pic.twitter.com/n3XfQyjLNe
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) November 1, 2020
The video created a backlash on Twitter, with conservatives arguing that the promotion of equal outcomes is a Communist or Marxist ideal.
House Republican Conference Committee Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) noted that “government-enforced equality of outcomes is Marxism.”
“Sounds just like Karl Marx. A century of history has shown where that path leads,” Cheney tweeted. “We all embrace equal opportunity, but government-enforced equality of outcomes is Marxism.”
Trump campaign Deputy Director of Communications Matt Wolking simply responded, “Full blown Marxist.”
Former Navy SEAL Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) tweeted, “The false promise of the left, in 1 minute. Start out with a well-intentioned point on equality of opportunity, only to end it with the true Marxist intent: equity in outcomes. They leave out the part where equity must be enforced with unequal -and tyrannical- treatment”
Since the general election campaign began, Joe Biden has sought to shed the socialist label earned after running as a far-leftist in the primaries.
Speaking to NBC News at a town hall in Miami, Fla., last week, the former vice president responded to a voter’s question about concerns over labels of communism and socialism among Democrats with a query of his own: “Do I look like a socialist?”
“Look, I’m the guy that ran against the socialist,” Biden continued before reminding the audience how he was viewed as “too centrist, too moderate, too straightforward” during the Democratic primary.
The former veep didn’t explain why he chose the Senator with the most left-wing voting record to be his running mate.