Letters to the Editor: It isn't insulting Kamala Harris to ask what a vice president really does

To the editor: Columnist LZ Granderson makes a fair point concerning Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s not-so-thinly-veiled racism. Using the specter of a (Black) President Harris should President Biden be unable to complete a second term plays right into one of the worst aspects of the present-day Republican Party. ("The GOP wants us to fear ‘President Harris.’ Here’s how Biden should respond," Opinion, June 6)

But saying that "nobody ever asked" what a vice president does "until a woman got the job" is a sexist misreading of the history of the office. Everyone who has held the job since John Adams in the 18th century has faced that question in one form or another.

Blame the Constitution for not spelling out the job more clearly. But that’s the way it is, and has been, for 234 years.

Joan Walston, Santa Monica

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To the editor: My advice is for Biden to resign in the next few months, for whatever reason. Harris would become president for the next year-plus and be in office to run in the 2024 election.

By that time voters will get used to and appreciate her competence. And, racists and misogynists will surface, showing what kind of people cannot stomach a woman of color as president (and from which party they come).

This would give Harris two advantages: exposing political villains, and appealing to the voting block of "why change horses?"

Bruce Luyendyk, Santa Barbara

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.