Politics has the magical ability to transform enemies into friends

SAN DIEGO -- This is why people hate politics.

Ever notice how quickly once-bitter political rivals seem to be able to forgive and forget, and become the best of friends? They go from attacking each other to linking arms against a member of the rival party.

One minute, they're saying how this other person is not up to the task of leading. The next minute, they're following that person.

In the latest example, Kamala Harris and Cory Booker -- two African-American senators who, just a few months ago, were themselves running for president and using Joe Biden as a punching bag -- have now endorsed the former vice president as their choice to fill the office they once sought.

Last June, Harris stood on a debate stage and hammered Biden over his coziness over the years with Southern segregationists in the Senate and his opposition to mandatory court-ordered busing in the 1970s.

Harris recalled: "There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day. That little girl was me."

The point that she was trying to get across was this: If Biden wasn't himself a racist, then, at the very least, he appeared comfortable around actual racists as well as willing to tolerate the vestiges of racism.

At a subsequent debate a few months later, Booker had his shot at Biden. He used it to attack Biden for saying that he opposed legalization of marijuana. "I thought you might have been high when you said it," Booker joked. The New Jersey senator also blasted Biden for anti-crime polices that "destroyed communities like mine" through harsh penalties and mass incarceration.

When Biden tried to deflect the criticism back onto Booker -- a former mayor of Newark, New Jersey -- for allegedly letting the city's police department violate people's civil rights, Booker snapped at Biden: "You're dipping into the Kool-Aid and you don't even know the flavor."

Now we're supposed to believe that Harris, Booker and Biden are all just one happy family? What about the legitimate issues that were raised amid all that mudslinging?

This kind of flip-flopping is very common in politics, and it happens frequently in both parties.

It happened to the Republicans in 2016, when Donald Trump emerged victorious from a crowded field of presidential candidates that included Ben Carson, then-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Sens. Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham. All of those individuals are now on board the Trump Train. In fact, two of them -- Carson and Perry -- even went on to serve in Trump's Cabinet.

It happened to Democrats in 2008, when Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton went after each other aggressively over issues like trade. Clinton accused Obama of lying about her support of NAFTA, and Obama tweaked Clinton by assuring her that she was "likable enough." Later, after serving as Obama's first secretary of state, Clinton wrote a book that criticized the Obama administration's handling of the Syria crisis.

But the point is, this sort of thing should not happen. It's weird and unnatural. It feels inauthentic, and it fuels cynicism. It plays into the farcical quality of politics, where so much seems make-believe as it is.

All this forgiving and forgetting also calls into the question the truthfulness of our elected officials. Were they telling us the truth before when they were running down the other candidate? Or are they telling us the truth now that they're building him up?

We have the right to roll our eyes, and to feel uncomfortable when politicians turn themselves inside out -- whether it's to be a team player or to advance party unity.

Not everyone has to cave. When you're a politician, there is nothing wrong with standing your ground and refusing to endorse someone whom you were just running against 10 minutes ago. It's rare but not unheard of.

In fact, in 2016, there was one Republican presidential candidate who -- after losing to Trump -- did not publicly support him. He's the same person whose name I wrote on my ballot, in the general election, in protest of what I saw as a pair of impossible choices. That makes me think that he would have made a good president -- better than Trump or any of his enablers.

Let's hear it for Jeb Bush.

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Ruben Navarrette's email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com. His daily podcast, "Navarrette Nation," is available through every podcast app.