Since I really don’t have time for everything I want to do in a week, I couldn’t both state my opinion on new Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and respond to the Andrew Sullivan opinion on Harris, “The Kamala Chimera.” So I’m doing both here.
Dear Andrew,
In your July 26 piece, you said that the news media and social media swing of support toward Vice President Kamala Harris in the wake of President Biden’s endorsement was a pivot that reflected “amnesia.” Certainly amnesia towards Harris’ pre-2020 career is not the only example of media amnesia. For instance, the fact that the media successfully leveraged Biden into quitting the race because he is visibly aging and seems therefore unqualified for the job begs the question of why no one in the media or the Republican OR the Democratic Party is questioning the qualifications of a Donald Trump, who is not only visibly aging and increasingly incoherent – like Biden – but tried to strongarm both Georgia’s Secretary of State and his own Vice President to “find” him the votes he needed to skew the result in 2020 and then incited an armed mob to kill said Vice President when he wouldn’t do what he wanted. You would think that Biden’s level of disqualification on top of that one would be a bigger issue for Trump, but everyone just seems like they forgot about it. That level of amnesia makes the contrast with Harris’ past and present kind of trivial.
Indeed, the contrast between Harris and Trump points out the real problem for Republicans. Democrats could switch horses because they had other options. Republicans in the Party of Trump cannot switch because they have no other options, because no one else in the party would be seen as credible, with the possible exception of Nikki Haley, whom not enough people voted for.
Harris could still lose. The Electoral College is still not looking good, and Democrats need Biden’s birth state of Pennsylvania, otherwise the math gets too hard. Which is why I think Harris’ best bet for running mate is Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. In 2020, he was popular with the sort of ticket-splitting moderates and conservatives that Democrats will need now. Plus, he’s Jewish, which will really make the MAGAts go nuts.
Kamala Harris was not my first choice for Democratic nominee in 2020. That would have been Pete Buttigieg. Or maybe Sanders. In fact, Harris wouldn’t have even been my last choice. And I suspect, as do you, that most of the reason Biden held out this long is because he knew Harris’ weaknesses and suspected she would be even weaker against Trump than he is. But then Trump himself demonstrates the problem with picking a VP based on loyalty and demographic appeal rather than confidence that they would be a good replacement. But you knew that was the alternative you had, if you wanted to keep picking apart Biden, because just handing over to the VP who is already on the ticket is preferable to a substitute that could be challenged in the Republicans’ pet courts, or an open and potentially fractious Democratic Convention. Which just happens to be in Chicago. I mean, assuming you don’t want Trump to win.
As they say, Andrew, be careful what you wish for. You got what you wished for. Be happy.
Even if we, unlike much of the media, have a mental age above four and are capable of looking at how “cringe” Harris was, and remains, the reason things are different now – and so far seem to be different than they were for the last female presidential candidate – is because, to use that phrase of hers that’s been making the rounds, “You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.”
I mean, obviously we didn’t see this on Friday, but on Saturday Trump made a speech to a Christian group in Florida and told them, quote: “Christians, get out and vote, just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore … You got to get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote.”
Raising the question, what kind of “fix” are we talking about that changes the process of government to make voting irrelevant?
I have joked that the premise of Republican voting is “Vote So You’ll Never Have To Vote Again.” Now they’re just coming out and saying it. And don’t rationalize by saying that Democrats take Trump literally but not seriously and Republicans take him seriously but not literally. When Trump slumped up to the podium on January 6, 2021 and told his audience, “You’ve got to fight like hell, or you won’t have a country anymore”, and then they fought like hell for him, were they taking him seriously or literally?
These are not Ronald Reagan’s conservatives. They do not want a republic, they want a monarchy. Not even a monarchy. Even King George III was limited by Parliament. What these “post liberals” want is an absolute monarchy, like the Czars of Russia had. Or should I say, like the Czars of Russia have.
What are our objections toward Kamala Harris compared to that?
“She’s not a serious person.” What, compared to Donnie “Bingbongbingbangbing” Trump and JD “I Can See Russia From My Bank Account” Vance?
“All-Drama Kamala.” See, that’s a good one. That’s an insult with wit. I mention this because as you know, Trump always invests much of his very little brainpower on coming up with the right demeaning nickname for his current political target, like how he calls Nancy Pelosi “Crazy Nancy”, he calls Nikki Haley “Nancy Pelosi” and he calls Vladimir Putin “My Precious Lord and Master In Whose Name I Live and Serve.” What’s he calling Harris? “Laffin’ Kamala.” Always making sure to spell out the “Laffin'”, with the apostrophe, to emphasize that he can’t spell correctly.
Lame. “Laffin’ Kamala.” Not as good as “Meatball Ron.” That one just rolled off the tongue, so to speak. Trump’s clearly losing his touch. He needs help. Really, Andrew, you should apply for a job with Team Trump. You’re giving him better advice than he seems to be getting from them.
Even if everything you’re saying about Kamala is true, and I agree with most of it, she is a Goddamn ray of sunshine compared to Trump, this whiny, dumpy little brat who will never go away, will never stop demanding attention and who expects to be treated like God, despite his manifest lack of qualifications for the job. Unless you count his desire to annihilate anyone who’s outside his chosen tribe. Anything that’s wrong with Harris is a fair price to pay for making that brat shut his puckered little mouth once and for all. And of course, making his death cult that used to be a real political party cry. And I suspect there’s a whole bunch of people, who used to be conservative before Trump bought out the definition of the term, who feel the same way as I do, and we now have the best chance to make that happen. And if that’s how we feel, you can imagine how energized Democrats are.
The real problem, if you’re in that rare species called “libertarian” and the now hunted-to-the-point-of-extinction species of moderate conservative, is BOTH these major political parties suck Jalapeno pickles. Both of them will not leave you alone. Both of them demand to micromanage your life, it’s just a question which aspects they prefer to micromanage. And frankly, both of them are socialist. It’s just that since Trump is a self-described nationalist, his socialism is more of the national type. And what really sucks is, no matter how much you want to get away from the fact, ONE of these political parties IS going to win the election. So make up your mind which socialism you prefer: The one that promises national health care or the one that wants to send your gardener to a concentration camp?
Ever since 2016, the situation has been that the Republicans are Nazi Germany, the Democrats are Soviet Russia, and America is Poland. And we know that Poland eventually managed to get out from under 50 years of mindless left-wing collectivism, but it would not have survived 50 years of mindless, exterminationist, right-wing collectivism, and that is where we are now. No, I am not saying that the Democrats ARE Communists or the Republicans are Nazis. Yet. But you have to admit, even you have to admit, Andrew, that the Republicans are a lot closer to being Nazis than the Democrats are to being Communists. At worst, the situation with Kamala is going to be the same as if Hillary Clinton had won in 2016. And as the late great P.J. O’Rourke said of Hillary, “She would be a terrible president, but she would be terrible along conventional parameters.”
Sincerely,
James