The Inevitability of Kamala Harris
I believed she could've won, even with all the signs blaring that she'd be doomed.
There’s always a swift shot of clarity when an election result is finalized, a lucidity that is unavailable during the vertigo of a campaign.
Of course Kamala Harris lost; she was always going to lose; she never stood a chance.
The underling to a terribly unpopular administration, she could not break her inextricable link to inflation fatigue and the security concerns at the border and across the pond that most Americans held. Even worse, she didn’t much try.
She was perceived as far too liberal for the country because she in fact, was, or is. But who is she really? She whitewashed a catalog of past positions to try and meet the electorate where they were — always an inch or two to the right of where the corridors of power can fathom — but that maneuver only works if there’s a sense you believe in something. Anything.
Donald Trump is the proof point. Lament him as you will, but there’s a clear-headed consistency to what he’s sold for nine years: A fortified border to curb immigration. Tough tariffs to balance a trade deficit. An intentional retreat from foreign war.
When Harris shouted her tagline, “We’re not going back,” it was reasonable to wonder how far back she was referring to … and question, “Well, why shouldn’t we?”
Harris came off as vacuous and empty and twisting in the wind, shunning specifics in favor of unserious cliches. Her interviews never sounded like they were designed to drive a point; they felt like exercises in survival. Voters just wanted a peek into her authentic self; instead she gave them Lady Gaga and Beyonce on a stage. Harris and her team constructed a theatre of corny vibes and manufactured joy when ornery Americans were looking for blood in a street fight.
It’s not even that her case against Trump lacked merit, it’s that her attempt to make the election a referendum provided voters no choice.
Was Harris’ loss inevitable?
Numb and grieving, a handful of Democrats have already rushed to say she did the best she could given the unprecedented circumstances of her Hail Mary run.
Yet that is the real issue here.
Harris’ nomination was made to be inevitable, even though the best politics is never predetermined.