Dumocrat
I just got a letter from Kamala Harris. She doesn’t communicate personally with me, but I appear to be stuck on a campaign mailing list. Punishment for sins in a former life? A glitch in the basic structures of the universe? I know that I’m overreacting here, but when I feel scratched or irritated, it’s a straight shot to hyperbole. At this point, it’s beginning to feel like an obsession.
The letter was written in campaign-ese. Short sentences, blue highlights, the fund-my-PAC closer. I get a million of these from everyone each day. That’s what happens when you make tiny contributions to sympathetic candidates in the months before a midterm.
What stood out with this note was the emptiness of the message. I care a lot about Trump’s freakish narcissism, his catastrophic incompetence, his nonsensical speechifying. Apart from the very real danger he poses to democracy, every word he speaks feels like a flare of hemorrhoids. I am hoarse with screaming at his face on the screen.
Kamala Harris must feel that, too. But these are not the issues that will move the needle on elections. They’re abstractions having to do with norms and character and the proper functioning of a civil society. But there are plenty of people who are amused by Trump’s thuggery, his brutal treatment of anyone who crosses him. They think of it as real and authentic. They will also forgive his failed project management. Didn’t Obama and Biden also botch the fix on the Reflecting Pool? For a certain kind of voter, the pool is a metaphor. For many others, the Pool is a pool.
The problem is that Harris never gets down to business or speaks in a language strong enough to break through. The real issues are sick Americans without insurance, the self-dealing manipulation of the country’s finances, the careless impoverishment of rank-and-file citizens. American farmers are struggling to find fuel and fertilizer. My guess is that they care very little about Harris’ “ideals of the nation.”
If this message sounds familiar, I apologize for being tedious. My worry is that we will make lazy choices when it comes to picking the next president from our party and end up with a well-intentioned Dumocrat. Once upon a time, that might have been tolerable, but that moment has passed and we are in the middle of a disaster. Kamala Harris seems to be a civilized human being, but we need someone else to head the party and the nation. Andy Beshear, I’m looking at you.