It was with great “sadness” that Kamala Harris decided making a gay man her running-mate was too much of a “risk”, the former vice president told Rachel Maddow last night. Pete Buttigieg had to be ruled out for the nomination, Harris said, because Donald Trump is homophobic, and also racist, and she already had the disadvantage of being nonwhite.
The soft bigotry of low expectations has seldom been stated so succinctly. Democrats who wonder why their party lost minority voters, including homosexuals, to the evil orange man in November, should watch this clip over and over, all day long today, until they get it: identitarian politics are the enemy of electoral success. Authenticity is everything these days, and there is nothing authentic about a blank slate, or a view from nowhere. Kamala defended herself to Maddow, for she did not make the decision out of prejudice. No, other people are prejudiced, that’s the problem!
Kamala Harris sees herself as free of character flaws and weaknesses. In fiction, this type of character is known as a ‘Mary Sue’. We also have the term ‘girlboss’ to describe the phenomenon in popular culture where a female character arc consists of everyone recognizing her greatness, for she does not have to grow as a person, being born awesome. Kamala Harris is Michael from the awful Star Trek: Discovery, Galadriel from the dismal Rings of Power, Rey Palpatine in the terrible Star Wars sequels. Take any insufferable Marvel superheroine, put her in a pantsuit, and you have Kamala Harris, according to Kamala Harris in her own book.
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