| | It's the Racism, Stupid
Back when he was a strategist for the 1992 Bill Clinton campaign, James Carville coined the phrase, It's the economy, Stupid. Times have changed. Elections are about a lot more than the economy and, given our latest culture wars, a better 2024 adage might be, It's the stupidity, Stupid. Sadly and predictably, since the recent ascension of Kamala Harris to to the top of the Democratic ticket, another bleak and seemingly eternal American screed has reared its ugly head. For those in the media who want to tiptoe around the issue, let's offer what should be an obvious maxim: It's the racism, Stupid. Probably the person least surprised by the racism and misogyny already being launched at Kamala Harris is Kamala Harris. Harris can effectively counter these messages by embracing the unity most independent and young voters crave and leaning into the gender issues, since reproductive rights and women's healthcare are key (and winning) campaign issues. She should rise above the muck. But the rest of us have a responsibility to get down into it, and call racism out whenever it emerges—which could feel like playing a game of Whac-A-Mole the size of Capitol Hill. Because that's where a lot of the racism is coming from. For example, there's Tenn Rep Tim Burchett who amplified the most common refrain, that Harris owes her achievements to DEI (Diversity Equity Inclusion). I guess the MAGA crowd thinks Kamala hasn’t earned her role because she didn’t work her way up from petty crimes to financial fraud to rape to stealing classified docs to election interference to inciting an insurrection? The irony of DEI trope is that the propagandists who spread it ostensibly argue for the return of a meritocracy, but by clinging to issues of race and gender, they prove they are afraid to compete in one.
I'm not the only one calling out these transparantly prejudiced attacks. So are the former and current GOP Speakers of the House. Mike Johnson and other Republican leaders have urged party members against racist and sexist attacks on Harris. (Editor's note: If you have to urge your colleagues not to be racist and sexist, you may have a problem.) Kevin McCarthy described the DEI attacks as " stupid and dumb. (And in this case, the redundancy works.) Of course, the Speakers will find it difficult to quell the racism and misogyny that is instinctual to many of their followers, and entirely impossible to even turn down the volume of the torrent of hate that comes the man they have chosen to DEI-fy as their party leader.
+ Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff face online wave of sexist, racist attacks. And when you whip up a storm of fury, it's not easy to contain it. JD Vance's wife, Usha, faces racist online backlash from far-right social media posts.
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