Sen. Kamala Harris of California put her 2020 Democratic primary campaign out of its misery this week, ending at long last a dysfunctional candidacy that was plagued from the start by infighting and a lack of focus.
But don’t blame the senator or her team for their amateur-hour attempt to win her the nomination. The real reason Harris flamed out is because of racism and sexism, according to multiple Democratic officials and activists, who now fret that all of their front-runners are white.
The news media held Harris “to a different standard,” complained 2020 Democratic candidate and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, “a double standard, to other campaigns.”
“I was disappointed by the treatment her campaign got especially during the last seven days,” he added in remarks to BuzzFeed, “when you had the Washington Post, New York Times, and Politico writing very gossipy-sounding big articles trashing the campaign.”
For reference, the most damning details in the reports “trashing” the Harris campaign came from the senator’s own campaign staff. If you want a reason for why her 2020 candidacy did not work out, look no further than the fact that it was staffed with the sort of people who would complain anonymously to newsrooms about all the infighting.
“Kamala Harris officially ended her campaign today, which means that all of the candidates who currently qualify for the December Democratic debate are white,” groused #Resistance hero and alleged journalist Lauren Duca. “White supremacy is not just a Fox News problem, folks.”
For further reference, the supposedly nondiverse, “white supremacy” candidates who have qualified for the December debate are former Vice President Joe Biden, billionaire liberal activist Tom Steyer, South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
The debate will feature two women, a Jewish man, and the first openly gay presidential candidate in Democratic Party history. Candidates Andrew Yang, who is Asian, and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who is Samoan American (and the first Hindu ever to serve in Congress), will likely qualify for the debate as well (they have already met the donor requirement; they each need just one more poll to meet the debate’s voter survey requirement). This is apparently not “diverse” enough for some in the Democratic camp.
“We’re spiraling towards a debate stage that potentially – we’re still fighting to get on it, but could have six people with no diversity whatsoever,” complained 2020 Democratic candidate Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, who is not even close to qualifying for the next debate.
I am starting to think that “diverse” does not actually mean “diverse.”
The current December debate lineup is “disaster” for the party, said Democratic strategist Michael Starr Hopkins.
“African Americans and people of color are the base of the Democratic Party, and it’s problematic to not have a single candidate on stage that represents the diverse constituency of the Democratic Party,” he told Fox News.
FiveThirtyEight editor in chief Nate Silver said after Harris’ collapse, “If the Democratic Party wants a field that’s representative of its members and its voters, it probably shouldn’t have two states as white as Iowa and New Hampshire vote first every year.”
Wait — am I going crazy here? Did pundits get together this week and collectively decide to erase the memory of Barack Obama’s 2008 victory in the Iowa Democratic caucuses over Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Joe Biden, among others?
CNN contributor Sally Kohn added, “[I]t’s downright effed up that smart, compelling, very experienced, centrist Democratic candidates of color are floundering while a smart but wildly inexperienced, centrist white mayor of teeny tiny city is surging.”
Is no white candidate allowed to succeed now? What’s more, Kohn and the others surely must realize that they are attacking the Democratic voter base, accusing the most significant and active part of the American Left of white supremacism. Not only that, but they are accusing most black voters, who do not support nonwhite candidates, of being white supremacists.
Harris’ campaign died a slow, pitiful death because primary voters lost interest in her starting around July 5, after the first round of Democratic primary debates. No higher power forced Harris out. There was no conspiracy by the KKK. She failed simply because Democratic primary voters did not want her, and as her polling fell off, her campaign donations dried up.
Harris was a bad candidate who ran a bad campaign. She could not clearly state what she believed. She surrounded herself with disloyal gossips. Primary voters gave Harris a chance early on, and she even enjoyed decent polling numbers. She generated a lot of buzz with a contrived attack on Joe Biden for his past opposition to the busing of students for the purpose of racial desegregation (she revealed later that she actually agrees with his position).
But later, she was gutted like a fish on national television by one of the minor 2020 candidates. With her prosecutorial excesses and dishonesty coming to the forefront, she also struggled to take a clear position on key issues. Voters ultimately lost interest in Harris after it became clear that she did not have a message beyond: “Vote for me because I want it.”
So don’t shoot the messenger. Also — and I cannot believe I have to say this to Democratic officials and their allies in the press — don’t attack your own base, you idiots.
