Kamala Harris’s mean girls campaign hides a total lack of ideas

The insults and name -calling from Kamala Harris, including Donald Trump is “weird” and JD Vance is “creepy”, are an important part of an effort to meme a Kamala presidency into existence, writes James Morrow.

Is Kamala Harris running for president of the United States or president of her high school student council?

Consider this.

A (very) brief list of all the problems facing the US and the world would include Israel and Lebanon, Russia and Ukraine, Chinese adventurism, North Korean madness, Iranian nukes, inflation, the attempted assassination of a presidential candidate and immigration.

So, what is the fourth quarter pick of the Democrats’ to beat Donald Trump in November telling the American people?

Donald Trump is “weird” and JD Vance is “creepy”.

This is, as Joe Biden would say in his more lucid moments, not a joke.

US Vice President Kamala Harris delivers the keynote speech at the American Federation of Teachers' 88th National Convention in Texas. Harris’s run to the presidency includes a carefully calibrated strategy. Picture: Brendan Smialowski / AFP.

Instead, it is a carefully calibrated strategy involving Zoom calls, campaign memos and statements by the candidate herself.

In the process, the lines have been repeated over and over on air and across the internet by campaign surrogates, prominent Democrats, and the same journalists who six weeks ago were assuring the world in unison that the president was “sharp as a tack”.

This labelling and name-calling is not just a helpful distraction from Harris’s total lack of substance, in the TikTok age it is also an important part of an effort to meme a Kamala presidency into existence.

But there are serious problems with this strategy. The sheer pettiness of it further underlines the fact that there is a real nasty edge underlying Harris’s polished, professional, weaponised “niceness”.

Flashes of this have been seen before but never much remarked upon by the American media, large swathes of which believe their job is to gatekeep stories that might be unhelpful to defeating Trump.

But there have been exceptions.

In 2021 the Washington Post reported that Harris’s vice presidential office “(burned) through seasoned staff who have succeeded in other demanding, high profile positions”.

A similar piece in Politico.com that same year reported staffers complaining that within Harris’s vice presidential suite: “People are thrown under the bus from the very top, there are short fuses and it’s an abusive environment”.

This week a 2019 column by journalist Terry McAteer resurfaced, revealing (with his permission) how his son was treated when he interned for Harris when she was California attorney-general.

Among other things, McAteer revealed that his son was told to “never address Harris nor look her in the eye as that privilege was only allowed to senior staff members”.

Staff were also told to rise at their desks when she entered the office in the morning and say: “Good morning, General”.

Charming, but there is another problem with the name-calling.

Petty insults are supposed to be Trump’s thing, according to the dominant narrative. Harris is all about unity and togetherness.

Yet the only unity being created is a sort of cultish in-group mentality among Harris supporters, who – speaking of pulling the nation together – are now getting together to raise funds for their candidate in racially exclusive online spaces.

Last week a celebrity-packed “White Women for Kamala” Zoom call drew more than 200,000 participants.

Kamala Harris called Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance, pictured with his wife Usha Vance, “creepy”. Picture: Stephen Maturen / Getty Images.

To give an idea of just how painful this session was, “influencer” Arielle Fodor advised the e-crowd to “learn from and amplify the voices of those who have been historically marginalised and use the privilege you have in order to push for systemic change”.

That’s not creepy, it’s just cringe.

Not to be outdone, a few days ago “White Dudes for Harris” convened for their own struggle session to work through their own privilege and the bad things other white dudes have done in history.

It is not clear how often these guys think about the Roman Empire, but they’re certainly doing their part to push the fall of the modern version of it.

All of this comes as the Harris campaign runs at speed from their candidate’s long history of hard left positions as well as her failure to manage America’s all but open southern border that has seen something on the order of 10 million illegal crossings under the Biden administration.

On Monday the New York Times reported that Harris now no longer opposes fracking – a major issue in energy rich “rust belt” states like Pennsylvania – and also now opposes universal Medicare and forcing assault rifle owners to sell their guns back to the government.

At the same time, weirdness or creepiness aside, the Harris campaign has received little in the way of a poll boost in critical swing states, America’s rough equivalent to key marginal seats.

And, on the big issues, the Trump campaign’s platform on immigration, trade, and entitlements remain far more popular with everyday Americans.

In that case, maybe it’s the Harris voters who are a little bit … weird?

Originally published as Kamala Harris’s mean girls campaign hides a total lack of ideas