The Day Kamala Harris Suspended Her Campaign
Today’s reflections fueled by alcohol and despair.
I’m finishing probably the 5th shot of Captain Morgan’s Gingerbread Rum. I have a smaller wine glass that filled halfway, holds two shots of hard liquor. Don’t be alarmed though — this is the 5th shot over the course of a little over 3 hours. I want to self-medicate my anxiety and catastrophic dread — not numb myself completely.
It is the day Kamala Harris announced she is suspending her campaign. I receive the news through Kamala Harris’ Slack channel first. I alert my best friend in case I see it before she does. I am in shock. Not the fake shock those who have been tearing her down for over a year portray. Genuine shock. The kind that said “but I just got done calling Iowans for her and a volunteer just called me two evenings ago and told me I could call at any day of the week if I have some time” — that type of shock. I had also just pledged to donate some money every paycheck ever since the dreadful propaganda about how she supposedly wanted to extend the school day in mandatory filling the school to prison pipeline fashion. After reading the bill proposal for myself, the actual truth was she just wanted to give extra funding to already existing after school and summer programs so parents don’t have to miss work to care for their elementary school-aged kids. The problem is, all her proposals were met with propaganda fueled reactions and little truth.
Then I start to see my Facebook timeline full of grief from my fellow Kamala Harris supporter friends. I can barely concentrate at work the rest of the day. Thankfully, December is the slowest month of the year for our business. Then I had to soccer-mom-but-for-mental-health both my high school teens to their mental health appointments. When I got home with the second child, the hubs had already ordered pizza and requested we sit down as a family to watch an episode of Highway to Heaven before he has to go to bed.
I don’t recall anyone referring to Robert Mueller as a cop. Do you?
Today was a punch in the gut. I am a white woman, so the punch in the gut for me doesn’t carry the same intensity as it does for black women who support her, but it is the punch in the gut just the same. It’s not as intense as the night of November 8th, 2016, but it’s a punch in the gut just the same. It’s the type of punch in the gut that required alcohol to cope. The same alcohol that has carried some of us through the last 3 years.
Nobody has to produce decades worth of propaganda to build a false case of misogynoir against Kamala Harris like what was done to Hillary. Kamala Harris’ takedown took less than a year. That’s how racism and sexism work together, you see.
And even the most well meaning of folks declare she made missteps. Attacking Biden on stage was a bad idea. Democrats don’t like to see their candidates attack other candidates. Nevermind this strategy didn’t hurt Mayo-Republican-Lite-Pete when he attacked Beto O’Rourke. Nevermind that Bloomberg has yet to be on the stage at any debate, but has poured money into ads, actively recruited staff members of Harris’, and Tom Steyers’ campaign stole her data. It’s totally ok for these white men to play dirty towards other white men on stage, or that they play dirty behind the scenes. But let’s not let a black woman reveal she doesn’t “know her place” on a debate stage. That would be a “misstep” for her, right?
And that’s not even touching the racist BS that she was somehow a cop and therefore inherently evil.
I don’t recall anyone referring to Robert Mueller as a cop. Do you?
Speaking truth to power is how we will win this country back from fascism, nationalism, and white supremacy.
Anyway, I’m tired. I am tired of Dan Rather playing the same old fucking sexist tune of how Kamala Harris needs to reflect on where she went wrong. I’m tired of Chuck Todd. I’m tired of all the pundits victim blaming the woman yet again — for not being perfect. For not doing exactly the right thing at every moment in every step of her entire life leading up to this moment. The tsk tsks, and the clucking of the tongues. Nevermind the horribly sexist and racist things every cis white male running is guilty of that is conveniently overlooked.
Elizabeth Warren gives a shoutout tweet and calls Kamala Harris her friend. Awww, how quaint. No mention of how propaganda and the media narratives helped to destroy her “friend’s” campaign. Julian Castro took a different approach, directly calling out the issues that led to Kamala Harris’ campaign demise. Leave it to a man of color — and not to any of the white candidates who claim to care about social justice — to speak truth to power to the racism and sexism that still holds this country back from true greatness.
Speaking truth to power is how we will win this country back from fascism, nationalism, and white supremacy. The road to freedom is not wrapped in attempting to appeal to racist white voters who either recently left the Democratic Party or who are thinking about it. The base of the Democratic is not white. It’s black, latinx, LGBTQIA+, and disabled.
Isn’t it about damn time our leadership and our Democratic Presidential Nominees reflect the reality of our party? Kamala Harris suspending her campaign is not about any of her flaws. It’s not even really about her. It’s about how white supremacy is not just a conservative Republican thing. It’s a white thing. It’s just as much a progressive thing. It’s just as much a liberal thing. It’s just as much a Facebook Pantsuit Nation thing. It’s just as much a socialist leftist thing.
I’ve been listening to the LeVar Burton Reads podcast on Spotify. I had just finished listening to Octavia Butler’s “Childfinder” yesterday and was still deep in thought about that short story. About how telepathy was supposed to finally unlock an equal utopia for Earth’s inhabitants, but how Barbara — the main character — found the misfit telepathic white people who had started the Organization were still racist as hell. There was nothing unrealistic about this futuristic sci fi. It seemed as if no matter what, we white people will always find a reason to create social hierarchy that keeps us on top — even us leftist, liberal, Democrats, and our favorite white candidate. This is not the way to fight and defeat fascism and white supremacy. And if we white people don’t get our shit together within every level in our society — from our personal conversations, to how the media decides to narrate the days events, to how we vote — we will doom humanity to extinction. There will be no one left to rule. There will be nothing.
