Why Kamala lost
Let’s look at the 2024 presidential campaign
1. Kamala’s pantsuit problem
Was a nation’s destiny decided by women’s clothes? There were so many praises of Kamala Harris’s pantsuits with shoulderpads. The day before the election, anticipating her victory, the New York Times effused: “How Power Shoulders Tell a Story of This Campaign.”
To the American mind, however, it wasn’t working. Is a woman wearing a pantsuit trying to masculinize?—without the phallic tie. The result seems like a feminized male or lesbian. A Vanity Fair photo shoot (by Annie Leibovitz), indeed, styled Kamala like a rich lesbian on a date.
America wasn’t into it. As the the comedian Bill Barr said in an election wrap-up: “Ladies, enough with the pantsuit, okay?”
2. Tim Walz isn’t your “Dad”
The Harris campaign picked up Minnesota governor Tim Walz with the idea that he’d be a male counterpart. A progressive man, but a military man and really great dad, was the idea. The media played along, with headlines like “How Tim Walz is defining masculinity in 2024.”
