“What can be, unburdened by what has been.” Nobody knows how to interpret that gnomic phrase. But that hasn’t stopped the Vice President of the most powerful country on Earth from adopting it as her mantra. Does it matter? Put it this way: with the United States poised to be unburdened by a certain octogenarian as he reels on his presidential perch, this is the person who may be getting her hands on the future of the world.
Step forward Kamala Harris, star of a new attack video produced by the Republicans. In the clip, she is seen repeating the baffling “unburdened” slogan in no fewer than 62 speeches. I challenged my Twitter followers to watch it to the end. Only one had the grit to get through all four minutes in a single sitting, vowing darkly that he’d “never forgive” me.
The punch of the video lay in the way it simply showcased Harris’s own cretinism, allowing her to be hoist by her own petard. Of course, she is hardly the first politician to be weird, but she wears it so cheerfully and so smugly, with such a patronising lack of self-awareness, that she makes of herself an ignominious exception.
It’s not just the “unburdening” shtick. Other greatest hits include Harris clapping obliviously along to a hostile protest chant in Puerto Rico, warbling The Wheels On The Bus to a tune apparently of her own invention, and delivering a homily about a coconut tree.
In 2021, with migrants risking their lives to cross from Mexico into the United States, she was asked why she had not visited the border in the 76 days since she had been in charge of the crisis. “I haven’t been to Europe,” she replied, laughing as if she had won.
Harris attempted to show a better grasp of geography in March, when Israel was poised to enter Rafah. “I have studied the maps,” she told ABC. “There’s nowhere for those [civilian] folks to go.” Israel responded by evacuating a million people in ten days, directing them safely to an expanded humanitarian area in central Gaza.
So we may add map reading to her growing list of incompetencies. But given how National Security Council officials reportedly had to “water down” her anti-Israel rhetoric in a speech that same month, this may be about something darker than ineptitude.
Be afraid. Given her proximity to unrivalled power, Harris seems to have avoided the intense scrutiny directed at presidential candidates. But her oddness partly explains her persistent unpopularity. Last year, a poll showed that most Americans viewed her as the worst vice president this millennium.
Biden selected her to be his running mate again. By April, her favourability ratings had plummeted to -16. They now stand at -20, marginally ahead of the President at -24, according to CNN. The fact that Trump is ahead at -15 tells you everything you need to know about this election.
If Biden dodders onto his political sword, there will be few good options for the Democrats. The party may be forced to revive a process not seen since the Sixties, in which a candidate will be chosen competitively at an “open convention” in August. The radical instincts of thousands of Democratic delegates, combined with the power of the unions, would threaten to push firebrands like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to the fore.
Alternatively, Biden could endorse a replacement, turning the convention into a more traditional coronation. This would be good for party unity; but would it be good for America?
The shameful truth is that the 47th president may be selected not by talent but by race. Disgracefully, with the world at the most dangerous point since the Cold War, our future is in hoc to the new progressive radicalism.
Harris’s team has let it be known that it would be “offensive” if Biden were to anoint a white successor. Much of the Democratic base would presumably agree. The self-evident fact that neither Harris’s race nor sex is in any way relevant to her suitability for the most difficult job in the world is testament to the fever dream of identity politics that is 2024 America.
As appalling as it sounds, Harris may win the nomination purely by threatening to cry racism. That really would be the party’s Trump card.
Jake Wallis Simons is editor of The Jewish Chronicle and author of Israelophobia
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