The only bad thing about Sen. Kamala Harris dropping out of the 2020 Democratic presidential race is that we Californians have to take her back.
Most people saw her dropout coming. If her subpar performance in the debates, awful criminal justice record, hilarious overconfidence, and overall unlikeability weren’t enough to convince you, perhaps the numbers will. While her polling rates remained on the steady decline since day one, those of underdog candidates have skyrocketed.
Harris may be a virtue-signaling partisan hack, but she’s completely outshined by the likes of other virtue-signaling partisan hacks who are more appealing. Yes, that includes Joe “I let kids touch my leg hair” Biden. Point being, she wasn’t able to stand out. In a field of what initially was over 20 candidates, being able to stand out and gain footing is crucial to the success of one’s campaign, and Harris just didn’t have any moments that really compelled any voters.
However, she had plenty of moments that showed voters just how out of touch she was with the election. From calling Tulsi Gabbard a “low-tier” candidate to derailing an entire Democratic debate just to preach about banning President Trump from Twitter, she’s attempted too many “gotcha” moments that fell completely flat.
Sen. Harris absolutely didn’t *need* to end her campaign, but it’s good that she did. With around $10 million in funds left and plenty of time to qualify for the next debate, a candidate with her name recognition could push through and exit close to the top tier. However, she knows that she’s getting nowhere.
The best thing she’s done for her campaign was suspending it. At the very least, she’s saving the little bit of face she has left. At most, perhaps she’ll get a Vice Presidential spot on the ticket.
https://twitter.com/EmmaKinery/status/1202000945476976640?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1202066504352698368&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Freason.com%2F2019%2F12%2F04%2Fkamala-harris-fans-blame-billionaires-sexists-and-racists-for-her-campaigns-collapse%2F
Her supporters were quick to blame anything but Harris herself, of course.
One major target of blame was the “Cop-mala Harris” comments. Harris’ campaign was centered around her “progressive” law-and-order positions, while her history with criminal justice was the exact opposite. Leftists and conservatives alike were quick to criticize her extreme hypocrisy.
Clips surfaced of her cackling about using gang prosecutors to terrorize vulnerable, homeless, single mothers with threats of incarceration, disproportionately jailing black, nonviolent cannabis users (and later laughing about it), and happily bragged about building more prisons than schools. Regardless of one’s stance on any of these issues, the fact that Harris was an absolute hypocrite turned many voters off from supporting her campaign. Harris all but begged the media to question her positions on criminal justice and wasn’t prepared to own up to her past opinions.
Fingers were pointed in every direction, most straight to the fact that she’s a woman, and on top of that, a Woman of Color™. Many have raised torches and pitchforks at the Democratic Party for being racist and sexist against the senator. Though the Democratic Party may have a slew of problems, it’s completely ridiculous to erase all of the other women and minorities from the 2020 race just to preach identity politics. As of now, there are still several candidates that fall into at least one of those two categories that are still running, many of those polling lower than her and with fewer wealthy donors.
Regardless of where her supporters place the blame, everything circles back to Harris as the fundamental reason for her campaign’s downfall. Kamala Harris isn’t special. It wasn’t racism or sexism that kept her from making a serious run at the Democratic nomination—it was her own incompetence.
