It is increasingly clear that Harris supporters are entirely disinterested in putting forward positive arguments for their candidate-of-choice, instead choosing to double down on accusations of racism and sexism whenever she is criticized. The strategy has remained unchanged since February of 2020, and they feel no need to change things up now.
"no charisma and not likable" ... the blatant sexism continues.
Some people only think that way because she's a Black woman/WOC.
But for the rest of us, perhaps it's time for a remedial lesson in political messaging. Firstly, while there are of course unfair biases in the public, candidates are largely personally responsible for the way they are perceived. Any candidate who receives criticism and chooses to blame external factors (racism, sexism, homophobia, etc) rather than look inwards to see if those accusations have any merit is not the kind of person you want running for office. The same goes for their supporters-- when honest criticism is leveled, it is your responsibility to take that criticism into consideration. Take, for example, this comment:
To the DSA progressive left - she's an "evil cop" that wants to incarcerate every Black & Latino person in America and to the MAGA lunatic right - she's a radical socialist that has "slept her way to the top". Just disgusting.
This indignant rant has a nugget of truth to it-- Harris has indeed been criticized from both the left and the right, and for reasons that are (at least at face value) irreconcilable. However, the question that Harris supporters ask themselves when receiving criticism is never "What has
my candidate done that has caused her to be perceived this way?"; rather, it is always "What innate biases and irrationalities are causing
the public to view her this way?" This mentality may give solace to fellow Harris supporters, who will be able to tell themselves that they are right and others are wrong, but it will not win any converts to their cause. In this instance, the Harris supporter ignores some very real facts (and alienates others in the process).
Firstly, Harris actively pushed for harsher sentences for nonviolent drug offenses in a city where doing the
opposite of this would have likely been praised and rewarded. Secondly, Harris has routinely flip-flopped on several progressive causes-- saying she would eliminate private insurance one week (an extremist stance that not even Bernie Sanders endorses) and then immediately walking that back the next. Is it any wonder that she has received criticism from both right and left? Is it any wonder that voters are unsure where she stands? No. To the Harris supporter, these reasonable criticisms are motivated by inherent biases and are therefore not worth addressing. This allows them to conveniently drown out all warning signs that their candidate is deeply flawed.
Another example: I am an Andrew Yang supporter, but you will never see me treat an attack on him as an attack on Asian-Americans (or men, for that matter). I admit that Yang has his flaws, and I often wish he would address those flaws more directly. His willingness to meme himself, while useful in certain contexts, is (I think) often harmful to his important message. He too frequently used UBI as a catch-all fix during his campaign, which turned him into a one-note candidate. I believe Yang has learned from his first campaign and is altering his strategy accordingly-- something he could not have done if he blamed external factors for all of his failings.
Perhaps the reason why I (and many others) are so fed up with Harris' supporters is because we have seen this behavior before in the Clinton 2016 campaign. Did Hillary deserve all the bile and hatred directed towards her? Of course not. But at some point, a candidate needs to take responsibility for the way they're perceived and adapt accordingly. To this day, Clinton supporters tell themselves that their candidate failed because of Sanders, or Comey, or Russia, or sexism, or racism, or a vast right-wing conspiracy. I'm sure that gives them some comfort-- but they still lost, and that is ultimately what matters.
