Kamala Harris supporters schaudenfreude thread

[Statilius the Epicurean]

I like the claim that the Democratic Party electorate is racist because black voters liked Biden (Warren/Sanders for younger AAs) more than they did Harris.

[John Dule]

https://twitter.com/DavidDTSS/status/1201931741734289409?s=19

It's true though. Kamala had to work her butt off to get to the position she's in today. Mayor Pete was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. An absolute fraud that is just a career politician who has no understanding of what people of color want in their lives. The fact he's one of the four remaining candidates is grotesque. Senator Harris has accomplished more in her life than Buttigieg will ever do in his lifetime.

It's really weird for me to watch these arguments between the supporters of different Democratic candidates, none of whom stand for anything other than temporary fixes and empty rhetoric that will get a bare minimum majority of voters on their side. Harris is a platitude-spewing demagogue and Buttigieg is a media fabrication being pushed by the DNC. Why does anyone feel any loyalty to either of them? The only thing I can think of that makes people support these candidates is their personal traits and characteristics, which makes their campaigns little more than personality cults. I cannot fathom why people are so broken up about her announcement. All I know is that it's not motivated by policy preferences; it probably has something to do with crowd mentality and social desirability bias. It makes me ill.

[RaphaelDLG]

 

https://twitter.com/DavidDTSS/status/1201931741734289409?s=19

Look, I hate the #KHive and am excited to see Kamala go, but they are 100% right on this one.

Ah yes, all of that gay privilege. The gay erasure going on in this primary is quite evident in this tone-deaf tweet and response.

What a joke of an analysis.

Somehow despite all of the Mayor's obstacles, he's doing pretty well.  

He's a major frontrunner soaking up all of the cash, favorable media coverage, and support of affluent white liberals despite the fact that he's the mayor a town of 100,000 people mostly run by a city manager with an atrocious record and alternatively vapid/horrifying politics, and is running against the two most important Democratic senators of the last decade and a former two-term Democratic Vice President.

I don't really think his identity is as much of an obstacle in the primary race, seeing as the primary is in large part determined by two of whitest and most liberal dem primary states in the union.  Maybe in the general it will be, though public opinion on gay rights has come a remarkably long way since 2004.

Kamala, on the other hand, couldn't break through despite being elected multiple times to statewide races in a state large enough to be bigger than most countries and running a substantially more issues-based campaign.

I don't know, am I wrong?

I like the claim that the Democratic Party electorate is racist because black voters liked Biden (Warren/Sanders for younger AAs) more than they did Harris.

I don't think it makes sense to say that the party electorate is straight-up racist, more that the media and donor base is WAY too favorable to the white, male, right-wing candidates

[Statilius the Epicurean]

I don't think it makes sense to say that the party electorate is straight-up racist, more that the media and donor base is WAY too favorable to the white, male, right-wing candidates

Sure. Harris got tons of positive press coverage when she entered the race and after the first debate though. And the only serious white male candidate who's been propped up by wealthy donors (rather than self-funding) is probably Buttigieg, and that's because he's gay.

[Libertas Vel Mors]

https://twitter.com/DavidDTSS/status/1201931741734289409?s=19

Look, I hate the #KHive and am excited to see Kamala go, but they are 100% right on this one.

Maybe it's because he doesn't exude bullsh**t

[Libertas Vel Mors]

https://twitter.com/DavidDTSS/status/1201931741734289409?s=19

Look, I hate the #KHive and am excited to see Kamala go, but they are 100% right on this one.

Ah yes, all of that gay privilege. The gay erasure going on in this primary is quite evident in this tone-deaf tweet and response.

What a joke of an analysis.

Somehow despite all of the Mayor's obstacles, he's doing pretty well.  

He's a major frontrunner soaking up all of the cash, favorable media coverage, and support of affluent white liberals despite the fact that he's the mayor a town of 100,000 people mostly run by a city manager with an atrocious record and alternatively vapid/horrifying politics, and is running against the two most important Democratic senators of the last decade and a former two-term Democratic Vice President.

I don't really think his identity is as much of an obstacle in the primary race, seeing as the primary is in large part determined by two of whitest and most liberal dem primary states in the union.  Maybe in the general it will be, though public opinion on gay rights has come a remarkably long way since 2004.

Kamala, on the other hand, couldn't break through despite being elected multiple times to statewide races in a state large enough to be bigger than most countries and running a substantially more issues-based campaign.

I don't know, am I wrong?

I like the claim that the Democratic Party electorate is racist because black voters liked Biden (Warren/Sanders for younger AAs) more than they did Harris.

I don't think it makes sense to say that the party electorate is straight-up racist, more that the media and donor base is WAY too favorable to the white, male, right-wing candidates

Whatever drugs you're on, I want em

[Confused Democrat]

https://twitter.com/DavidDTSS/status/1201931741734289409?s=19

Look, I hate the #KHive and am excited to see Kamala go, but they are 100% right on this one.

Ah yes, all of that gay privilege. The gay erasure going on in this primary is quite evident in this tone-deaf tweet and response.

What a joke of an analysis.

Somehow despite all of the Mayor's obstacles, he's doing pretty well.  

He's a major frontrunner soaking up all of the cash, favorable media coverage, and support of affluent white liberals despite the fact that he's the mayor a town of 100,000 people mostly run by a city manager with an atrocious record and alternatively vapid/horrifying politics, and is running against the two most important Democratic senators of the last decade and a former two-term Democratic Vice President.

I don't really think his identity is as much of an obstacle in the primary race, seeing as the primary is in large part determined by two of whitest and most liberal dem primary states in the union.  Maybe in the general it will be, though public opinion on gay rights has come a remarkably long way since 2004.

Kamala, on the other hand, couldn't break through despite being elected multiple times to statewide races in a state large enough to be bigger than most countries and running a substantially more issues-based campaign.

I don't know, am I wrong?

I like the claim that the Democratic Party electorate is racist because black voters liked Biden (Warren/Sanders for younger AAs) more than they did Harris.

I don't think it makes sense to say that the party electorate is straight-up racist, more that the media and donor base is WAY too favorable to the white, male, right-wing candidates

Yes, you're quite wrong.

What's so incredibly frustrating about how Pete is being covered is that so-called "progressives" and "allies" are taking a conservative approach in their criticisms by blatantly ignoring Pete's sexuality. You can't just cut off a piece of a persons identity and pretend it's not there. Pete will ALWAYS be gay. He was born that way an lives his life every day as a gay man.

By focusing only on his race and sex, you're erasing his gayness in order to highlight his cis, white male privileges. That's blatant heterosexism and textbook queer erasure. Clearly he is also always white and male, but so are all of the other white male candidates. There's no question that being a white male earns you social benefits.

However, when you ignore Pete's gayness you're just perpetuating the queer erasure that has gone on in this country for decades, and erasing the systemic marginalization he's faced as a gay man growing up in a country believing he would never be able to get married or have a family like all the other straight people. Where he had to suppress his sexuality because homosexuality was largely frowned upon and viewed as a sin. Not to mention having to serve in the military under DADT.

To argue that Pete must hold statewide office before running for president or to argue that it’s crazy that some "small-town mayor" is being taken more seriously than the qualified women, ignores that only 0.1% of elected officials are out LGBTQ people. Which LGBTQ people should be “allowed” to run, exactly? There are hardly any in any elected office!

Not to mention the fact that according to most polling people are less likely to vote for an LGBTQ candidate than a woman or a black person. Let's also conveniently ignore the fact Pete hails from the Republican bastion of INDIANA. It's just an obvious fact that structural homophobia makes it enormously more difficult for him to win a state-wide election.

I'm not saying you have to view Pete as qualified, but ignoring why his experience looks like it does is to disregard systemic homophobia that keeps LGBTQ politicians from garnering more traditional political experience.

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

I don't think it makes sense to say that the party electorate is straight-up racist, more that the media and donor base is WAY too favorable to the white, male, right-wing candidates

Joe Biden has been hammered much more consistently and negatively than any other candidate in the field and... wait for it... he's consistently had the best poll numbers in the primary.

[Virginiá]

lol @ the Kamala or Bust people. "Hope you're happy, I'm sitting this one out. Look what you're making me do. Thanks for giving us 4 more years of Trump."

And the tweets I've seen today about how Kamala losing and leaving an even whiter field of candidates is somehow "white supremacy" or some other racial injustice is exactly why I loathe to ever venture beyond election stats twitter accounts. Don't blame a boring, uninspiring candidate with policy baggage losing on anything else but that.

[Libertas Vel Mors]

I find it so funny to see all the Kamala people calling the Democratic base racist. Like, really? If the majority non-white uber-liberal Obama 08 Clinton 16 voters don't like you, that seems like a pretty weird mode of attack, especially when your entire campaign's biggest failure was being unable to appeal to black voters.

[JonHawk]

Look at all the cope in this thread

[RaphaelDLG]

https://twitter.com/DavidDTSS/status/1201931741734289409?s=19

Look, I hate the #KHive and am excited to see Kamala go, but they are 100% right on this one.

Ah yes, all of that gay privilege. The gay erasure going on in this primary is quite evident in this tone-deaf tweet and response.

What a joke of an analysis.

Somehow despite all of the Mayor's obstacles, he's doing pretty well.  

He's a major frontrunner soaking up all of the cash, favorable media coverage, and support of affluent white liberals despite the fact that he's the mayor a town of 100,000 people mostly run by a city manager with an atrocious record and alternatively vapid/horrifying politics, and is running against the two most important Democratic senators of the last decade and a former two-term Democratic Vice President.

I don't really think his identity is as much of an obstacle in the primary race, seeing as the primary is in large part determined by two of whitest and most liberal dem primary states in the union.  Maybe in the general it will be, though public opinion on gay rights has come a remarkably long way since 2004.

Kamala, on the other hand, couldn't break through despite being elected multiple times to statewide races in a state large enough to be bigger than most countries and running a substantially more issues-based campaign.

I don't know, am I wrong?

I like the claim that the Democratic Party electorate is racist because black voters liked Biden (Warren/Sanders for younger AAs) more than they did Harris.

I don't think it makes sense to say that the party electorate is straight-up racist, more that the media and donor base is WAY too favorable to the white, male, right-wing candidates

Yes, you're quite wrong.

What's so incredibly frustrating about how Pete is being covered is that so-called "progressives" and "allies" are taking a conservative approach in their criticisms by blatantly ignoring Pete's sexuality. You can't just cut off a piece of a persons identity and pretend it's not there. Pete will ALWAYS be gay. He was born that way an lives his life every day as a gay man.

By focusing only on his race and sex, you're erasing his gayness in order to highlight his cis, white male privileges. That's blatant heterosexism and textbook queer erasure. Clearly he is also always white and male, but so are all of the other white male candidates. There's no question that being a white male earns you social benefits.

However, when you ignore Pete's gayness you're just perpetuating the queer erasure that has gone on in this country for decades, and erasing the systemic marginalization he's faced as a gay man growing up in a country believing he would never be able to get married or have a family like all the other straight people. Where he had to suppress his sexuality because homosexuality was largely frowned upon and viewed as a sin. Not to mention having to serve in the military under DADT.

To argue that Pete must hold statewide office before running for president or to argue that it’s crazy that some "small-town mayor" is being taken more seriously than the qualified women, ignores that only 0.1% of elected officials are out LGBTQ people. Which LGBTQ people should be “allowed” to run, exactly? There are hardly any in any elected office!

Not to mention the fact that according to most polling people are less likely to vote for an LGBTQ candidate than a woman or a black person. Let's also conveniently ignore the fact Pete hails from the Republican bastion of INDIANA. It's just an obvious fact that structural homophobia makes it enormously more difficult for him to win a state-wide election.

I'm not saying you have to view Pete as qualified, but ignoring why his experience looks like it does is to disregard systemic homophobia that keeps LGBTQ politicians from garnering more traditional political experience.

1) re your first paragraph, who the hell in the media and the other campaigns is actually substantially criticizing Buttigieg at all?  This guy is getting treated with kid gloves.

2) re your second point, sure, homophobia absolutely is still a barrier in society - maybe not in the iowa democratic primary, but definitely with winning statewide races in Indiana - but does that mean we give such an unproven candidate the nomination in an important national election, particularly when his politics and personal character are so mediocre anyway?  Of course not.

[Adam Griffin]

I like the claim that the Democratic Party electorate is racist because black voters liked Biden (Warren/Sanders for younger AAs) more than they did Harris.

This has been what's cracking me up all day about this quasi-conspiratorial Twitter stuff. The bulk of Harris's supporters were rich white people, as is the case for Booker and (possibly) Castro. I wouldn't be surprised if their supporters were whiter than the Democratic primary electorate overall. Whites have pretty consistently backed candidates of color in this race at higher rates than non-whites. This reminds me a lot of the mathematically and factually-challenged Sanders Twitter users from 2016. At least it's yet another good reminder that the Twitterverse for a candidate or ideology looks nothing like their support base overall.

As far as media coverage of Harris, given her aggregate performance throughout the campaign, she actually got considerably more coverage than I would have expected for somebody dawdling in the 6-8% range throughout most of this campaign.

If a particular immutable characteristic is essential or important in terms of embodying a "change agent" who will improve the lives of those with similar backgrounds, then it stands to reason that - even in the Democratic Party - the first step is building a coalition with respectable support levels among those individuals. If you can't do that - or even come anywhere close to it - then you were never going to be a transformative figure anyway. That's the fundamental difference between somebody like President Obama and the candidates of color in this cycle: Obama was able to build strong base support while assembling a multi-faceted coalition bit by bit as the primary progressed (but, to be fair, even he was mostly propped up by a bunch of yuppie whites until Clinton began faltering).

[Libertas Vel Mors]

Oh my god I’m dying lmao

https://twitter.com/byst/status/1201954470180950017?s=21

[Libertas Vel Mors]

https://twitter.com/carcarolina456/status/1202035468449337345?s=21

Imagine walking on pins and needles because someone’s favorite candidate dropped out.

[Libertas Vel Mors]

I’d like to ask these people whether losing a family member deserves more or less time to grieve than losing a candidate

https://twitter.com/mylifeismunitz/status/1201937519773921281?s=21

https://twitter.com/leftyjennyc/status/1201934738577149952?s=21

https://twitter.com/sfpelosi/status/1201931755571183617?s=21

https://twitter.com/reignofapril/status/1201944011050831872?s=21

HOW WILL THEY SURVIVE

[Dr. Arch]

This is uncalled for. We need to avoid this kind of vitriol in our politics. It's part of the reason why this country's political conversation is how it is today.

The first phrase "This is uncalled for" reminded me of Dan Quayle's response to Lloyd Bentsen's "you're no Jack Kennedy" debate moment.

I'll take that as a compliment.

This is uncalled for. We need to avoid this kind of vitriol in our politics. It's part of the reason why this country's political conversation is how it is today.

Normally I'd agree, but Harris was one of the most divisive candidates in the race. The damage you're speaking of is already done, and it was done by her.

If that damage is done, and we recognize it, it is more so imperative to approach the whole process differently, rather than to follow that lead and proceed to toss in more fuel to the flames.

[Kleine Scheiße]

This thread is more of an embarrassment, if anything.

I only made it because KHive has to be the most deranged cult I've ever seen for any Democratic candidate and their labeling of any criticism of her as racist/sexist was infuriating as all hell.

I didn't realize you changed your display name so I wasn't expecting it when I was smacked in the face by the obliqueness and sheer disdain for nuance in this take.

[Grassroots]

https://twitter.com/gofetchgretch/status/1201931007156293634?s=19

This woman is racist.

[Diabolical Materialism]

This is the best thread on this site.

This thread is more of an embarrassment, if anything.

I only made it because KHive has to be the most deranged cult I've ever seen for any Democratic candidate and their labeling of any criticism of her as racist/sexist was infuriating as all hell.

If you think Kamala had a annoying fan base then let me introduce you to the Yang gang

And the Bernie Bros. They are more harmful than the K-Hive, as they continue to demolish the structure of the Democratic Party.

And that's a good thing.

[Grassroots]

https://twitter.com/LaughSoIDontCry/status/1201940425730351107?s=19

Ironic considering she spent her career defending white billionaires.

[SuperCow]

Another reason to love Tulsi Gabbard.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

This thread is more of an embarrassment, if anything.

I only made it because KHive has to be the most deranged cult I've ever seen for any Democratic candidate and their labeling of any criticism of her as racist/sexist was infuriating as all hell.

I didn't realize you changed your display name so I wasn't expecting it when I was smacked in the face by the obliqueness and sheer disdain for nuance in this take.

How is it untrue?

And please note, blaming racism for her defeat is actually calling black voters racist as they're the ones who overwhelmingly preferred Biden (and even Warren and Sanders.)

[Kleine Scheiße]

This thread is more of an embarrassment, if anything.

I only made it because KHive has to be the most deranged cult I've ever seen for any Democratic candidate and their labeling of any criticism of her as racist/sexist was infuriating as all hell.

I didn't realize you changed your display name so I wasn't expecting it when I was smacked in the face by the obliqueness and sheer disdain for nuance in this take.

How is it untrue?

And please note, blaming racism for her defeat is actually calling black voters racist as they're the ones who overwhelmingly preferred Biden (and even Warren and Sanders.)

Your playbook is clearly to throw out totally unsubstantiated exaggerations. Your entire operation for this whole primary has been based on strawmanning, and not even in the service of any actual argument. You can continue accusing people of reducing Kamala dropping out to "just, like, racism and stuff" all you'd like, but nobody's making that argument, so you're really just masturbating to your imagination in front of some thousand-or-so nerds on the internet.

There's not really any "defeat" in an election with 30 candidates in which no one has yet voted; and I don't care if Biden is winning 100% of black poll responses, because I'll repeat for like the third time that this discussion has nothing to do with how black people have responded to polling. The implication that Harris' only possible lane was to mobilize a bunch of black voters against white people is disgusting and would be edited out of even the most outlandish work of political fiction. Likewise, the implication that it would be impossible for black people to harbor racial bias against people of Indian descent is also laughable, though I doubt that was a defining factor in this race. Or, did you forget that Kamala is half-Indian?

I'm so sorry that some Kamala staffer was a little mean to you once or something, I guess.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

This thread is more of an embarrassment, if anything.

I only made it because KHive has to be the most deranged cult I've ever seen for any Democratic candidate and their labeling of any criticism of her as racist/sexist was infuriating as all hell.

I didn't realize you changed your display name so I wasn't expecting it when I was smacked in the face by the obliqueness and sheer disdain for nuance in this take.

How is it untrue?

And please note, blaming racism for her defeat is actually calling black voters racist as they're the ones who overwhelmingly preferred Biden (and even Warren and Sanders.)

Your playbook is clearly to throw out totally unsubstantiated exaggerations. Your entire operation for this whole primary has been based on strawmanning, and not even in the service of any actual argument. You can continue accusing people of reducing Kamala dropping out to "just, like, racism and stuff" all you'd like, but nobody's making that argument, so you're really just masturbating to your imagination in front of some thousand-or-so nerds on the internet.

I just quoted examples of it in the OP.

There's not really any "defeat" in an election with 30 candidates in which no one has yet voted; and I don't care if Biden is winning 100% of black poll responses, because I'll repeat for like the third time that this discussion has nothing to do with how black people have responded to polling. The implication that Harris' only possible lane was to mobilize a bunch of black voters against white people is disgusting and would be edited out of even the most outlandish work of political fiction. Likewise, the implication that it would be impossible for black people to harbor racial bias against people of Indian descent is also laughable, though I doubt that was a defining factor in this race. Or, did you forget that Kamala is half-Indian?

nah, I'm really aware. I just don't think that was a factor at all in her failure to pick up.

I'm so sorry that some Kamala staffer was a little mean to you once or something, I guess.

It's more that her supporters on Twitter (and some here, see Pittsburgh for Kamala) were f[inks]ing insufferable. And honestly no one has managed to provide a good rebuttal to the main reason I opposed her: her awful policies involving jailing parents for their kids cutting class.