American politics, or the lack thereof: Kamala Harris’s non-campaign campaign
By Renaissance
I made my first twitter account in January 2014 and I have had the same personal account since June 2014. Over the past decade on the app I have fluctuated on how frequently I am on the social media website but I have always been present and participating on the app. Engaging in the app’s culture, sharing my thoughts, and most importantly reading other people’s thoughts from all around the world has run directly parallel to my personal and political development. I learned about coming out, people’s transition journeys, and how people were doing on the ground organizing while utilizing hashtags, along with so much more. For better or worse, Twitter was my radicalizing landscape in the midst of my generally evangelical Christian conservative hometown culture.
I joined Twitter with no expectation that it would become such a pivotal social media space in the 2016 election and the campaigns. Electoral politics were not spoken about on the app the same after Trump’s first campaign. #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter were political hashtags and cornerstones of the app's culture, but it also spoke to the politics and realities of real people (not influencers or blue check mark subscribers) on the app. Voting information, political campaign information, and politicians speaking to the public were all largely relegated to the traditional institutions and practices with some small accounts and organizers tweeting for their direct communities. This all changed with Donald Trump’s first presidential campaign. Donald Trump's tweets became headlines and now Twitter was being spoken about in contexts where it had not been before.
Traditional media did not know how to interact with the specific text/speech patterns of Twitter and thus used that cultural difference as a sign that Trump was out of touch with reality. A notable example of this was on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and the host's frequent rereadings of Trump’s tweets on air. Colbert would often read Trump’s ellipses as a sign of a bumbling idiot who could not finish a sentence. Colbert would overexaggerate Trump tweets that started in the middle of a sentence as if it were a random interjection even though it was clearly a part of a thread/series of related tweets. Despite the truth that Donald Trump is a fascistic fool, he is also a bonafide poster. Many did not understand at the time since they themselves were not authentically participating in internet language and culture. Currently, online speech patterns, threads, and internet cultural references are key to the 2024 election, effectively making it an internet culture war. Hence the stark contrast of Twitter’s role in the political media landscape now compared to the app’s relationship to the 2016 election.
Throughout high school and college, I was politically outspoken on the app. I tweeted against Donald Trump, tweeted in support of trans students, and I shared my own perspective on the news and social developments. I believe that it is important for the average person to leave a footprint of political dissent. Using Twitter was my way of signifying that a normal person, of no particular prestige or significance, sees politicians and people in power as regular humans with abhorrent morals. However, in the year marking one decade on the app, I have personally refrained from engaging with the 2024 election cycle tweets and posts. I have made some declarative/observational posts on my Twitter account to make it clear that my silence is not an endorsement of electoral politics or an apathy to it. In fact, I am very angry. Seething with rage when I think soberly and honestly about the state of this election, I fill with so much rage that I have to all but completely dissociate as to not let the state of politics force me to kill myself to take me out of the misery of witnessing the unnecessary end of the world accelerated by Twitter, now X. I do not say that to center myself or even refer to my real feelings as what really matters in the election because, in fact, it is the lack of materiality in this election that enrages me the most.
Since the conception of the genocidal fascist project that is the United States of America (Amerikkka), campaigning to be the president has been a relentless pursuit to be war criminal-CEO-top dog, so to speak, of imperialism. Who will be the face of the gatekeeping and ultimate manager of American capital and international violence? There necessitates an unambiguous political positioning of oneself on the side of white supremacy and ecofascism and all that comes along with it in seeking to become the president of the empire. The maintenance and continuation of the United States of America, as it currently stands, is a product of the ongoing genocide and colonization of the indigenous people and land of the Americas. Every vote in a national election has always been a vote for on-going genocide. There has been no U.S president that has not participated in genocide. American presidential candidates align themselves with this reality when they begin their bid for the presidency and even earlier in political and legal careers. Distinct campaign policies were crafted to convince the desired voting demographics that their particular candidate was the best for their future as “Americans” and thus participants in this settler colonial project. The definitions and borders of who is considered a “desirable voter” and who is not has changed over the course of U.S American history. However, the coercion of these policies due to the greed of candidates has stayed the same.
The electorate who was once convinced to cast the bid against their own interests due to the rhetoric of politicians and convoluted policies are now attempting to out-meme their party counter-parts. There is no policy even being presented to align oneself with. In a TikTok titled “Democrats Name Their Favorite Kamala Policy” posted by @The.Free.Press, the host asks “What is your favorite policy of Kamala?” Of the fourteen interviewees in the video, not a single person could actually name a policy or describe how Kamala would implement the vague promises she makes (accessible abortions, gender affirming care, codifying rights, etc.).
A unique trait of this 2024 election is the very apparent lack of known policies of the Democratic and Republican parties, effectively making this race for presidency one in namesake only. Who, of the average voters and amateur unqualified TikTok pundits, is to say how politically different the Trump/Vance ticket is from Harris/Walz? But does it even matter? Peter Rothpletz of The New Republic wrote earlier this month: “Kamala Harris Doesn’t Need Policy to Win: In fact, a detailed platform will hurt her campaign more than it will help.” Rothplex accurately observes that “Harris’s vibes-based, personality-based approach to the first six weeks of this mad dash of a campaign is clearly working.”
It’s all laughs and memes yet, with regards to the most pressing and fundamentally political event in modern history–the ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing in Palestine– Kamala Harris does not waver from the current position of the U.S. zionist government. The same policies that donned President Joe Biden the nickname “Genocide Joe” seem to slide off of Kamala in the public’s perception, despite Kamala saying that she will ensure the U.S military to be the “most lethal.” That is serial killer language of the highest degree and yet it was met with cheers from the audience at the DNC. How are people of this country and continent supposed to organize against imperialism home and abroad when this is what our “liberal” party is saying?
There is a very real cognitive dissonance between Kamala Harris as the current vice president and Kamala Harris as the presidential candidate. This dissonance is aided by the “memeficiation” of Kamala Harris through years of her interview clips and candid pictures being used as popular reaction content for social media apps such as Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram.
“Memefication” a portmanteau of meme and the suffix -ification to denote the process of transformation. Memeification refers to the process when a subject is stripped of its original meaning or context and is given a new meaning through the proliferation of repeated jokes or implied meaning through casual yet abundant sharing/resharing online. Kamala’s several years in the public eye starting with her career as California’s Attorney General and successive presidential candidate campaigns have provided a wealth of Kamala content for posters to sift through to find the newest and hottest meme for the timeline to run into the dirt.
Kamala’s cadence and humor, shaped by her age and cultural background, has several markers that are familiar to the young American public, with cultural references such as Real Housewives franchise icon Nene Leekes. The memeification of Kamala Harris as a person allows Twitter users to use both Harris and Leeks as interchangeable in their reaction content. Kamala’s ‘casual mode’ feels reminiscent of a mix of “auntie” and Paula Abdul from the early seasons of American Idol. Off the cuff comments and distinct laughs are what make someone endearing and rootable to a highly online population which is majoritively millennial and Generation Z. Memeficition serves to shape and maintain the active cognitive dissonance towards Kamala Harris, allowing us to ignore and in fact dismiss the current suffering of people subject to the policies of the American empire, both domestic and abroad. The American proletariat and electorates are able to disillusion themselves into continuing the farce of American electoral politics, despite the blatant evidence that this system is not working in anyone’s favor. Besides the capitalists and imperialists, of course. Participation in Kamala’s memeification, and thus American electoral politics, conceals the truth that these systems are working against us.
The classic presidential litmus question of “Could you have a beer and barbecue with this candidate?” has now shifted to “Could you share memes with this candidate?” This reflects the major shift in American culture; the increased use and integration of social media in our lives as Generation Z (starting in 1997) which now constitutes a sizable voting bloc. We are a generation that has grown up alongside the proliferation of social media, particularly Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram.
This is a noticeable difference to the way older millennials and Generation X had to manage Facebook during the 2016 election (which was done poorly and naively). Social media’s impact on the presidential election does not merely apply to the members of these groups who use social media, but also to those of the generations who work in the government, and who have failed to adequately put structures in place to combat widespread misinformation on social media. A lack of structure and policies to regulate misinformation in the 2010s is continuing to, pardon my language, bite us in the ass, especially with the ongoing widespread dissemination of AI generated images and deepfakes.
(I would advocate for more professional moderators online but considering that Elon Musk would rather put a hit out on anyone who uses the word “cisgender” and keep 7 Nazis than all of Brazil– forgive me if I don’t want to push the idea that his management should control more of what we say on Twitter/X.)
As someone who was very active on Twitter before, during, and after the 2016 election, I remember the platform was quite self righteous and condescending in its remarks towards those who believed everything they saw on Facebook with regards to the election. Eight years later, my For You feed is covered with Kamala brat fancams, Kamala laugh pop music remixes, reaction pictures and videos of her going to bakeries or giving Thanksgiving recipes, and people using this material to justify and announce who they are voting for president.
It feels absurd and dystopian to conflate fan favorite voting for reality television with voting for who will be the commander in chief of the most violent country in the world. Mind you, a country which still has a $7.25 federal minimum wage. People are letting memes distract them from the reality that Kamala has not said she will get rid of your crippling debt. She has not addressed your struggle to make rent. She has made no promise to codify abortion rights and trans healthcare access. She has, however, said that she will make sure that the US has the most deadly military in the world and will continue to send arms to Israel in the midst of a genocide that is killing tens of thousands of Palestinians and Lebanese, which subsequently actively destroys our global climate.
Twitter, now X and owned by Elon Musk, has become the new “Facebook,” so to speak, with regards to being a cesspool of gullible people fooled by propaganda. Users express unwavering loyalty to figures who promise them nothing while simultaneously spouting excuse after excuse about how they have critical thinking skills, but don’t need to use them for the elections. It is embarrassing to watch.
Facebook, of course, is now filled with illegible AI generated images and accounts that are somehow fooling people despite it looking like, what I consider to be, obvious fraud. All this unregulated and unchecked AI by the current administration is evidently accelerating the climate crisis that has been ongoing since the mid 20th century. The “tree huggers” of the 1970s were trying to warn us about this incoming catastrophe over 50 years ago and yet, through decades of American elections, not a single president has been able to hedge the ecological damage that is occurring. A climate crisis being largely caused by unfettered accelerated capitalism and settler colonial practices. How interestingly coincidental.
What I find to be the most insidious is the whataboutism and strawman arguments about how voting for Kamala is necessary to protect queer, trans, Black and Brown, and immigrant status people currently in the United States. How and since when? Not only is this absurd when Kamala’s public prosecutor history makes this argument nearly impossible to hold any water, but in addition to the lack of public published policy, how could this sentiment even be hinted at in any serious manner? Let alone as a method of convincing people to participate in electoral politics.
Just because she is running with the Democratic National Convention, I am supposed to automatically assume that she has the best interests of the most vulnerable minorities at heart? When has any Democratic candidate, or sitting president, proved that to be true? It is in fact impossible for someone to run for president and have these interests at heart, but even if it were somehow possible, it is not what is happening here. Stop invoking the names and realities of southern Black trans women that you do not know in order to strong arm people into voting for the continuation of genocide under the name ‘Kamala Harris.’ Supporting prosperity for trans women does not best come in the form of voting in national elections. You have to be in community with people and listen to what they actually need. Stop doing the dirty work for her by assuming that her identities as a Black woman from an immigrant family has somehow made her sympathetic to that experience generally. She does not relate to you and you do not relate to her. She will not protect you and it is more likely that she will sign her name to the bills that will kill you. I feel like this was proven true by the DNC in Chicago being a COVID superspreader event. She does not care about you or your health in the midst of an on-going pandemic… but you think that will change in November? Okay.
Kamala Harris’s campaign weaponizes your ‘benefit of the doubt’, your hollow understanding of identity politics, and your generous assumptions to avoid the obvious truth. She is no different than the Republican candidates. She does not have to publish policies on her own campaign website if you just assume she will do “the right thing.” And as long as you believe that she will always “do the right thing” regardless of what she actually says or does, regardless of the devastating consequences of her actions, the public will soothe themselves with the thought that in some other timeline it was worse. Kamala Harris will always be the protector of some worse calamity if she were not in office in Democrats’ eyes. But we cannot delude ourselves. We must think.
Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign does, of course, exist in the context that came before it. Harris is a quintessential Californian presidential candidate, graduating summa cum laude from the Richard Nixon school of presidents with her degree in Ronald Reagan: pro-prisons to the fault of the Black working class and impoverished communities, believes in a strong southern border with Mexico, and an eager supporter of the sadistic American military. She makes no promises to do good but is vocal about continuing the definitive evil. She uses the flash and shine of industry entertainment markers, beating Trump at his own reality TV game, playing both politician and public personality at once.
After the 2016 election loss and narrowly winning in 2020 (in large part to the public being desperate for COVID precautions and #SettleForBiden) the Democratic party has shifted to trying to out-Trump Trump. Harris is an evocative speaker and a figure of what people think the future is. Public and political visibility of Black women under the current capitalist American culture was never going to be for the benefit or radicalization of our community, but rather to allow a very small select handful to crank and oil the gears of the imperialist machine.
That is the realpolitik of the Harris campaign. Her policies will reflect this reality and masses will be fooled. It is easier to believe that the system is working to protect you from some greater evil that you are constantly narrowly avoiding than to accept the fact that the government is profiting off of your suffering and exploitation.
The presidential election has been reduced to a petty stan1 war and personality competition rather than a real debate on policies, good or bad. Kamala could run and would most likely still be a popular candidate even under a critical eye, but we are handing her the power to continue and accelerate a holocaust on a silver platter without even holding her hand to the fire. Over the past two decades, political accountability has been decimated. People cannot even identify a policy that is even self serving because there is no policy that actually serves them. The illusion that some genocide apologists have of “saving themselves before saving someone else” (so disgusting it makes me sick to my stomach) does not even secure the self saving reality for which they seem to be throwing away their morals.
Currently on the HarrisWalz campaign website, the first pop-up is to donate for a chance to meet the candidates and the only tabs are: Meet Kamala Harris, Meet Tim Walz, Take Action (donating, not political action), Store, and Donate (again). There are zero published policies. I would laugh if it didn’t make me so angry. The American voters are beyond disenfranchised and they would rather cope by telling themselves they are okay with it than do anything to demand change.
We saw earlier this year what happened to the majority of young people who threw their bodies onto the gears of imperialism in order to enact change and stop a genocide. We saw the fascist police state run them over and throw rockets in their encampments, “Little Gazas.” I am disgusted every time I see the Palestinian flag next to a coconut and palm tree in someone’s display name. The gatekeeping and stingy management of capital and money in the United States means that the most the proletariat has to wager is our bodies, lives, and reputations. Kamala allowed that. Kamala agrees with that. Kamala will bulldoze you too. Settler colonial projects have stained history for too long. The imminent fall of the United States and Israel has never been more necessary. Put down the Twitter memes, pick up a book, and organize.
Revolution is needed.
The terms means a very very overzealous and obsessed fan