Karen, the nickname given to a grumpy white woman of a certain age, is making a comeback. The graduate of modestly prestigious Oberlin College, who makes a habit of asking to speak to the manager, was once cast as a villain by progressives. This was especially the case for years during the Black Lives Matter riots. Now, however, Karen represents a key demographic of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign.
The vice president deliberately shuns a detail-oriented policy agenda of the type embraced by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) in 2020. Nor is she attempting to define herself with her professional resume or as second-in-command at the White House, as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton famously did in 2016. Rather, Harris is running away from her record, striking past policy proposals and almost anything that could suggest she has been a Joe Biden-heartbeat away from the presidency for the last four years.
Instead, her campaign and its stenographers in the left-wing legacy press have gone all in on a whiny appeal to pathos. Harris isn’t a girl boss — she is brat, the cool 59-year old. She looks even cooler and younger next to running mate Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), who seems to have been chosen in part because he makes for a schlubby, mediocre, unprepossessing comparison with his new boss.
Harris isn’t an expert. She doesn’t want to talk about the cost of your mortgage and prefers to dilate on her middle-class childhood. She’s cosplaying as a crunchy, traditional wife enthusiastic about cooking collard greens and pretends to be the nation’s “Momala” instead of facing a challenging interview.
All in all, Harris has dramatically departed from the playbook used by past Democratic women vying for the presidency. Despite her record as the most liberal member of the Senate, she is not running as a doctrinaire progressive. Nor (despite her pantsuits) is she trying to be the second coming of Clinton. Instead, Harris is trying to stir up an army of Karens. This force includes college women wearing terrorist-sympathizing keffiyehs or pride flags. Harris wants to be “in” with campus activists who wouldn’t give a white girl a second glance. But she is also making overtures to suburban mothers.
If Walz’s wardrobe is any indication of his mental state and cognition, it’s not looking good. Cheap dark sport coat, light brown belt, black shoes and probably some white tube socks under the polyester adjustable waist slacks.
We’re choosing a leader here, not a third rate used car salesman.