She made the boldest and (ultimately) most quixotic argument of any candidate, and her failure is a sign of these Trumpian times
She trailed significantly in South Carolina, the first African American stronghold of the primary calendar and the place where she had to make a stand if she had stayed in. She didn’t even make it as far as her role model, Shirley Chisholm, did in the 1972 presidential contest; running to defeat Richard Nixon, Chisholm managed to earn votes and delegates.
. Harris surely did the best she could, with her philosophies and experience as a woman of color inside this racist and sexist America. And this is how far that gets you in 2019. Not even into 2020. It indeed may be a testimony to these Trumpian times that Harris couldn’t even meet her hero’s bar. The president and his party continue to successfully turn the cultural debate about race on its head, emboldening white victimhood even as their policies exacerbate actual racism. Unless there is a Charlottesville or a Flint, news networks fail to understand that racial discrimination and violence are white problems to solve. As such, in presidential primary coverage, we see candidates of color — such as Harris, Cory Booker, and Julián Castro — become subject to more scrutiny on race and racism from the press and their competitors than their white competitors. This is not to say that those candidates shouldn’t be held accountable for their records in California, Newark, and San Antonio, respectively. But Biden, the 1994 crime bill author who had clearly shown that he does not meet the antiracist standard that Democrats should be seeking in any presidential nominee going up against Trump, still enjoys a comfortable and seemingly uncritical advantage amongst black voters. Pete Buttigieg, the young mayor from Indiana, seemingly can’t attract black support — but is consistently treated like a frontrunner by mainstream outlets because he polls highly in heavily white states like Iowa. Amy Klobuchar has faced exactly one question on a debate stage about her own prosecutorial record, which is rife with its own racial controversies. Now that Harris has dropped out of the race and a December debate for which she had qualified, we will see a stage in a few weeks that will reflect what even the so-called left in this country thinks “electability” looks like. With the addition of Bloomberg , it much wealthier than just a few weeks ago. It is nearly all male. It’s pretty old. And, yes, Liz Cheney, it is all white. It is true that Harris and her people didn’t do enough before she launched her presidential campaign to introduce her to black electorates nationwide, eschewing the kinds of appearances on black radio and other media platforms that one has to make in order to get oneself familiarized and, more importantly, trusted. However, what she was able to represent, in her person, on the campaign trail, and on the debate stages, was indelible. I cannot fully explain the collapse of a campaign that, as recently as four months ago, was shooting to the top of the polls after a uniquely vulnerable moment involving her personal history with race occurred on a national platform. I am unsure that is what matters most right now. Trump has created such a problem that it is difficult for anyone, candidate or voter, to focus on anything else. The president is a human emergency, and in such situations, our society’s imagination remains limited by a lack of attention. If that has a direct impact on the possibilities for a president who looks like Kamala Harris, that is regrettable. Harris wasn’t able to sell voters on what she was trying to argue, that is clear. But we don’t need to have wanted her to be president to understand the value of her run. If we ever want to make it possible to elect a black woman president of the United States, we need to be electing fewer Joe Bidens and more Liz Warrens and Bernie Sanderses. Progress doesn’t happen unless you push people. The left has to stop being worried about what Republicans will do and how they will vote and mobilize their own people behind policy goals, not potential saviors. Along the way, they’ll make history almost by accident; consider how many future
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