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The first time I witnessed the birth of a right-wing talking point, I was sitting in a crowded ballroom at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center, in National Harbor, Maryland. This was the 2019 Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, and I was listening to Sebastian Gorka deliver remarks that fell somewhere on the spectrum from venting to fomenting.

There he was in his three-piece suit, voice booming: They want to take your pickup truck. They want to rebuild your home. They want to take away your hamburgers. As I jotted down the line about the hamburgers, a sudden sense of unreality came over me.

Democrats want to take my hamburgers? It seemed too preposterous a threat to alarm even the most willing rube. Knowing the origin of the line was perhaps revealing, but made it no less ridiculous. Republicans had taken left-wing concerns about the environmental effects of factory farming and animal slaughter and contorted those worries, casting the Democrats as not just an anti-hamburger party, but a coalition of hamburger thieveshamburglars, if you will.

Thats the secret of these GOP talking points: Theyre sticky enough to be memorable, theyre designed to elicit an emotional response, they typically target an ideologically symbolic bogeyman, and they contain a sliver of truth that can be blown up into something completely unrecognizable.

Franklin Foer: The Republican Party used to fight communism

As the American political machinery grinds into action ahead of the midterms and (gulp) the next presidential election, Ive started tracking the talking points that Republicans are testing, refining, and blasting out to the world in TV spots and campaign emails. Once you start hearing these phrases, youll notice them everywhere for what they arecoded in-group language designed to stir very specific reactions.

Vladimir Putin, misunderstood guy

The thought leader of the Republican Party, the Fox News host Tucker Carlson, floated this idea in a fascinating, bizarre soliloquy. It may be worth asking yourself, he said: Why do I hate Putin so much? Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him?

Adding to the chorus of pro-Putin rhetoric, in a radio interview broadcast February 22, former President Donald Trump called Putins actions in Ukraine genius, and Putin himself savvy. He mused about copying Putins peacekeeping move in Ukraine by sending the military to our southern border.

Im old enough to remember when Republicans were against power-hungry autocrats rolling up on other countries.

Crack pipes for racial equity

Have you heard the one about federally funded crack pipes yet? This talking point paints Democrats as hopelessly woke and also as wasting your tax dollars on a group of people whom many Republicans resent: poor addicts. As far as I can tell, it took off in The Washington Free Beacon with a February 7 story titled Biden Admin to Fund Crack Pipe Distribution to Advance Racial Equity. I know youre going to be shocked (shocked, I say!) to hear this, but this characterization is a blatant misrepresentation of what this program is and what it does. The federal grant initiative, which provides tools to minimize risks associated with drug use, is actually focused on harm reduction, a concept that has been around for decades. You can argue against harm reduction, which is based on the premise that the government should not necessarily expect abstinence from addicts in trying to help keep them safe. As a sober person, I am extremely uncomfortable with this approach. But no one in this administration or in the world is using crack pipes to advance racial equity. (According to The Washington Post, both the White House and [the Department of Health and Human Services] denied the funds would be spent on the pipes.)

However, despite being both debunked and patently absurd, the talking point worked so well on the senior senator from Tennessee, Marsha Blackburn, that she threatened to hold up a crucial government-funding bill because of the nonexistent crack pipes. The congressional candidate Blake Harbin, running in Georgias Sixth District, is already fundraising on the line There wont be a single cent of government money spent on crack pipes. To which a reasonable response might be: Well, huh. What a refreshing pledge to halt something that, to be clear, is not happening.

Democrats let Putin attack Ukraine. This never would have happened under Trump.

This ones big this week, for obvious reasons: the idea that if Trump were still president, Putin wouldnt have dared try to seize Ukraine. Of course, theres no way to know what Putin would have done in this alternate realityand theres only the flimsiest logic to support the notion that because an invasion didnt happen up until this moment, it didnt happen earlier because Trump was president. In my mind, a more likely scenario is that if Trump were still president, he would have just let Putin take Ukraine. After all, Trump has repeatedly praised Putin for his strengtheven doing so as the invasion was about to unfold: I mean, hes taking over a country for $2 worth of sanctions. Id say thats pretty smart, Trump told donors at Mar-a-Lago on February 23.

David A. Graham: Putins useful idiots

Masking is child abuse

Early in the pandemicokay, fine, throughout the pandemic the public-health messaging about masking was confusing at best and chaotic at worst. But it became clear that masks were a worthwhile tool to prevent the transmission of COVID-19, and that reasoning was good enough for plenty of responsible citizens to wear them. Republicans have decided that this global tragedy is a political opportunity, and theyve zeroed in on mask requirements for children as a form of abuse.

Because this is a talking point, it needs to be maximally blown up for dramatic effect, hence the abuse part. In April, Carlson told his audience, As for forcing children to wear masks outside, that should be illegal. Your response when you see children wearing masks while they play should be no different to seeing someone beat a kid in Walmart. Call the police. Contact Child Protective Services. Keep calling until someone arrives. Masking is still relatively popular, depending on where you live, but my guess is that Republicans are banking on the idea that masking wont continue to be popular in a few months. One can see this narrative taking shape in this J. D. Vance tweet: Republicans should pass a law giving every parent in the country the ability to sue school administrators for the developmental issues and emotional distress caused by the mask mandates forced on their children.

Let parents decide

This one is an outgrowth of the child-masking debate. The idea is to tap into parental rage about school closures, and use it to target the teaching of the role of race in American history. Some pundits claim its why Glenn Youngkin won the gubernatorial election in Virginia last year, helping fuel a surge around the country of exaggerations and lies about critical race theory. But according to recent polling, 57 percent of Virginia voters oppose banning the teaching of critical race theory, something that Youngkin has made a central plank of his governorship. Not clear yet is whether this polling will keep Youngkin from going full Ron DeSantis.

Read: Red parent, blue parent

The walls are closing in on Hillary Clinton

John Durham, the special counsel appointed by former Attorney General Bill Barr, may have disavowed the right-wing-media claims that a motion he recently filed showed the Clinton campaign had a mole in Trump Tower and the White House. (The reaction included this Laura Ingraham tweet: Finally the walls are closing in on the Clinton campaign. Get the popcorn ready.) But unsurprisingly, most conservative pundits havent. In a more recent filing, Durham wrote, If third parties or members of the media have overstated, understated or otherwise misinterpreted facts contained in the governments motion, that does not in any way undermine the valid reasons for the governments inclusion of this information.

My guess is that the Hillary Clinton is a mastermind talking point will be trotted out in the midterms, a full six years after she ran for president. This ones almost too easy. Hating the Clintons is catnip for conservatives, and its a formula that has worked for them for decades.

The New York Post has published numerous versions of the same HRC-Russia talking point. One version includes this baffling line: Hillary Clintons 2016 presidential campaign paid an internet company to surveil servers at Trump Tower and the White House in order to link Donald Trump to Russia, a bombshell new legal filing alleges. Another version of this talking point was the completely unprovable assertion that the Durham report proves Hillary Clintonnot Trumpwas Putins puppet. Especially as tensions between Russia and the West escalate, you can expect to see much more variation on the theme that Clintonnot Trumphad some kind of nefarious relationship with Putin.

In a world filled with information, theres only so much any of us can absorb, and the Republicans have figured this out. Theres an argument that these talking points are too silly to be believed, but thats just it: They dont need to be completely believed to work. They just need to muddy the waters enough so that voters put up their hands in dismay and start to wonder if maybe theres something to this Clinton-and-Russia thing.

Also, Hillarys running

Republicans remain obsessed with Clinton, and obsessed with the possibility of her running for president. No matter what she says to the contrary, this ones not going anywhere.

Fauci lied, people died

Last spring, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene introduced the Fire Fauci Act, which aims to fire the National Institutes of Healths Anthony Fauci for his evolving and contradictory advice on COVID-19. (Lets just hope she doesnt sic the gazpacho police on him.) In 2020, a Cornell study analyzed 38 million articles about the pandemic and came to the conclusion that Trump was likely the single largest driver of COVID falsehoods, but sure, lets censure Fauci, free-speech protections be damned.

Watch out! Socialism!

Socialism, socialism, socialism. You get the idea. Its bad. Its coming. Not clear when or how or why, but be afraid.

Democrats want to defund the police

It doesnt matter how many times Joe Biden says, No, I dont support defunding the police, nor does it matter if the Democrat running for office is a former police chief, like U.S. Senate candidate and current Representative Val Demings of Florida. Republicans think they can win by painting Democrats as soft on crime, as theyve been doing for years.

Democrats want open borders

The southern border is a particular Republican obsession, but the notion that Democrats want people freely streaming into the United States is ludicrous. (Biden has in fact retained a lot of Trumps immigration policies.) The Washington Posts Catherine Rampell summed it up best when she wrote, The disconnect between GOP claims about open borders and Bidens actually-quite-Trumpy border policies, is enormous.

The real villain? Justin Trudeau.

The far-right celebrity Candace Owens offered perhaps the most galaxy-brained take on Russias war against Ukraine when she tweeted, STOP talking about Russia. Send American troops to Canada to deal with the tyrannical reign of Justin Trudeau Castro. I didnt have war with Canada' on my dystopian-hellscape bingo card, but I suppose 2022 is still just getting started.

The rest is here:
A Taxonomy of Right-Wing Dog Whistles - The Atlantic

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'I don't see a good option for the Russian generals,' says general04:56

McFaul: We need to brace ourselves; there's more horror to come09:18

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Ukraine invites Russian moms to collect captured sons04:26

George Conway: 'The evidence is piling up' against Trump and campaign06:13

Russia's Lavrov says country has a 'nuclear doctrine', not 'insane people'07:45

Engel: People in Kyiv waiting for possible ground assault03:21

Sen. Warren: Insulin should be available; we should be doing it generically07:39

Brokaw: Putin has not changed. He was a KGB agent then, and he's operating as one now.09:05

'Manfred is killing baseball': Joe slams 'greedy, selfish pigs' for Opening Day cancelation08:26

Vets exposed to toxic burn pits during service could receive care if House passes bill11:34

'It was absolutely terrifying': Reporter in Ukraine details soldiers searching car06:18

Joe: A return to normalcy for the State of the Union address05:14

Heavy shelling, airstrikes pound Ukrainian cities03:20

Joe: The president tonight needs to channel Churchill, JFK, Reagan10:37

Reporter details experiences 'Trapped in Kharkiv's bloody bubble'04:27

'I am in awe of what I'm seeing': Chef travels to Ukraine in effort to feed refugees04:00

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joins Morning Joe to discuss the Republican party's softness towards Russian President Vladimir Putin, and how "what's left of the Republican party" must stand up to those giving "aid and comfort" to leaders like Putin.Feb. 25, 2022

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Kyiv residents getting on any train that will go west04:50

'I don't see a good option for the Russian generals,' says general04:56

McFaul: We need to brace ourselves; there's more horror to come09:18

'Who raised him?': Joe slams DeSantis for 'rude' criticism of teenagers over masks07:42

Russian military 'bogged down' but has the advantage: Armed Services Committee member05:51

Inside the harrowing journey of Ukrainian refugees04:36

Link:
Clinton: What's left of the GOP must stand against those giving 'aid and comfort' to Putin - MSNBC

Growing up in Saudi Arabia was one of the greatest gifts given to Huma Abedin by her parents, she said in the newest episode of Jewish Insiders Limited Liability Podcast. The longtime aide to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recalled her early upbringing in the Gulf nation in conversation with co-hosts Richard Goldberg and Jarrod Bernstein. Abedin, who was born in Michigan, moved to Saudi Arabia as a toddler in 1977 on her parents one-year sabbatical (they were both academics), which they kept extending her mother still lives in the Gulf nation. I loved growing up there. she said.

Everybody was an expatriate. I mean, it was sort of flush with oil money. All these institutions were brand new, and they were basically importing foreign talent, Abedin recalled of the country in 1977. It was a few years after [the] very popular, moderate King Faisal was murdered by his nephew. So it was rather a tumultuous time in the Middle East. A lot was happening. Israel and Egypt just negotiated a peace deal. And the siege of Mecca took place while we were living there. So a lot was happening.

Abedin said she didnt mind living in the conservative Saudi society, given her frequent opportunities to visit Europe and the United States. If that was the only life I had known, it would have been one thing. But I just knew that it was a plane ride away, that freedom, that ability to to go anywhere and do anything.

While she said the killing of columnist Jamal Khashoggi on the order of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman made her sick to my stomach, Abedin spoke positively of the reforms enacted under the current Saudi regime. Every year that Ive gone back since, what has surprised me is how, yes, things that my friends and family were not able to do, they can now. I go to Saudi Arabia, my sister-in-law now drives me around. There are movie theaters; there were no movie theaters growing up, Abedin said. Its just a different culture. Its on a different timeline. But certainly I see things now that were unheard of when I was growing up.

Abedin, who began her career working in the Clinton White House for the then-first lady, recalled an assignment in 1998 to prepare for the presidents upcoming trip to Israel. That trip changed my life, Abedin said, describing, among other experiences, her visit to Masada and her surprised discovery of a Shabbat elevator. At the end of the trip, a member of the Israeli Foreign Ministry told Abedin that, despite the presence of Jewish staffers on the delegation, we like you because youre the most like us.

Though her role as a Clinton had largely placed her behind the scenes, Abedin first garnered significant press coverage when then-Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) questioned her allegiance to the United States, falsely asserting a connection between Abedins family and the Muslim Brotherhood.

It was fake news based on a fake video, Abedin explained, but the allegation was not without a negative impact. We went on an official State Department trip and a member of the Coptic Christian community sat across from Hillary and said, Were not sure we can trust you because of your aide, who is whispering all kinds of things in your ear, Abedin recalled.

What Michele Bachmann did and the five Republican members of Congress who joined her was essentially question my patriotism and essentially suggested that I, and not just me, it was other high-ranking Muslims serving in government, that we essentially were not loyal to this government, and that we should be investigated, Abedin continued.

All I can do is try as best as I can to just serve my country and to do what I think is right. And I dont know how to undo all the untruths, but I refute every single accusation.

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The 'many worlds' of Huma Abedin - Jewish Insider

Review of Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds by Huma Abedin (Simon and Schuster, 2021)

Huma Abedin has long been an object of media fascination. There are several reasons: her close professional and personal relationship to Hillary Clinton, her unlucky marriage to disgraced former New York congressman Anthony Weiner, and her origins (Abedin is an American citizen of Indian and Pakistani descent who grew up mostly in Saudi Arabia). Her quiet dignity in the face of public humiliation and racist right-wing persecution, along with her beauty and fashion sense, has added to her mystique. As well, Weiner and Clinton are outsize public figures from whom the world has heard too much. With her recent memoir, Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds a doorstop of a book, at 544 pages we finally get to hear Abedins side of things.

Well, some things.

Abedin renders many of her experiences vividly, including her familys history (her mother, a Fulbright scholar, comes from a line of Pakistani women who took extraordinary measures to secure education for themselves and their daughters); her happy childhood, much of it in Saudi Arabia; her relationship with Weiner; and the devastation of election night in 2016.

Abedins narrative deftly captures the (mostly female) labor force behind Hillary Clinton. An intern in the first ladys office as a college student, Abedin, now forty-five, has never left what insiders call Hillaryland, remaining a loyal right-hand woman to Clinton through her years as secretary of state, senator, two-time presidential candidate, and beyond.

It was years after an early promotion that Abedin asked her then boss, Kelly Craighead, why she was chosen for the competitive position, given that more experienced insiders applied. Craighead replied with another question: What would you do if you were in a faraway country with Hillary Clinton and she lost a contact lens just before giving a speech? Abedin answered without hesitation: she would get on the floor and find the missing lens. Exactly, replied Craighead:

You get on your hands and knees on a disgusting, grimy floor and find that contact, because thats what needs to be done. If you cant find the lens, perhaps the speech cant be delivered, and that canceled speech leads to a domino effect of consequences. A disappointed audience, a speculating media, a frustrated administration, an offended host country. Find the contact lens and the world keeps turning.

Craighead is jokingly coy when Abedin asks her if thats a real-life example. But early on in her career, Abedin experiences something similar. The first lady, about to go onstage to give a speech, tells Abedin that she has the wrong version of her remarks. Without hesitation, Abedin replies, I got it. Inferring that the annotated speech must have been left in the limousine on the way over, she races outside to the parking lot to find the car and retrieve the speech. She runs back inside as Hillary approaches the podium. The world keeps turning.

Not everything is rendered so vividly, however. We dont get much of a sense of Abedins political convictions. She longs for peace in the Middle East, believes in womens rights, and feels deeply that the Clintons want to make a difference in peoples lives. She is more sympathetic to the Palestinians than we might expect and, less surprisingly, an apologist for the Saudi government but these topics are broached delicately. Conspicuously absent from her narrative are any conversations about issues, policies, or politics in Hillaryland. The reader will initially assume that this absence is calculated to elide controversy or that it reflects a superficiality on the authors part. A startling anecdote suggests these arent the reasons.

Abedins husband, Anthony Weiner, although popular in his New York district, had to resign from Congress because he could not stop himself from texting photos of his penis to women. (He is perhaps the most unfortunate victim of nominative determinism ever.) The tale of their unraveling relationship is distressing on many levels, and Abedin tells that story well.

But the scandals arent the most interesting episodes in this memoir. More revealing is Abedins account of her first date with Weiner in January 2007, soon after Clinton had announced her first run for the presidency. Weiner, a committed liberal of the preBernie Sanders era (to the left of the Clintons, except on Israel), wants to discuss politics. He has opinions and principles. Hillary should come out for gay marriage and admit that her vote on the Iraq war was a mistake, he argues. Hes critical of his countrys close relationship with Saudi Arabia, which he views as a hotbed of officially sanctioned antisemitism and a funder of terrorism.

Abedin and Weiner have a lively discussion about their politics; they agree on some things (gay marriage) and disagree on others (Saudi Arabia). Its a normal first date between intelligent, young, political people in Washington, DC, but this kind of discussion is novel for Abedin, she relates. Although her family enjoyed spirited debate on political issues, Hillaryland did not. Its in that moment that Abedin comes to realize that the kind of Democrats she works with every day rarely discuss their political beliefs: they only talk about strategy, tactics, and messaging. In short, they dont care about policy, but about gaining power and keeping it.

With this admission, Abedin seems to highlight the emptiness at the core of Clintonite politics. When Abedin seems baffled in 2016 that so many of her fellow Muslims favor Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton, its another reminder that her political education, at least as an adult, has left her ill-equipped to navigate the world of political principles, issues, and values.

The train wreck of Abedins marriage to Weiner was obviously a humiliating public experience. But the consequences for Abedin were far more dire than they should have been. She was hounded by the media and, even worse, by members of the public, who called in complaints about the couple to child protective services, with the result being that they were under constant investigation over the safety of their young son a horrific form of harassment given that both seem to be loving and responsible parents. (Weiner served prison time because one of the people he sexted was a minor, but there is no evidence that he ever failed as a parent; indeed, he was often his sons primary caregiver because Abedins job in Hillaryland was so demanding.)

I finished the book feeling sad that this intelligent and public-spirited woman has spent her whole adult life working for the Clintons, whose main purpose in life has been the attainment of power. Similarly, her major romantic attachment has been to a man who, though a devoted father and public servant, is a narcissist who made epically foolish mistakes and caused her years of trouble and stress. These relationships, especially the decades with Hillary, have given her access to power (and glamour, counting Anna Wintour and the late Oscar de la Renta as close pals), but theyve also limited Abedins potential.

With her divorce from Weiner underway, it seems likely that Abedin will again find love. One cant feel as hopeful, however, that she will ever move on from Hillaryland. Indeed, the books jacket describes Abedin as Hillary Clintons chief of staff. Why does Hillary Clinton still need a chief of staff, one might wonder? Though Clinton is no longer in government service, apparently Hillaryland must go on. What if the former secretary of state drops a contact lens?

Original post:
The Emptiness at the Core of Hillary Clinton's Politics - Jacobin magazine

Scholars and educators in gender and ethnic studies are examining the increasingly negative narratives surrounding Vice President Kamala Harris with keen interest and sharp commentary.

As a politician and a woman of color, Harris has experienced both overt barbs and subtle microaggressions throughout her ascent to the vice presidency, but the recent drubbing has reached new heights, to the extent that a Politico article in December noted that despite being a natural successor to the oldest president ever elected, shes also in trouble.

Vice President Kamala HarrisIn the article, a group of political strategists offered divergent solutions to her challenges, ranging from continuing to be herself, to increasing likeability by being more authentic, to tackling a major project, to just doing her job the best she can.

Although the intense criticism is being described as a recent development, some in academia saw this coming.

Is it surprising that the same people who rejected Hillary Clinton and who reject Alexandria Ocasio Cortez are rejecting VP Harris? asks Dr. Kendra Hamilton, assistant professor of English and director of the Southern Studies Program at Presbyterian College. Not at all, because it appears to be not so much about politics all these women have quite distinct political positions and personas as it is about gender.

In the past, Harris was subjected to public disrespect not accorded to her male counterparts. In 2017, Dr. Stephanie Norander, associate professor of communication studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, wrote an article in Feminist Media Studies titled Kamala Harris and the Interruptions Heard Around the Internet. In it, Norander describes the frequent interruptions Harris faced as she spoke during televised hearings of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

During the hearings, she received much attention for being the only committee member to be interrupted not once, but twice, during her allotted witness questioning time. On June 7, she was interrupted by committee Chairman Richard Burr and Senator John McCain while questioning Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Burr, together with McCain, again interrupted Harris on June 13 during her questioning of Attorney General Jeffrey Sessions, Norander wrote. Mainstream and social media took swift notice of these events, primarily speculating about why Harris was the only one to receive such treatment.

Norander examined media coverage of the incidents, noting that progressives framed the interruptions as a product of gender imbalance but tended to ignore or minimize the influence of race. Now, years later, Vice President Harris is still being interrupted in a sense, and feminist scholars are taking notice.

A heightened level of vitriol

Hamilton suggests that a portion of the current criticism is spillover from pre-nomination negative chatter among some Black activists who questioned her positions on criminal justice and related issues.

Dr. Kendra HamiltonBut the volume and scale of the anti-Harris narratives have broadened to include staff changes in her office and low poll ratings, possibly fueled by the ongoing negative reports.

Since she has been in the position [of vice president], we have seen a level of vitriol and targeting that you have never seen with male vice presidents, period, Hamilton says. The notion that theres staff turnover this is routine after the transition in any administration.

Hamilton adds that usually nobody cares about whats going on in the vice presidents office. She believes Harris critics within the Democratic Party are trying to preemptively destroy her reputation. They dont want her to be the standard bearer for the Democratic Party.

However, Hamilton, who describes herself as a Harris supporter, says the attacks are not going unchallenged. In the online community there is giant pushback from the K-hive the people who defend Kamala Harris from online attacks. The K-hive comes out online and swarms everyone.

She says the pushback has been so overwhelming at times that some critics have taken down their comments and retreated from the discussions.

Dr. Julianne MalveauxDr. Julianne Malveaux, dean of the college of ethnic studies at California State Los Angeles, also decries what she calls the unreasonable scrutiny of Harris.

When have we seen that kind of scrutiny on a man? she asks. Malveaux points out that the position of vice president doesnt come with autonomy. President Biden assigned Harris to the Southern border migration issue, which resulted in her being pummeled by not only Republicans but members of her own party.

People need to be reminded that the vice president works at the direction and the discretion of the president, Malveaux says. She cant just go off and do what she wants to do.

'The country is going backward'

Dr. Angela Hattery, professor of women and gender studies and co-director of the Center for the Study & Prevention of Gender-Based Violence at the University of Delaware, touts Harris extensive attributes and qualifications for both the vice presidency and presidency. But, because of the barrage of attacks, she says, The future is bleak for Harris, in terms of her political goals.

Will it end her political career? I dont know, but I think its possible. Partly I think that Obama was too much for white America and the brakes have been put on that for a good long time its sad but I think that might be the case. Hattery Dr. Angela Hatteryadds, Im definitely saying the country is going backward.

She reels off a list of examples of the negative momentum toward progress, including the backsliding on reproductive justice and the Roe v. Wade decision being in peril, voting rights being rolled back in several states, and the fact that schools are as segregated as they were in 1954.

Hattery says Harris rise to the vice presidency may be another example. Every time there has been a gain, whether its a civil rights gain, a womens rights gain or a gay rights gain, those rights have been eroded.

Im an optimist in my personal life, but Im a pessimist in terms of these structural systems, Hattery says, noting that Harris cant be the type of Black woman that white America wants her to be and also be the vice president. Theyre just not compatible. The very thing that white people would want her to do would make her unqualified for the job.

A November 19 article in the Los Angeles Times queried several Democratic politicians and campaign strategists about Harris prospects for the future. There were mainly polite comments about Harris being one of a number of qualified potential nominees (at the time, Biden had not said he intended to seek re-election) and an anonymous operative saying there was concern that she didnt have the skills for the battle ahead.

Malveaux, like Hamilton, believes the pro-Harris forces are formidable. She says an informal network of Black women is fiercely protective of Harris and speaks out often in her defense, reminiscent of the way Black women rallied around Anita Hill. Malveaux says that while there are some things [Harris] might have handled differently, I think she has been subjected to unfair criticism, adding, That girl has tough skin. This stuff is not going to get under her skin and its not going to deter her. I say, just do the work, sister. Just do the work.

This article originally appeared in the February 3, 2022 edition of Diverse. Read it here.

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Women in Academia Examine Criticisms of Kamala Harris After a Year in Office - Diverse: Issues in Higher Education