Can we admit that Kamala Harris by traditional standards is a horrible nominee for President?
For proper perspective and to appreciate what I’m saying let me attempt to lay the groundwork on why I take this position.
Let’s begin by first being honest by all means it would be a dereliction of duty of former President Obama not to do whatever he can to get Vice President Kamala Harris over the finish line but may I ask “Why does it have to be at the expense of black men?”
I’m sorry but scapegoating Black men for Kamala’s failures to excite Black male voters is cheap retail politics at best and is beneath President Obama and he should know better.
If we’re being completely honest and from a broader perspective, it was rumored that it was the same former President who quietly operated behind the scenes to force current President Joe Biden to end his re-election campaign, while pushing for an open convention to pick a replacement for Joe Biden, while quietly supporting Arizona Senator Mark Kelly as his choice for nominee.
It’s also important to remember that it was current President Joe Biden in his letter ending his campaign in seeking re-election who endorsed VP Harris as his choice as the democratic nominee, sparking rumors that Joe Biden only offered her nomination to spite Obama and the DNC as retribution for forcing him out knowing she would lose to Donald Trump.
I mean if we’re being honest, shouldn’t facts matter?
If we’re being honest instead of talking down to black men for not showing glowing enthusiasm for Vice Kamala Harris and her bid for the presidency maybe it would be in the best interest of the former President to encourage her campaign to not only improve her messaging to black men in general but voters as a whole as critique about her lack of availability to mainstream media, her continuous use of word salad to explain her policy position or her alarming or her alarming and striking change on policy to appeal to moderate or independent voters has dogged her since she has become the nominee.
If we’re being honest even when Vice President Harris does speak to the media or the general public it’s usually scripted with the assistance of a teleprompter and when pressed on details on how she plans on achieving her ambitious legislative policy agenda, such as fighting inflation or lowering housing costs. Although ambitious she provides very little details on how she plans on getting policy signed into law given the fractured state of our Congress which appears hell-bent on partisan politics and destructive ideology as opposed to sound legislation on behalf of the people.
Let’s be real, there’s enough blame to go around if Vice President Kamala Harris does lose to Donald Trump it won’t and shouldn’t be attributed to the fact that black men abandoned Kamala Harris but it was in fact by all accounts that the DNC, led by Barack Obama, abandoned black men along time ago.
Maybe just maybe if we’re being honest it’s Kamala Harris’ messaging that isn’t resonating with black men as Harris often cites growing up in the middle class and arguably it’s argued that the middle class no longer exists in America maybe it would be reasonable to understand that VP Harris messaging of growing up in the middle class doesn’t resonate with black men.
More importantly, former President Obama is making a huge mistake by assuming the overwhelming support he rightfully earned from black voters in his historical election as the first black President of the United States in 2009 should automatically transfer to VP Harris as many can argue that Obama, unlike Harris, was a once in a generation candidate for the Oval Office where Harris has arguably become the nominee by extraneous circumstances beyond her control and isn’t “destiny”.
With that being said I remember a young Barack Obama speaking at the Chicago Democratic National Convention in 2006 as a young State Senator and Constitutional expert and a better-than-average speaker and thinking this man would one day be President and race wouldn’t be the sole factor to propel him to the highest and most powerful elected office in the world but the ability to “hold his own” so to speak without out giving special preferences or biases to either race, creed or culture.
With that being said maybe instead of blaming black men for not being excited by Kamala Harris’ bid for president former President Obama would be better served to spend the last crucial days of this campaign crafting and delivering a legislative agenda to excite Black men of Color who have for a long time have felt disenfranchisement and/or a sense of abandonment by the Democratic National Party.
Let us also consider this.
Maybe it just wasn’t Kamala Harris’ time.
Her campaign seems to be fueled more by enthusiasm than actual substance.
I mean I’ve studied quite a few campaigns and from a historical perspective it seems we have lowered the bar for Kamala Harris given that her opponent doesn’t fit the traditional standards that we normally hold politicians to, isn’t the onus on her and her campaign to cast a wider net so to speak and as easy as it is to despise former President Donald Trump but his populist rhetoric has gained a faithful following for over the past 12 years.
I don’t know but I could be completely wrong but Kamala Harris’ struggles won’t begin and end with Black men and maybe just maybe her campaign points to a larger problem at hand as some have long argued that the Democratic party no longer serves the needs of the working class but to it’s elite donor base.
In short, black men see Kamala Harris’ campaign is: short on tangibles and this black man isn’t buying what she’s selling.
Marvin McCoy is a longtime resident of Inglewood, California
