To worry for Kamala Harris - woman, half black, half Asian, married to a Jewish man

[Whenwillitgetwarm]

I really really hope her and her family have the strongest mental resilience for the racism, misogyny and anti-semitism which will come towards her and them, just for the crime of running for president.

Yes she’s been a bit of a wallflower and we haven’t seen much of her whilst VP but maybe that will change now she’s out on her own. She’s had a successful career as a lawyer and seems nice.

Personally I’m going to avoid listening/watching American politics in the run up to the election as I think I’d be too anxious. Many people seem to treat politics like a football rivalry these days. But if she were to win, it would be so inspiring for so many girls around the world.

My mother doesn't think a women should be president. For years she also didn't want a female doctor... until she got one... and then was gobsmacked at how much better she was listened to!

I vote absentee in a swing state (not Trump) and my parents vote Republican (even Trump) in a traditionally blue state.

My last visit home was recent instead of lovely October because I couldn't face it in election run up

VP Harris has not had a strong term and her background is problematic. Namely, she had an affair with the mayor of San Fran which is apparently why she got the prosecutor job
The MAGA nuts trotted this out again immediately. In fact, there are a lot of sexist and racist comments on this thread that are straight out of the MAGA playbook 🙄
Anyway, she had a brief relationship with a man who had been separated from his wife for over a decade. It was quite public and he was not mayor of San Fran at the time. As the political powerhouse he was, he influenced a LOT of careers but it seems that it is the women who seem to attract such vitriol.

Is this like her drinking problem, that I have not found anything on
This is another MAGA one but I've heard it aimed at other women, most often Nancy Pelosi who they LOATHE

she hasn’t been the victim of racism or misogyny so far, so there’s no reason to suppose that will change
For realz? 😆

She’s very mediocre, her sex and race have advantaged her in her career above her capabilities. If she were white and male she just wouldn’t be where she is. She isn’t a good speaker and seems to regularly get her arse handed to her. She can’t keep staff and is rumoured to be a bully. Just saying
Change the she to a he and you're talking about Trump. Except being white and male (and wealthy) got him where he is. Just sayin'

I mean for goodness sake even Michelle Obama had that and she wasn’t even running herself
You mean Michael? 🙄

It’s a very real issue to get people to vote
Yes, it is, especially when the Republicans actively restrict certain demographics from doing so

This thread is steeped in sexism, racism, internalised and overt misogyny. So depressing

There are good reasons not to support Harris that don't involve racism or misogyny. Trump's already up 11 points over her. That translates into a popular vote win and an electoral college landslide.

The American people know Kamala. They don't like her because she's incompetent, not because she's a woman of color, and it's an insult that the Democrats allowed her to get as far as she has.

Trumps supporters are pro israel fanatics, they think they can do no wrong on a biblical level. Who on Earth is trying to say that lot are anti semitic?

Kamala had a run for the Dem party nomination/presidency in 2020 and really it was embarrassing and catastrophic – too many people have short memories plus it’s also unfortunate she was effectively a ‘diversity hire’ as others have mentioned, without Biden’s pity picking her for VP she would never in a million years have been anywhere close to the White House. Hilary Clinton showed a woman president is not far away at all, yes she had the Clinton name but she was formidable in her own right. Kamala is not formidable (and even Trump would relish taking her on in debates, she speaks in incomplete sentences and rambles on worse than he does).
Bottom line is Kamala (a bit like Angela Rayner to KS) is good to have as VP/deputy but they do not have widespread enough appeal themselves to get the votes outright to be President/PM and in the real world many people do know this regardless of the good ‘optics’ of a woman leading [the ticket]. Gretchen Whitmer would be a way stronger woman to take the fight to Trump.

Trump’s coalition also includes those “Jews will not replace us” folk.

It’s a broad church of arseholes.

Oh and let’s not forget about the Jewish space lasers.

It’s a very real issue to get people to vote
Yes, it is, especially when the Republicans actively restrict certain demographics from doing so.

@CJsGoldfish I have heard this, but I live in a very Blue area and I’m not familiar with what’s happened. Can you explain?

Hopefully she won't be so disgusting as to go to identity politics.
Trump is such a narcissist he will say and do anything to keep himself popular. I genuinely don't understand how people can fall for his bollocks.

I'd be utterly amazed if the USA vote for a female President. The misogyny is far too rampant.

You worry about killer Kamala?

She is a fcking war criminal

Her and genocide Joe

Quite the legacy

You've hit the nail on the head there. I for one am sick of having mediocre politicians pushed on us just because they happen to be male and white. There's a whole world of untapped talent out there.

....that's what you meant, right?

Batshit.

Brace yourself, we are going to see a lot of batshit.

Kamala Harris won elections, first as San Fransisco District Attorney then as California Attorney General. As a CA state political analyst said today in the NY Times, these jobs are usually Republican territory.

It is really difficult to associate winning the popular vote with one’s love life, as far as I can see.

And this is why I don't declare my true heritage on forms, so I can't be accused of shit like this.

I don't think Kamala will win though. If she picks Kelly she might get closer to Trump in the polls but the damage is done now with Biden taking so long to step aside. I strongly suspect this is the reason he kept her in the shadows for her entire Vice Presidency - he didn't want the competition.

I assumed she'd been picked so Biden could retire two years in for health reasons and they'd get a woman elected through the back door but that didn't happen. Having a woman leader isn't even progressive any more, it's happening in lots of places, we don't need it to happen in the US to show the rest of the world, we already know!

As much as it pains me to stick up for him, I hate people misquoting others to prove a point. Especially with him, he says enough shit that he doesnt need any misquoting.

He didn't say that did he? He said he can't see the Dems voting a black African woman OUT, not that US voters wouldn't vote her IN.

Trump is an insecure narcissist who can barely control his own behaviour and speech. He's literally verbally abused his own supporters in front of a crowd because he can't resist the power trip.

In a campaign against him, he should be baited. She should wind him up, make him angry, get him to say some truly horrible misogynistic shit. If he won't debate her, she should call him a coward and insult his virility. The more vile and threatening he is, out in the open, the better. The best possible thing would be if he can be baited into threatening to sexually assault her. She needs to hold her head up high, project strength, confidence, defiance and actually a bit of meanness - I think that's what will appeal to swing voters. That's what many admire about Trump - he's a "straight talker" (as if, they just mean he's rude) and he appraises himself highly.

Though she is a woman and dark skinned, she has advantages. She has the experience of a long legal and political career behind her - yet she looks young, attractive and healthy and particularly so compared to Trump. If she keeps her mouth closed when she smiles, and avoids laughing - she can appear stateswoman-like. The newspapers will run out of photos to print of her giggling if she takes care / is trained. I can't see the democrats running a better candidate because of the difficulties they may have transferring campaign funds. She should choose a right wing white male for VP, not Newsom who is seen to have failed badly on crime in CA (from what I read).

Edit: Above all else, and quite separate to the candidate, the democrats need to encourage and facilitate voters to vote. They need a hopeful campaign that gets people to go out and be a part of something, a part of saving American democracy. What they don't need to do is a lot of hand wringing about how Trump is inevitable and they shoulda/woulda/coulda bla bla bla. Only a minority want Trump. But they're a minority that votes. Voter suppression will be the tactic of the Republicans.

^
At least that is what I feel from the little I understand of American politics. It is such a worrying time though.

I thought she spoke really well today.

It won't be easy but I think she can do it.

Absolutely. It's going to be a long 100 days.

On the plus side, she'll wipe the floor with Trump in the debates.

I would be amazed if Trump agrees to debate Harris. Already looks like he's laying the groundwork to wriggle out (saying it should be moved to Fox News).

Do you people not have your own country to worry about? Lets just see if our democratic party wants her to run.

The more vile and threatening he is, out in the open, the better. The best possible thing would be if he can be baited into threatening to sexually assault her

unfortunately this will boost Trump's popularity even more.

What a strange attitude, but then again there are large swathes of US citizens who don't know where the UK is, so I can well believe it's an alien concept to care about global politics.

Yet here you are on a predominant UK forum.

"her background is problematic. Namely, she had an affair with the mayor of San Fran which is apparently why she got the prosecutor job."

Apparent to whom? Here's Snopes' conclusion:
www.snopes.com/fact-check/kamala-harris-affair-willie-brown/

"Her run for nomination included a manifesto which was Marxist in nature."
Isn't reds under the bed scaremongering a bit outdated by about 60 years?

Ok, so far we've got:
She slept her way to the top (slutty woman!)
She's a giggly incompetent unserious woman (silly woman!)
She's a dirty nasty woman who slept with somebody else's husband and is an alcoholic*(bad woman!)
She's a crazy bitter barren cat lady who is irrelevant and should be viewed with deep suspicion because she doesn't have children
(hag woman!)
She's a token box ticking diversity hire with no talent who would probably be stacking shelves at WalMart if she was a white man
(paraphrasing)
She's a commie (ah the nostalgia)
Anything else? She's married to a Jewish man so perhaps that means she's in the grip of the panglobal secret alien paedo lizard people who are conspiring to subjugate the world. Or something.

*no idea what this rumour is based on, she probably got tiddly on white wine spritzers at a beach party in her 20s but hey let's throw that in