How will the Republicans demonize Kamala Harris?

Politics & Elections
1

I’ve said for years now that one of the biggest problems for Democratic Presidential candidates is that the Republicans spend years, or even decades, talking crap about them, mostly made up crap, that eventually culminates in a certain percentage of the voters “Just not liking” the candidate, for vague reasons.

They knew for many years that Hillary Clinton was likely going to try to run for President, and they spent about two decades tearing her down. I’m convinced that half the reason Obama won in 2008 was because he came from behind to win the nomination, and the GOP just didn’t have enough time to pull the same stunt with him. They had to fall back on plain old racism, which just wasn’t enough.

Now, we see Trump freaking out over how much time and money they’ve “wasted” demonizing Biden, only to have the rug pulled out from under them again, with Harris now being the presumptive nominee. Now they only have about four months to try to demonize Harris, and I don’t think that’s enough time for them to make that work, but I’m sure they’re going to try, since that’s all they have.

I’ve seen some of them try a half-assed “Birtherism” attack on her already, but that was lame the first time around, and it looks even lamer now.

Their easiest attacks will be traditional racism and sexism, but that’s unlikely to affect anyone who wasn’t already voting for Trump. They could try a cut&paste job on the “Harris Crime Family” routine, but that will be a hard sell for someone with a long history in law enforcement. I’m sure there will be at least one “Harris has a huge dong” claim from one of the more whacked-out anti-transgender crowd, which will be hilarious but ineffective.

So, those lame things aside, what can they really latch on to to demonize her?

2

She was a prosecutor – just based on numbers, chances are, someone she either unsuccessfully prosecuted, or perhaps was in any way “lenient” on, went on to do something bad afterwards (i.e. another assault, rape, murder, etc.). The Republicans will likely find one of these stories, just like the Willie Horton ad against Dukakis, and hammer it.

Hopefully it will fail.

3

Things I heard on day one. (I hate to repeat these)

She slept with Willie Brown to launch her career. Got a free car too or some such nonsense.

She employed a sexual harasser at the AG’s office and covered up for him.

Of course, she screwed up our Southern Border.

4

What they are best at: say she’s “not intelligent” or outright dumb and only got her job through DEI because of her skin color and gender. They’ll bang this drum constantly.

This will be sadly effective against so-called centrist Democrats, but perhaps it will energize enough younger voters to see such naked bigotry.

5

I hear she laughed once.

6

In another thread I posted about a white male politician accidentally using his real twitter account while posing as a black woman.
His defense, when called on it, was:

Unlike the Democrat nominee for President, I don’t spend my time pretending to be a Black woman to garner votes under false pretense.

Is ‘she’s not really black’, a thing they’re attacking her for?

7

All of these topics are far too complicated for the stupid voters to understand quickly. This is the sort of thing that could have fueled a years-long demonization campaign, with endless “hearings” and such, but can they make this work in four months?

And that’s the classic racism and sexism. It will play to the Republican base, but they were already voting Trump. Will it play with the moderate middle ground? It didn’t work with Obama, when all was said and done.

8

I was traveling with a republican friend from Virginia to Pennsylvania on July 21, 2024 and she just had to turn on some Sirius right wing talk show. My word what a bunch of frothy rage. I could barely contain myself and so wished I had packed earplugs or headphones in my purse so I could block out the never ending fire hose of bunk.

I can’t recall the specifics because I was swallowing bile and trying not to react in the front seat of the car.

They are attacking not only Harris but the entire Democratic party. He made a statement that the country does not need Democrats - only Republicans. It was insane and unnerving.

9

But again, that plays to their base, but will it play outside that demographic?

10

Already underway:

11

What about her being married to a Jew? Maybe he’s the guy in charge of the space lasers?

12

The first two, okay. The third one? Isn’t that one already ready already?

13

Yeah, they will grasp at any straw at this point, so flinging whatever at the wall to see what may stick is their best strategy at this point.

I suspect, outside of the whole racism and sexism stuff, they will attack her background and home-town, suggesting Oakland and the entire the SF Bay Area is and apocalyptic wasteland of homeless camps and out of control crime that is all her fault, and if elected the rest of the country will be like that.

14

It was not only the content of the message but the loud, angry never ending rage voice that totally alienated me.

I hope that the undecided demographic is turned off by this kind of rage bait. I am not sure how it will all work out.

15

Maybe this isn’t demonization, but — guilt by association with Joe Biden.

See:

ERLC removes president one day after kind word about Biden

As of today, the kind-word minister has been reinstated, and the guy who did the firing pole-axed for exceeding his authority.

16

I listen to Mark Levin from time to time on SXM. The man is always enraged. (He seems to have forgotten raging against Trump in the 2016 primary season. He’s full MAGA now.)

17

One I’ve heard recently is that she shouldn’t be President because she doesn’t have any children, and therefore “has no skin in the game.” Completely ignoring the fact, of course, that she’s got stepchildren, but presumably those don’t count because they didn’t come from her vagina.

18

I have seen people say she’s not eligible to run since her parents aren’t citizens. It’s been rightly pointed out that she was born in the US and she is a citizen, so therefore she can run…just like Trump.

19

It’s ready for the Trump base, but they’ve believed that for years already. For anyone else, they’ll have to show some actual policies and numbers to show she’s screwed that up, and discussing actual policies is a loser strategy for the GOP, and they know that. There’s a reason they latched on to “Biden Crime Family”, and ignored all of Biden’s actual accomplishments as President, beyond just vague, “Worst President ever” claims.

20

Yep, she’s a miserable childless cat lady.

In 2021, now-VP nominee J.D. Vance warned against a ruling political party dominated “by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too.” He was referring to Harris, AOC, and Pete Buttigieg (who, with his husband, became parents to two adopted infant twins in 2021).