The Democratic Party appears bereft of direction, with their foremost leaders being all at sea. Interestingly, it is their ex-presidential candidate who seems to be cavorting amongst a herd of elephants, metaphorically speaking. Kamala Harris re-entered the public forum after an extended hiatus recently, and in a fashion all too familiar and reminiscent of her previous public outings, she gave plenty of reasons to remember her. In a fundraising event in California for the ‘Emerge’ institution, whose objective is to usher Democratic women into politics, Kamala Harris showcased, yet again, a standard example of how not to navigate the political landscape.
Squandering a good portion of her talk’s 15-minute allotment on cliched political rhetoric, Harris lamented about former President Trump’s administration, dramatically pontificating on how it symbolized a reprehensible departure from America’s core ideals. One might infer from her lamentations that she might be aghast at even the thought of an administration upholding laws and fortifying borders – concepts so alien, undoubtedly, to her if she had been the one holding office.
Harris also ventured into the realm of economic policy, specifically tariffs – a subject that surely has kept countless economists and trade experts up at night, questioning, ‘What would Kamala do?’ If she had any semblance of a thought about economic matters, she didn’t hesitate to share her allegiance. Aligning herself with Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, two left-wing radicals notorious for their frequent private jet tours across the nation, advocating the virtues of socialist economics, she embraced their stance.
Yet, the standout moment of Harris’s oration was the unveiling of her signature ‘wine-mom’ communication style, bringing back waves of memories, although perhaps not for her. Displaying the animated gesticulations and premature laughter characteristic of her style, she ventured into an analogy featuring animals in a zoo. Literally. Addressing her adult audience as if they were toddlers in a pre-school, she queried if anyone had watched a video from the San Diego Zoo featuring elephants.
A fraction of the room seemed to comprehend what she was referring to. The rest had reminiscent expressions – similar to the ones donned when Biden, Kamala’s predecessor, embarked on one of his notorious nostalgic narratives. Delighted by her own discourse, she detoured with a child-like enthusiasm, ‘Please allow me, friends, to digress for a moment,’ followed by her attempt to humor her audience with a call for a show of hands about who had seen the video.
Harris was reaching out to highlight how the zoo’s elephants reacted after an earthquake shook San Diego. The zoo had released footage of the elephants forming a protective circlave around the youngest of them when they felt the quakes. Or, in Harris’s rendition of this natural response, they assembled ‘to protect the most vulnerable.’ Her storytelling accompanied by exaggerated nods and earnest eyebrow raises was seemingly inspired from children’s story hours at public libraries.
Keeping this incident close to her heart, she made an earnest pitch to her audience to think about it. Presuming that thinking was a novel concept introduced by her, she proceeded to her next point. ‘What a powerful metaphor,’ she declared, urging her audience to appreciate the profundity of her comparison.
This being Harris, an explanation had to be provided for the metaphor. Struggling to stay focused on her teleprompter, she waxed philosophical, ‘We know those who try to incite fear are most effective when they divide and conquer, when they separate the herd, when they try to make everyone think they are alone. But in the face of crisis, the lesson is: Don’t scatter. The instinct has to be to immediately find each other and to know that the circle will be strong.’
The Californian crowd managed to feign great insight from her words, and astonishingly endured the entirety of her speech. What baffles me even further is Harris’s seeming conviction that such antics are craved by the public. Returning to her preferred metaphor, it’s possible that she would like the nation to erase her ill-fated campaign and stint in office from collective memory, and perhaps she’s almost managed to do that herself. But let’s not forget, voters, much like elephants, have a long memory, and are unlikely to view this episode any differently.
To momentarily divert from Harris, a recent incident involving Iran merits attention. The media platforms of Iran’s Revolutionary government recently delivered a verdict on Trump’s first hundred days back in office. Kayhan, an official media outlet of the regime, issued an analysis comparing Trump to a ‘narcissistic, delusional liar.’ Not too different from typical rhetoric employed in anti-Trump fundraisers across America, one might observe. However, the interesting point is that Kayhan’s editor, Hossein Shariatmadari, is a known associate of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.
As Trump neared his hundredth day in office, Shariatmadari shared a powerful message for the American President. Relying on statements from Khamenei, he claimed, ‘The day is not far off when a few bullets will be fired into Trump’s hollow head.’ This horrifying promise was made in the name of avenging the ‘martyr’ Qassem Soleimani. One hopes that Homeland Security remains vigilant about the President’s safety, but also investigates the foreign elements in the U.S. who continue to condone Iran’s actions.