“People often ask, 'Where are the leaders?' But that's the wrong question. Instead, they should be asking, 'Where are the followers?'”
This comment, which I made on a radio show many years ago, reflects the old adage that “the people get the government they deserve,” and is essentially the same thing lamented by this author when he asks about Kamala Harris supporters, “Are these people crazy?”
Identity Politics
Shai Ben Tekore, writing in American Thinker, says our republic is in grave danger because many Americans believe Harris, known for her ramblings and quirky laugh, is fit to be president and control the nuclear football. And Ben Tekore isn't exaggerating his support for Harris. The RealClearPolitics average of polls shows Trump leading Harris by just 1.7 points, while several individual surveys show her leading by 2 points.
Ben Tekore wrote that Harris' supporters seem to believe “all you need is the right skin color and reproductive organs” and that Harris has no experience in war, geopolitics or business, adding that she is “vain, slurred and insincere.”
In fact, even liberals have a history of disliking Harris. When Harris announced her presidential bid in 2019, identity politics heavyweights had high hopes for her as a non-white, biracial woman. But all the boxes she ticked didn't save her campaign. As NBC News reported last week, lacking “money, a message and a cohesive campaign,” Harris' effort quickly fell apart, and she withdrew before a single vote was cast in the Democratic primary. Surprisingly, Harris was also expected to lose her home state of California.
(Please also note that some left-wing groups and individuals, such as Black Lives Matter and Cenk Ugur, have condemned Harris for her “nomination” as the Democratic presidential candidate.)
How did Kamala get here?
It's an instructive point: We might never have heard the name Kamala Harris if it weren't for a man named Willie Brown. Harris began a sexual relationship with Brown in 1994, when she was 29 or 30 and he was 60. It's clear what she was selling, but many say the money was obvious, too. Brown, then speaker of the California Assembly and a powerful California figure, launched Harris' political career by giving her several nepotism positions and, by his own admission, helped her win the district attorney's job.
That being said, critics' claims that she “slept her way to the top” are a stretch.
She slept to the middle at best.
Cultural affirmative action got her the rest of the way.
After all, Harris' gender and racial identity were the reasons she was selected as Biden's running mate in 2020.
They are also key reasons why it would be difficult to replace her as the Democratic front-runner: to do so would risk alienating black women, a key voting bloc on the left.
And so here we are. Ben Tekore doesn't mince words when it comes to the current situation. In his concluding paragraph, he writes that America is gripped by “psychological insanity,” and that “Thomas Jefferson's political grandsons have become a community bereft of common sense and the ability to discern that Kamala Harris lacks the qualifications and merit to be president.” But really, Ben Tekore is just lamenting human nature.
Is “experience” an important factor?
Harris supporters are not “crazy” (at least not all of them), but something else: human. Ben Tekore's article also reflects a human error of judgment: Is Harris' lack of “experience” in war, geopolitics, and business really the problem?
Ronald Reagan was just an actor when he was elected governor of California in 1967, but has gone on to become a legendary modern president. Trump is a real estate mogul and reality TV star with little experience in geopolitics or war, yet he has negotiated geopolitics to become the first commander in chief in 40 years to avoid embroilment in a new war.
In contrast, Biden has more than 50 years of political “experience,” including that of another failed president, Lyndon Johnson, who served in the House and then the Senate for decades.
Whatever you think of the man above, it is clear that it is wisdom (and other virtues) that is the determining factor here, not experience: in fact, wisdom is a prerequisite for deriving great value from experience, which is why some people have more “experience” after ten years than others after one year.
Consider also that most people have expertise in only a narrow range of areas, whereas a president must oversee everything from war to the economy. A president should ideally be a Renaissance man, a jack of all trades and a master of several.
Does Kamala Harris fit the bill as an enlightened Renaissance woman?
Will voters vote for her?
Speaking of lack of wisdom, we are speaking of her supporters. In fact, bemoaning the judgment of “the people” is nothing new, whether it be the ancient Romans who said that the average person cares about “a pebble in his shoe” or Winston Churchill who said that “the best argument against democracy is five minutes' conversation with the average voter.”
In modern times, a certain percentage of voters (30, 35?) will reflexively vote Democrat or Republican no matter what. Many are simply partisan prejudices, “four legs good, two legs bad.” Others are influenced to vote for identity politics candidates in order to “make history” or to bolster their own image. These people are largely unaffected by logic or facts, because, to paraphrase the words of the British satirist Jonathan Swift, “a man cannot be persuaded to move from the position he has taken for himself.” They, and this has always plagued humans, are acting emotionally, not rationally. And as their emotions move, so do their support. The collective emotional base can shift, too.
To paraphrase the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, a child raised in a corrupt culture is likely to develop an emotional attachment to vice, just as a child raised in an atmosphere of nobility and grace is likely to develop an emotional attachment to virtue. As the latter phenomenon intensifies across the nation, virtue dies out in the people. And as virtue declines, demagogues rise.
For this reason, elections are not just about who our leaders are, but also about who we as a people have become.
